B.C.’s political landscape welcomed two new leaders last week.
The Green Party chose Sonia Furstenau, MLA for Cowichan Valley as their new leader. Furstenau comes out of Vancouver Island, and if there is an area of the province that is a Green stronghold, the island is it.
With the retirement of leader Andrew Weaver to sit as an independent, the Greens have only two members in the Legislature. Furstenau has already said now isn’t the time for a provincial election.
B.C. should be fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the illicit opioid overdose crisis, not considering an election because it may benefit Horgan’s New Democrats, Furstenau said. As well she should, because if the NDP do gain a majority, the Green Party’s influence is pretty much gone.
Premier Horgan has already discounted the advice, saying that the Green Party he made made the agreement with three years ago in order to govern as a minority, is no longer the same caucus.
So interesting times ahead for Furstenau. Interesting indeed, as Horgan did drop the writ on Monday. Election date is October 24, 2020.
The other leader elected is one Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, who has been elected the leader of Christian Heritage Party BC. Yup, you heard me over the dog-whistling, Christian Heritage Party BC. This is an entity I did not know existed until this week, and frankly, I would have preferred to continue on in blissful ignorance.
Thompson is a former candidate of Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada. She ran in Red Deer-Lacombe and finished fourth in 2019. So you know her politics are somewhat right of the right.
Which is no problem. People can have different right wing views and, just as the left is split into three different parties — Liberal, NDP and Green — there is certainly room on the right for a variety of differing takes.
Ms. Thompson, a former host of the evangelical 700 Club Canada, believes that it takes ‘courage’ to embrace a party that has the word Christian in its name. It takes something. I don’t know if courage is the word I’d use.
I have no problem with devout candidates running for office. There are plenty of them, even party leaders. Andrew Scheer was and is a very devout Catholic. Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP, is an observant Sikh.
But I do have issues with an entire party naming themselves after a religion and excluding others.
The Pew Research Centre found in 2019 that only a slim majority, 55 per cent, of Canadians identify as Christians, and of those, 29 per cent are Catholic.
So not only does forming a party that doesn’t represent 45 per cent of the population seem a futile gesture, the party’s platform is somewhat, shall we say interesting.
The national Party, and its provincial counterparts, are staunchly anti-abortion, even claiming medical studies link abortion to breast cancer.
They also want to write into law that marriage is between a man and a woman only.
CO2 is not pollution, but a beneficial natural gas, and carbon taxes are a tax grab.
Defund the CBC as they push a pro-abortion, gender confusion agenda.
No tax-payer funded child care. Mom and Dad are the best primary care givers. And further, children do best in homes with a mother and a father. Not to be all judgy or anything.
All immigrants must demonstrate their loyalty to Canada and to “Canadian values”. Sorry couldn’t hear you there, dog whistles so loud!
While education is a provincial jurisdiction, the federal government must protect children from harmful ideologies being imposed on children such as misguided theories such as gender fluidity, unproven CO2 / climate change, economic socialism, etc.
“Public schools have no mandate to teach children things that are contrary to the beliefs of their parents.” My goodness, what a can of worms that would open up!
Here’s an interesting take on elections. The Christian Heritage Party believes all parties must be given tax-payers’ money fairly, that all parties be included in debates etc. Which is pretty rich from a party that doesn’t want anything to do with you if you’re not Christian. Why should my tax dollars fund a group that doesn’t want me?
There’s fair and then there’s fair, am I right Christian Heritage Party?