Letter to Vancouver Sun Editor
Barbara Yaffe is the national political columnist for the Vancouver Sun. She occasionally appears in the National Post. Today she wrote a particularly execrable piece, purportedly as an advisory column to Stephen Harper - as though she cares for his well-being.
I reproduce her column below, followed by my letter to the editor.
If you feel as I do why don't you dash off a letter to the Sun editor telling her not all Christians wild eyed zealots from Alberta!
Send it to: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/letters.html
The Christians are coming to 'help' Harper
Barbara Yaffe
Vancouver Sun
July 22, 2004
"An Alberta-based Christian group keen to become more involved in the political process could be the helpers-from-hell for the Conservative party.
At a time when Conservatives are hoping to foster a more mainstream image, Concerned Christians Canada Inc. is preparing to step up efforts to make its influence felt on the national scene.
The group (battle cry: Take Back Canada!) has just hired a public relations director.
The organization's CEO is Craig Chandler. In 2003, Mr. Chandler unsuccessfully sought the PC leadership, ultimately won by Peter MacKay, now deputy Conservative leader.
In a news release, Concerned Christians takes credit for helping Stephen Harper get elected as Conservative leader and calls its adherents to action.
"Christians have spent years on the sidelines, and take a look around. We must get off the pews and into public policy!" Mr. Chandler writes.
He describes CCC as "a political lobby group that was formed as a result of the moral decay in Canada." It was incorporated in 2001 with headquarters in Calgary.
"Our country is being ripped apart at its foundations . . . . We as Christians may not be of the world, but we live in the world and we must uphold God's laws and fight evil and injustice."
The release says a large war chest will be needed to "help get social conservatives elected to all levels of government. We need funds because, unlike the militant left, we do not feed at the public trough."
A prime goal of the group, with 400 members, is "to insure (sic) that the new Conservative party does not become another mushy middle Liberal party.
"Getting the [Alliance and PC] parties united and purging anti-Christians like Joe Clark, Andre Bachand, Brock Easton and Scott Brison among others was only a first step."
The next challenge, Mr. Chandler says, is to influence Conservative policies.
His group wants action that will strengthen the family, end taxpayer-supported abortion and lower taxes for families. Predictably, the group opposes gay marriage and gay adoption as well as Bill C-250, aimed at protecting gays from hate crimes.
CCC has been conducting "Scrap Bill C-250" town hall meetings across Canada, targeting the legislation introduced in 2002 by then-MP Svend Robinson, whom they describe as an "ultra left wing, socialist, homosexual NDP MP."
The group calls the bill "a moral gag law." It's organizing a petition on its website and hopes to present it to MPs this fall.
CCC pledges to get social conservatives elected to boards of local constituency associations and raise money so that socially conservative delegates can be sent to next year's Conservative policy convention.
This has to be the worst news the party has received since MP Randy White's outrageous diatribe against the courts surfaced the weekend before the June 28 election.
For Mr. Harper and his team, CCC is a disaster waiting to happen. Its rants will reinforce every fear non-believers from coast to coast hold about the freshly merged party.
Mr. Harper should agree to donate money to this group on condition they do not come within 1,000 km. of his MPs.
Mr. Chandler's organization does not represent Main Street. It appears stuck at 100 Huntley Street.
And it is disconcerting to hear a Christian group using language so intolerant of those who hold different views. Calling Joe Clark anti-Christian? Or Svend Robinson an ultra left-wing homosexual?
These family-values diehards aren't the voters Mr. Harper needs. He has their support and they have nowhere else to go. Rather, he must reach out to those who fear he's taking policy advice from the Christian right.
Trouble is, if this group is determined to infiltrate the party, there's not much he can do to stop them.
Best he get down on his knees and start praying to the Lord Almighty that these folks don't show up in droves at next year's policy convention."
My Letter:
Barbara Yaffe today launched another of her predictable obloquies at Christians and Conservatives. Laden with scare quotes – where would a liberal columnist be without scare quotes? – Ms. Yaffe constructs another distorted, rebarbative image of Canadian Christians as “family-values diehards” from 100 Huntley Street. Surely there are worse principles Canadians could be diehard about.
Ms. Yaffe is either ignorant of or simply ignores the reality that according to a November 2003 Ipsos-Reid poll “Canada is fundamentally a nation that believes in God. In fact, eight in ten (78%) Canadians say they believe in God, two-thirds (64%) definitely believe in God, and 66% of Canadians identify themselves as Christian. It seems Mr. Chandler has much to say that the majority of Canadians would not find repellent. Whether he might be less controversial in how he speaks his mind is a separate issue. Ms. Yaffe does not attack his tone, but the content of his speech all of which may well be true. For example would Svend Robinson ever deny being a left wing, socialist, homosexual, NDP MP who introduced Bill C-250? Do not many non-Christian Canadians also believe this is bad legislation and in fact a "moral gag law"?
Ms. Yaffe’s latest column is but another example of the failure of liberalism’s putative commitment to liberty since she seems incapable of tolerating the intolerant – that is those who make absolute claims for their beliefs – while freely touting her own secular code of belief.
Ben Buan
Vancouver, BC
I reproduce her column below, followed by my letter to the editor.
If you feel as I do why don't you dash off a letter to the Sun editor telling her not all Christians wild eyed zealots from Alberta!
Send it to: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/letters.html
The Christians are coming to 'help' Harper
Barbara Yaffe
Vancouver Sun
July 22, 2004
"An Alberta-based Christian group keen to become more involved in the political process could be the helpers-from-hell for the Conservative party.
At a time when Conservatives are hoping to foster a more mainstream image, Concerned Christians Canada Inc. is preparing to step up efforts to make its influence felt on the national scene.
The group (battle cry: Take Back Canada!) has just hired a public relations director.
The organization's CEO is Craig Chandler. In 2003, Mr. Chandler unsuccessfully sought the PC leadership, ultimately won by Peter MacKay, now deputy Conservative leader.
In a news release, Concerned Christians takes credit for helping Stephen Harper get elected as Conservative leader and calls its adherents to action.
"Christians have spent years on the sidelines, and take a look around. We must get off the pews and into public policy!" Mr. Chandler writes.
He describes CCC as "a political lobby group that was formed as a result of the moral decay in Canada." It was incorporated in 2001 with headquarters in Calgary.
"Our country is being ripped apart at its foundations . . . . We as Christians may not be of the world, but we live in the world and we must uphold God's laws and fight evil and injustice."
The release says a large war chest will be needed to "help get social conservatives elected to all levels of government. We need funds because, unlike the militant left, we do not feed at the public trough."
A prime goal of the group, with 400 members, is "to insure (sic) that the new Conservative party does not become another mushy middle Liberal party.
"Getting the [Alliance and PC] parties united and purging anti-Christians like Joe Clark, Andre Bachand, Brock Easton and Scott Brison among others was only a first step."
The next challenge, Mr. Chandler says, is to influence Conservative policies.
His group wants action that will strengthen the family, end taxpayer-supported abortion and lower taxes for families. Predictably, the group opposes gay marriage and gay adoption as well as Bill C-250, aimed at protecting gays from hate crimes.
CCC has been conducting "Scrap Bill C-250" town hall meetings across Canada, targeting the legislation introduced in 2002 by then-MP Svend Robinson, whom they describe as an "ultra left wing, socialist, homosexual NDP MP."
The group calls the bill "a moral gag law." It's organizing a petition on its website and hopes to present it to MPs this fall.
CCC pledges to get social conservatives elected to boards of local constituency associations and raise money so that socially conservative delegates can be sent to next year's Conservative policy convention.
This has to be the worst news the party has received since MP Randy White's outrageous diatribe against the courts surfaced the weekend before the June 28 election.
For Mr. Harper and his team, CCC is a disaster waiting to happen. Its rants will reinforce every fear non-believers from coast to coast hold about the freshly merged party.
Mr. Harper should agree to donate money to this group on condition they do not come within 1,000 km. of his MPs.
Mr. Chandler's organization does not represent Main Street. It appears stuck at 100 Huntley Street.
And it is disconcerting to hear a Christian group using language so intolerant of those who hold different views. Calling Joe Clark anti-Christian? Or Svend Robinson an ultra left-wing homosexual?
These family-values diehards aren't the voters Mr. Harper needs. He has their support and they have nowhere else to go. Rather, he must reach out to those who fear he's taking policy advice from the Christian right.
Trouble is, if this group is determined to infiltrate the party, there's not much he can do to stop them.
Best he get down on his knees and start praying to the Lord Almighty that these folks don't show up in droves at next year's policy convention."
My Letter:
Barbara Yaffe today launched another of her predictable obloquies at Christians and Conservatives. Laden with scare quotes – where would a liberal columnist be without scare quotes? – Ms. Yaffe constructs another distorted, rebarbative image of Canadian Christians as “family-values diehards” from 100 Huntley Street. Surely there are worse principles Canadians could be diehard about.
Ms. Yaffe is either ignorant of or simply ignores the reality that according to a November 2003 Ipsos-Reid poll “Canada is fundamentally a nation that believes in God. In fact, eight in ten (78%) Canadians say they believe in God, two-thirds (64%) definitely believe in God, and 66% of Canadians identify themselves as Christian. It seems Mr. Chandler has much to say that the majority of Canadians would not find repellent. Whether he might be less controversial in how he speaks his mind is a separate issue. Ms. Yaffe does not attack his tone, but the content of his speech all of which may well be true. For example would Svend Robinson ever deny being a left wing, socialist, homosexual, NDP MP who introduced Bill C-250? Do not many non-Christian Canadians also believe this is bad legislation and in fact a "moral gag law"?
Ms. Yaffe’s latest column is but another example of the failure of liberalism’s putative commitment to liberty since she seems incapable of tolerating the intolerant – that is those who make absolute claims for their beliefs – while freely touting her own secular code of belief.
Ben Buan
Vancouver, BC
posted by Ben Buan | 12:27 p.m.
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