The Christian Coalition and Jason Kenney Help to Create So-Cons on Steroids

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

James Egan and John Norris Nesbit, were a gay couple who had been in a conjugal relationship since 1948. Their challenge to the courts over the definition of a spouse would pave the way for not only gay rights but equal marriage.

The Old Age Security Act in Canada, provides that a spouse of a pensioner may receive a spousal allowance should their combined income fall below a certain amount. So when Nesbit reached 65, fitting the definition, he applied to the Department of National Health and Welfare for a spousal allowance. However, he was refused on the basis that spouse, defined in section 2 of Old Age Security Act, did not include a member of the same sex.

So Egan and Nesbit delivered a motion for a declaration of unconstitutionality to the Federal Court of Canada alleging that the definition of "spouse" under the Old Age Security Act constituted an infringement of their right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law, entrenched in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Though they were refused by the trial judge and their case was turned down for an appeal, they took the matter to the Supreme Court, who in 1995 agreed, and the two men were granted the supplement. (1)

As a result of this decision, the Canadian government amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to explicitly include sexual orientation as one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination.

This inclusion of sexual orientation in the Act was an express declaration by Parliament that gay and lesbian Canadians are entitled to "an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives they are able and wish to have..." (Section 2). The Canadian Human Rights Commission , which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Act, provides further information about human rights and sexual orientation. (2)

This decision angered many fundamentalist Christians, who feared that legitimizing same-sex marriage would be the next step. Two of them were Brian Rushfeldt and Roy Beyer, pastors of Victory church. Since neither were ordained ministers, they decided to take a correspondence course at Charles McVety's Canada Christian College, but the change in the Constitution to include gay rights, changed their priorities, and they decided to:

... drop everything and build a grassroots political force to demand the restoration of biblical principles to government. At Victory headquarters, their boss arranged for them to fly to Washington for a tutorial from the reigning expert on evangelical organizing, Ralph Reed, the Georgia wunderkind whom Pat Robertson had chosen to build the Christian Coalition. (3)

Also in attendance were Jason Kenney and Don Spratt, the man who would create the Canadian Christian Coalition, based on the techniques used by Reed.

Years earlier, Reed had confided to a reporter that stealth was essential* to his modus operandi. "I want to be invisible," he said. "I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night." Warming to the metaphor, he boasted, "You don't know it's over until you're in a body You don't know until election night." Nobody had paid much attention until 1994 when Reed realized that scenario on a national scale. The mainstream media woke up on election night to discover that the Christian Coalition had been instrumental in engineering a Republican takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty-two years. (3)

Beyer and Rushfeldt were also inspired by Reed and they too started a Christian grassroots movement: the Canada Family Action Coalition.

Canada Family Action (CFA) was founded in early 1997 with a vision to see Christian principles applied in Canadian law, politics and society. We provide strategies, networking, training and tools to enable ordinary Canadians to influence government, education, media, and culture.

We work with individuals, churches, other like-minded groups, and businesses to provide a unified thrust in promoting the Christian worldview in government, the media and society. Presently we have over 40,000 individuals who are active supporters, plus hundreds of thousands of others who participate in various major campaigns through phone calls to MPs , petitions, brochure distribution and letters to editors of newspapers. Some even host meetings in their area on issues and invite speakers. Our Mission: To mobilize, train and activate Canadians in defending and promoting Christian principles in Canadian society. (4)

They immediately went into action, when Alberta premier Ralph Klein, called an election, and

... scrambled to put together a homegrown version of a tool that Reed had developed for churches, a political report card aimed at pinpointing acceptable social-conservative candidates without taking a partisan stand that would jeopardize their charitable tax status. Those voters' guides graded lawmakers on how they had cast their ballots on bills close to theo-con hearts. Beyer and Rushfeldt sent out their first edition to ninety thousand Alberta households in what turned out to be a dry run for the federal election that was called months later.

In a burst of enthusiasm, they ordered half a million copies of their new national guides, confident that evangelical corporate leaders would leap at the opportunity to underwrite such an innovative scheme, but Beyer came back from his first fundraising tour empty-handed. "Up here," Rushfeldt says, "the Christian community had bought into this idea that politics and religion don't mix." (3)

(The Canadian Christian Coalition fared much better for the Reform Party).

Jason Kenney and Don Spratt

Reproductive rights rights in Canada took a giant step backward in January when a provincial court judge gutted the British Columbia's government's new Access to Abortion Services Act, which had established protest-free "bubble zones" around abortion clinics and doctors' homes and offices. The ruling came at a time when the previously disorganized Religious Right in this province was congealing into a B.C. wing of the newly formed Christian Coalition of Canada, inspired by the politically influential Christian Coalition in the U.S. ... a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress.

The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association), and Alex Parachin (head of the Christian Broadcasting Associates in Toronto, the Canadian branch plant of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network). (5)

As mentioned, Don Spratt was then the leader of Rescue Canada (also known as Operation Rescue), a position he held in "the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, for which he was repeatedly jailed for “contempt of court” for obeying God rather than man ... "(6)

His group fared better than Canada Family Action, perhaps because of the connections of people like Bill Vander Zalm, Jason Kenney and the Reform Party.

The Christian Coalition has established roots in British Columbia, Canada ... Bill Vander Zalm, a former British Columbia premier and one of the more than 20 directors ... announced that the group plans to distribute "voter guides" in churches around the province in any upcoming election.

Vander Zalm notes that the group is already organized in the Okanagan, the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland. Vander Zalm has associated in the past with the right-wing Reform Party and the Family Coalition Party of B.C. The B.C. chapter formed after several dozen Canadians attended the fall 1995 Christian Coalition convention in the U.S.

Don Spratt, a member of Operation Rescue, leads the B.C. chapter. Other advisors to the group include Ted and Link Byfield of the right-wing Alberta Report and B.C. Report magazines, Alex Parachin, head of the Canadian branch of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and Jason Kenny, head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association.

Jim Garrow, the Ontario-based leader of the Christian Coalition of Canada told reporters that the group will seek allies in organizations such as the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, REAL Women and the Canadian branch of James Dobson's Focus on the Family. (7)

They would build up such a network of think-tanks and non-profit groups, that I'm beginning to feel the way that Lucy did in the following clip. You start off slow, tracking the money and the players, and then they speed up the conveyor belt and you're stuffing names in your hat so they don't fall off your radar.




I'm going to do a list and the end of this chapter, of which, mostly faith-based groups, promoted which candidates for the 1997 election, as well as future ones; but it's pretty clear that this party has been taken over by the Religious Right. I don't think Stephen Harper could stop them now even if he wanted to.

So why should this matter? Well, as Canadian author and activist, Maude Barlow explains:

Sincerely held religious beliefs accompanied by strict morality are obviously not a bad thing, and any Church is entitled to make its own rules about who, for example, it will choose to marry under Church auspices. (Some may deplore a lack of tolerance for alternative lifestyles displayed by particular denominations, but the freedom of religion means that people are free to make such choices.) Civil rights are another matter. Increasingly, however, the sometimes narrow convictions of Christian sects are being exploited by politicians in both Canada and the, United States (where the tendency is highly developed) to introduce into the political realm a degree of inflexibility, passion, and rancour that tend to undermine the spirit of accommodation and tolerance that is essential to the functioning of a democratic society. Our civil liberties are threatened as a result. The point is that people are free to believe what they want privately, but if they enter politics to inflict those beliefs on others, then their religious concerns become fair game.

Intolerance for gays, passionate opposition to abortion and a handful of other "hot-button" issues are pushing a number of born-again Canadians to identity with the evangelical, right-wing views of American fundamentalist groups such as Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition, two of the groups that helped put George W Bush in the White House. (7)

Less than 11% of Canadians are evangelical, and of that probably less than half are of the extreme variety. Yet they now make up more than half of the Harper caucus. But what's worse, they have also been infiltrated into all levels of the public sphere, and are now in the courts, the senate and even the civil service.

If this government is in power much longer, the majority of Canadians risk losing their voice, and all decisions made will be contrary to Canadian beliefs and Canadian values.**

Next: Implosions Help Jason Kenney's Christian Coalition to Explode

Footnotes:

*Stephen Harper would later also adopt Reed's strategy: "The state should take a more activist role in policing social norms and values ... To achieve this goal, social and economic conservatives must reunite as they have in the U.S., where evangelical Christians and business rule in an unholy alliance. Red Tories must be jettisoned from the party ... Movement towards the goal must be "incremental, so the public won't be spooked." Stephen Harper (8)

** "Westerners, but especially Albertans, founded the Reform/Alliance to get "in" to Canada. The rest of the country has responded by telling us in no uncertain terms that we do not share their 'Canadian values.' Fine. Let us build a society on Alberta values." Stephen Harper

Sources:

1. Egan v. Canada, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513, May 25, 1995

2. Sexual Orientation and Human Rights, Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada

3. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 69-70

4. Canada Family Action, Mission/Vision Statement, Accessed June 25, 2010

5. The Christian Coalition Comes to Canada, by Kim Goldberg, The Albion Monitor, May 5, 1996

6. For Truth, Life and Liberty, DonSpratt.org

7. Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America, By Maude Barlow, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 0-7710-1088-5, Pg. 24

8. Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy: Close advisers schooled in 'the noble lie' and 'regime change', By Donald Gutstein, The Tyee, November 29, 2005

Jason Kenney Helps to Unite Reformers and Republicans

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

When I read Marci McDonald's Armageddon Factor, I was surprised that she didn't have more on Jason Kenney. Her book was excellent and connected a lot of dots for me, but Kenny is just as involved with the Religious Right as Stockwell Day. In fact, maybe more so, especially to the American movement. And his beliefs are also just as troubling.

However, while researching another story I came across an old article from Australia, that directly ties the Reform Party and the Republican Party, and in a way that we all missed. I had already written about the close relationship between Preston Manning and Newt Gingrich, but this goes further and deeper, and involves Jason Kenney in a very big way.

I should have seen this before, but I had my light bulb moment this afternoon. So I went over all of my notes and skimmed some old postings, and it was all there. So I'm going to try and put everything in chronological order as best I can. I may have to do it in two or three parts. But it involves the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Christian Coalition and Grover Norquist. A strange combination indeed.

Association of Concerned Taxpayers

About 1987 Jason Kenney leaves St. Ignatius at the University of San Francisco, where he was schooled in far right, neoconservatism. He gains temporary employment with a Saskatchewan MPP, from his hometown of Wilcox, where his father ran a Catholic college.

In 1989, Brian Mulroney began discussing the implementation of the GST, which became a very hot button issue with Canadians. This prompted Saskatchewan resident, Kevin Avram, to start a kind of grass roots organization, to mobilize people against this new tax. (1)

So he attended a conference in Austin, Texas where he met a representative of the “Association of Concerned Taxpayers” which was then headed up by Grover Norquist. So he decided to set up a chapter in Canada, which he simply named the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers, which was incorporated on May 1, 1989. Jason Kenney was hired as Executive Director.

Meanwhile, a similar group had started in Alberta called Resolution One. I'm still hunting down information on them, but they may have been connected to Link Byfield. Though not a member of the Reform Party himself (his father Ted was a founding member), he drafted "Resolution One" for Preston Manning, which became the Reform Party's fiscal philosophy. (2)

Link was a founding member, along with Stephen Harper, of the Northern Foundation and is currently involved with the Wildrose Alliance Party. Resolution One became the Alberta Taxpayers Association and they joined with the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers to become the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and Jason Kenney was named CEO. Rob Anders also claims to have been involved with them at some time as well, according to his resume, when he first ran for public office.

I have a bit more information on the American Association of Concerned Taxpayers, as it relates to Stockwell Day (when he had big hair. Oye!), but I just wanted to follow along with Jason Kenney and Grover Norquist for now.

Norquist had worked for Ronald Reagan, setting up Americans for Tax Reform, as a "think-tank" to sell his tax cutting measures. It was such a success that he kept it going, with branches and affiliates right across the country, including AOCT, on which CTF was fashioned.

In 1988, Norquist was asked to work on the campaign of George H. Bush, and he advised him to stick to one simple message. It was the message that he had adopted for his own anti-tax outfits. Remember the famous "Read My Lips"? That was Grover Norquist.



Well Jason Kenney did all but tell people to read his lips, though Stephen Harper tried it out in 2008. But in 1995 when Kenney was touring Canada, he must have felt the invisible hand of Norquist brushing against his cheek.

"Before the 1995 Budget was brought down .... the CTF sponsored no fewer than eighteen protest rallies across the country whose theme was 'No New Taxes.' These rallies were also deliberately coordinated with others sponsored by the Reform Party and the National Citizens Coalition for maximum affect. "... any casual observer of the CTF's literature cannot fail to note the groups neo-conservative approach to the role of government in general. As well-known tax expert Neil Brooks has stated, the CTF's 'anti-tax rhetoric disguises a view that government should play a minimal role' ... David Perry of the Canadian Tax
Foundation ... notes that much of the group's anti-tax sentiment is based on ignorance of the actual situation in Canada .... a perception of reality, rather
than reality' .... "Many other tax experts ... have also pointed out that the benefits received from government in exchange for taxes have to be taken into account ... Kenney's response to this, however is instructive. 'We only look at taxes, not benefits'.. (3)

And in the same way that Americans for Tax Reform originally propped up Ronald Reagan, it was pretty clear that the CTF were doing the same thing for the Reform Party.

Public-Service union president Darryl Bean has called the CTF 'a front for the Reform Party,' and it is not difficult to understand the source of his accusations. Preston Manning has often been asked to address its anti-tax rallies. At one such event in Pickering Ontario in 1995, media accounts routinely reported some 3,500 Reform Party supporters in attendance, and Manning received a standing ovation. "... (3)

Now this was 1995, and in the fall of that year, Jason Kenney, along with dozens of Canadian conservative Christians thronged to Washington, DC, to attend a major convention of the U.S. Christian Coalition, (4) then headed up by Ralph Reed.

When Robertson's campaign flamed out, political analysts served up a new round of obituaries for the religious right, but once again, the reports of its death proved premature. Even as Robertson nursed a wounded ego, he was hatching his organizational revenge, hiring a fresh-faced young doctoral student named Ralph Reed to build a grass-roots evangelical network, focusing first on the takeover of school boards and town councils before ultimately commandeering the machinery of the Republican National Committee itself. That institutional coup took place almost entirely beneath the media's radar, and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress and would later play a major role in putting George W. Bush in the White House, not once but twice. (5)

Jason Kenney and his gang came back to Canada with a new agenda. They were going to replicate the success of the Christian Coalition on home turf. In McDonald's book, Armageddon Factor, she states that this initiative was the brainchild of Roy Beyer and Brian Rushfeldt, but Jason kenney was involved in this as well.

... Even more ominous for democratic rights in [British Columbia] is the recent hatching of the B.C. clone of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. With 1.7 million active members and a $25 million (US) annual budget, the U.S. organization has become a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress. The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt, and claims among its founding board members former B.C. Premier and ardent anti-choicer Bill Vander Zalm ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association), and Alex Parachin (head of the Christian Broadcasting Associates in Toronto, the Canadian branch plant of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network). (4)

I'm going to leave it there for now. Most of what I have written here has been covered in other posts, but it's what happens next that is rather surprising, so I want to cover it separately. This just sets the stage.

The media missed this in the U.S. "and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress" (5) ... this was missed in Canada as well, though one diligent reporter did try to sound the alarm.

While Don Spratt may be telling readers "Nobody has anything to fear from the Christian Coalition," progressive activists and journalists will have to make sure the electorate knows better. (4)

And yet they didn't.

Jason Kenney, Reformers and Republicans Continued

Sources:

1. Kevin Avram, By Troy Lannigan, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

2. Preston Manning and the Reform Party, by Murray Dobbin, Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing, 1992, ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 99

3. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 416-417

4. The Christian Coalition Comes to Canada, by Kim Goldberg, The Albion Monitor, May 5, 1996

5. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 5

Jason Kenney and the Christian Coalition

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

When Pat Robertson and other televangelists preached the gospel of Christian nationalism, God and flag firmly entwined, that audience cheered the idea of a government run by conservative Christians according to the time-tested verities of the Bible, even if they didn't fully grasp its theocratic implications.

When Robertson's campaign flamed out, political analysts served up a new round of obituaries for the religious right, but once again, the reports of its death proved premature. Even as Robertson nursed a wounded ego, he was hatching his organizational revenge, hiring a fresh-faced young doctoral student named Ralph Reed to build a grass-roots evangelical network, focusing first on the takeover of school boards and town councils before ultimately commandeering the machinery of the Republican National Committee itself. That institutional coup took place almost entirely beneath the media's radar, and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress and would later play a major role in putting George W. Bush in the White House, not once but twice. (1)

First off I want to say how proud I am of being asked to write for both the Religious Right Alert and Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper. These two groups are doing an amazing job of exposing the Harper government and the enormous influence of not only the American Religious Right, who are camped out on Parliament Hill, but also the corruption that is increasing behind the scenes, of a government that has been allowed to operate in almost total secrecy.

Random House has allowed the latter group to provide the first chapter of Marci McDonald's book The Armageddon Factor, which is proving to be only the tip of the iceberg. You can read it here.

What surprised me, and even more so now; is how Jason Kenney has been able to fly under the radar. McDonald mentions him in relation to cutting the funding to the faith-based social activist group KAIROS and the Cristian Zionists who are pushing for a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East. But what I've recently discovered is that Jason Kenney is much more involved than that.

I suppose given the fact that he headed up Stockwell Day's leadership campaign and hangs out with some of the most notorious American right-wingers like David Frum and Alykhan Velshi, both players in the Bush administration, should have given us a hint.

Trevor Harrison in his biography of Stockwell Day (2), mentions that Kenney came under the influence of the American Conservative movement while attending St. Ignatius in San Francisco, but I'm only now discovering what that means.

McDonald mentions how Roy Beyer, the man who set up the Families for Day website during his leadership bid in 2000, and Brian Rushfeldt, co-founder of Charles McVety's Canada Family Action Coalition, visited Ralph Reed the founder of the Christian Coalition in the United States, to learn how to create the same here. But what she appears not to have known was that Jason Kenney was also involved in that.

... Even more ominous for democratic rights in [British Columbia] is the recent hatching of the B.C. clone of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. With 1.7 million active members and a $25 million (US) annual budget, the U.S. organization has become a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress.

The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt, and claims among its founding board members former B.C. Premier and ardent anti-choicer Bill Vander Zalm. In an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun, Spratt insisted (somewhat oxymoronically) "We have no ties with our U.S. counterpart." However, according to news reports, the Christian Coalition of Canada materialized after dozens of conservative Christians in this country thronged to Washington, DC, last fall to attend a major convention of the U.S. organization.

"Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association), and Alex Parachin (head of the Christian Broadcasting Associates in Toronto, the Canadian branch plant of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network).

B.C. is particularly fertile ground for conservative Christians, according to CCC activist and organizer Jim Garrow (who heads the Ontario-based National Parents Coalition), hence B.C.'s status as the first provincial wing of the CCC. Alberta and Ontario are predicted to be next in line.

The B.C. chapter is sure to be a factor in the upcoming election, giving a boost to Reform Party candidates and any others who will go on record opposing abortion. The effect will likely be greatest in Surrey and the rest of the bible belt east of Vancouver. (Surrey is home to the taxpayer- funded "Traditional School" which opened last year after much campaigning from Surrey school trustee and clinic blockader Robert Pickering. Pickering scored another victory for the Religious Right this February when his motion to ban Planned Parenthood from all sex education programs in the district passed.) While Don Spratt may be telling readers "Nobody has anything to fear from Christian Coalition," progressive activists and journalists will have to make sure the electorate knows better. (3)

That was written in 1996 and Jason Kenney became a Member of Parliament the following year, in the "Reform Party boost". How did the media miss this?

And in 2000, the Canada Family Action Coalition (McVety/Rushfeldt/Beyers), were scoring a victory on their website, with the successful bid for leadership by Stockwell Day.

Many Alliance insiders view Beyer's CFAC as the so-con group to watch -- or watch out for. Formed 3 1/2 years ago, it now claims to have close to 10,000 members. Some older groups that share the same ideological turf, such as Focus on the Family and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, are charities. To keep that status for tax purposes, they are restricted from direct political action. But CFAC is a nonprofit group, and operates freely in the political arena. Officially, it is non-partisan. But Beyer, a Pentecostal minister in Edmonton, took time off from CFAC to organize Families for Day, which threw substantial support behind the former Alberta treasurer in his winning leadership bid. Beyer estimates the organization signed up at least 6,500 new party members who voted for Day, about equal to his final margin of victory.

... Expect that election to feature so-cons out in force. Beyer says CFAC's model for political action is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (Jason Kenney had been president of this group). The federation, founded in 1990, emerged as a tenacious voice in keeping lower-taxes, less-spending themes on federal and provincial election agendas. And between campaigns, its offices in the capitals of all four western provinces and Ottawa keep the pressure on. (4)

I often learn more about what the Canadian Religious Right are doing from visiting the websites of their American counterparts, and a recent piece celebrates an impending victory: The end of Canada's free health care.

While Democrats in Washington have been busy putting greater government controls on health care in America, (and putting taxpayers on the hook for more health care related expenses), our neighbors to the north are taking a hard look at the costs associated with their government funded system. Why? Because the population is aging, and reality is beginning to set in concerning the government's financial ability to keep delivering on the commitment of "free health care". (5)

The Religious Right are about more than just ending abortion and gay rights. It's a complete overhaul. We need to start paying attention, since clearly our media is not.

Sources:

1. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 5

2. Requiem for a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics, By Trevor Harrison, Black Rose Books, 2002, ISBN: 1-55164-206-9

3. The Christian Coalition Comes to Canada, by Kim Goldberg, The Albion Monitor, May 5, 1996

4. Emboldened by Stockwell Day, Social conservatives are on the march, By John Geddes and Rima Kar, September 11, 2000

5. Canada "re-evaluating" it's government run health care system, Christian Coalition, Capitol Notebook, June 1, 2010

Holy CCRAP! If He Shakes Your Hand Count Your Fingers

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Before the push for a United Alternative, the Reform Party was imploding. They had been steadily losing their moderates, like Ray Heard and Jan Brown, and Preston Manning was losing control.

Ever since Preston Manning moved into Stornoway Mansion* in 1997 as leader of the official opposition, the party has been troubled by in-fighting and expulsions that have alienated a growing number of supporters - and have created a roster of purged dissidents who now lobby for a return to the party's founding grassroots principles. (1)

Despite his best efforts, he was never able to garner support outside of Western Canada, so the idea of the United Alternative was to combine the forces of the three neoconservative parties: Mike Harris's Tories in Ontario, Ralph Klein's in Alberta and Manning's Reformers, with the ultimate goal of creating a single federal entity to challenge the Liberals.

A referendum was held, the Reform party dissolved and a new party created, with the dubious name: Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party. CCRAP!!! The jokes wrote themselves.

Several people threw their hat in the ring to lead the new group (that eventually just became known as the Alliance Party), including of course Preston Manning. But two others created a bit of a stir. One was Tom Long, considered by many to be too right-wing even for the right-wing. He was a former Mike Harris operative, who had also worked closely with Brian Mulroney, and had even helped with the campaign of Ronald Reagan.

Canada may yet be saved from Tom Long, the slick operative turned pretender to the Prime Minister's office. And it's an unlikely constituency that can do it - they're the very soul of the party he wants to lead. Sadly for the man who more than anyone made Mike Harris what he is today, Long is less loved among the ranks of the Alliance party than he is in the pages of the National Post. Indeed, for many of the voters who will decide next month if Preston Manning will stay or go, he's Satan with a briefcase and polling data. Long is running in a party whose members would, until recently, have hog-tied him and run him out of town on a rail.

... "Tom Long is not playing at all, especially in rural Alberta," says Ken Chapman, a sought-after political adviser among Alberta's provincial Tories. "He's got way too many Bay Street ties. People say that after you shake his hand, you want to count your fingers." (1)

But the other unlikely candidate came from Ralph Klein's caucus, a virtual unknown despite having spent fourteen years in Alberta politics. Stockwell Day.

Over the years he had kept his own counsel relying heavily on his family or a few close advisers and friends for support. Few MLAs really "knew" him. (2)

Many also disagreed with his strong religious beliefs. In the end Ralph Klein backed his nomination, it is said that it may have been that he never really knew what to do with him. Ralph Klein was a neoconservative, but never a social conservative.

I think Day's almost anonymity in the Klein government, is reflected in the three books I've read on the subject. Only two mention him at all and then only once. In one book he is referred to as the "controversial" finance minister and in the other his name is brought up during a celebration when he was teased for not drinking.

But he was very well known in religious circles, and it was from them that he drew his support.

All of the candidates in the race professed strong Christian beliefs, while both Manning and Day are devout evangelicals. There is no reason on the surface, therefore, to expect that evangelical or fundamentalist Christians should have supported Day any more vigorously than they did Manning. But Day cultivated this community's support more aggressively than Manning. Journalist Lorne Gunter, a well-known Day supporter, writes that during the previous decade Day "attended 100 or more events a year speaking in church basements, attending prayer breakfasts and serving as celebrity auctioneer at church fundraisers, at least in part to construct a springboard among the religious right."' When the leadership campaign began, Day's religious supporters delivered.

Within the religious community, Families for Day was no doubt his strongest supporter. Created by Ron Beyer (head of the Calgary-based Canadian Family Action Coalition) and Garry Rohr .. Families for Day organized an E-mail campaign to sign up new members. Beyer claimed the organization signed up at least 6,000 new party members who voted for Day on the first ballot—approximately the margin of Day's lead over Manning, if correct. (2)

From the Canada Family Action: Emboldened by Stockwell Day, Social conservatives are on the march:

Day is also a rock-ribbed social conservative, a born-again Christian and onetime preacher. He argues that those who believe in the fiscal conservatism of frugal government and lower taxes but think they can peacefully co-exist with liberal social views are fooling themselves. "While many politicians have at last grasped fiscal reality, they have not yet awakened to our disintegrating social reality -- but they will," Day said in a major speech on his brand of conservatism during the leadership contest. "The day they do, many of those fiscal-conservatives-but-social-liberals will become unhyphenated. And when they do, they will find a ready home in the Canadian Alliance." (3)

But the social conservative faction proved to be lacking in good old "Christian values".

In early May, the Campaign Life Coalition's Website described a Tom Long win as a "disaster," identifying two prominent members of his inner circle as "self-proclaimed homosexuals. Long condemned the Coalition's comments, as did the other candidates ... Then, on 3 June, Families for Day similarly attacked Long's organization for employing homosexuals. Stung by the viciousness of Day's social conservative supporters, Long gave his support to Manning.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, a game of hard ball politics was going on. Days before the final vote, MPs Deborah Grey and Eric Lowther accused Day's team of using threats and intimidation to win the nomination. They pointed particularly to a letter written by Dr. Ted Morton, a Day supporter and political scientist at the University of Calgary, sent to Lowther. In the letter, Morton urged Lowther not to criticize Day or to let himself be "used by Preston and his advisers as a tool for their surrogate negative attacks on Stock" as it would not be in his [Lowther's] interests: It's no secret that there are more than a few ex-Tories/now Alliance who want to take a run at you for the Calgary Centre nomination. If Stock wins—which he will—he (and Jason [Kenney]) will be in a position to protect you against a nomination challenge.

Alliance MPs Diane Ablonczy, Peter Goldrick, Bob Mills , and others similarly suggested members of the Day camp had threatened them. MP Deborah Grey said she was "heartsick." (4)

If you had to count your fingers after shaking hands with Tom Long, I guess you had to count your blessings that you din't become the target of the so-called Religious Right, that was clearly already a force by 2000. Jason Kenney's vision was getting closer.
Footnotes:

*He had always stated that if he became leader of the opposition he would never move into the official residence

Sources:

1. How the West wasn't Won: They started Reform to stop slick, opportunistic pols like Tom Long - and they won't make him their leader, By: Gordon Laird, June 5, 2000

2. Requiem for a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics, By Trevor Harrison, Black Rose Books, 2002, ISBN: 1-55164-206-9, Pg. 52-53

3. Emboldened by Stockwell Day, Social conservatives are on the march, By John Geddes and Rima Kar, Canada Family Action, September 11, 2000

4. Harrison, 2002, Pg. 63

Dirty Deeds and the Selling of Souls

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

The state should take a more activist role in policing social norms and values ... To achieve this goal, social and economic conservatives must reunite as they have in the U.S., where evangelical Christians and business rule in an unholy alliance. Red Tories must be jettisoned from the party ... Movement towards the goal must be "incremental, so the public won't be spooked." Stephen Harper (1)

In 2000 when Stockwell Day decided to run for the leadership of the Alliance Party against Preston Manning, a young pastor named Roy Beyer joined his team, wanting to promote a candidate who would preserve "Christian Values'. Jason Kenney acted as campaign chair and head speech writer, while Beyer set up a website "Families for Day". (2)

Stockwell won the leadership and went on to claim a seat in a by-election where he reportedly bought off the man then holding the riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla, Jim Hart. The bribe came to light when Hart was forced to sue Day (3) because he hadn't received the promised money. Day paid up, and the case went to the RCMP.(4) (Day was in charge of the ministry that oversaw the RCMP at the time, and I believe he got off)

Beyer would also work doggedly during the federal election of November 2000, but gaffes and revelations of Day's past while teaching at the Bentley Bible Schools went public (5), and the electorate got scared.

Another Important Election:

Meanwhile south of the border, another man had thrown his hat into the ring to lead his country: George W. Bush, and like Stockwell Day, he had many young devotees eager to see him get elected. One of them was the born-again Christian Ralph Reed, an up and coming preacher and political activist for the Republican Party.

When evangelist Pat Robertson failed to make headway with his moral majority the media thought it was the end of the Religious Right in the United States. However, Robertson was smart enough to hire a young doctoral student named Ralph Reed "... to build a grassroots network, focusing first on the takeover of school boards and town councils before ultimately commandeering the Republican National Committee itself. This took place almost entirely beneath the media's radar, and by the time it caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress and would later play a major role in putting George W. Bush in the White House, not once but twice." (6)

After this success, the Canadian Religious Right believed that if Reed and his Christian Coalition could get George Bush elected, maybe he could show them how to get Stephen Harper elected in Canada. Harper had taken over as leader of the Alliance, after a mutiny forced Day from the spot, and they were now calling themselves the Conservative Party of Canada. (The Progressive Conservatives disbanded in 2003, ending a century and a half tradition)

So in December of 2005, Reed headed north to address a gathering of social conservatives to offer tips on how to win the election for Stephen Harper:

“How are you gonna do it?” he rhetorically asked and gave four points. “Number one”, he emphasized, “you have to build a grassroots organization that will touch every single voter in the country between now and election day”. Point two was “train your people to be effective”. Next was set and meet “achievable goals” and lastly Reed told the assembled group of leaders anxious to influence this crucial election that they had to work very hard “to get out the vote”.

His very attentive listeners were challenged by Reed to “get on your work boots and tennis shoes and go out there like it all depends on you, pray like it all depends on God and let’s usher in the greatest victory in the history of this country.” A few Conservative candidates from the Toronto region also attended the event, including Ontario PC Jim Flaherty, John Carmichael, Rondo Thomas, Michael Mostyn, and Tim Dobson. (7)

But then the wonder boy got caught up in a scandal when his ties to the convicted former G.O.P. super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, surfaced:

For a high-profile religious conservative like Reed, the stories of being paid millions by one Indian tribe to run a religious-based antigambling campaign to prevent another tribe from opening a rival casino made him look like something worse than a criminal--a hypocrite. He had once called gambling a "cancer" on the body politic. And the e-mails to Abramoff didn't help, especially those that seemed to suggest that the man who had deplored in print Washington's system of "honest graft" was eager to be part of it. "I need to start humping in corporate accounts!" he wrote Abramoff a few days after the 1998 election. (8)

Canada Family Action Coalition

Meanwhile Roy Beyer fearing that there was a plot under way to destroy families, by "legalizing" homosexuality, decided he should do something about it. Though he had never been to divinity school, he and fellow pastor at the Victory Church, Brian Rushfeldt, began taking a correspondence course offered by Canada Christian College, run by Charles McVety.

It was later decided that the two should try to turn McVety's Canada Family Action Coalition into the same kind of activist group created by Ralph Reed, that would become a political force demanding the restoration of biblical principles to government.

The Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) is a social conservative organization that actively promotes anti-choice, anti-same sex marriage agendas. Sandy Rios, then President of Concerned Women for America, recommended in 2003 radio show that Canadians interested in opposing same sex marriage enlist with CFAC. CFAC also has close ties with Focus on the Family Canada, including joining forces with that organization as part of the Coalition for Family Autonomy (CFA), a group of “pro-family” organizations which joined forces to advocate on behalf of parents right to spank their children.

Based in Calgary and founded in 1979, CFAC seeks to promote a Bible-based society by equipping “citizens to take back their rightful place as part of the decision-making process of our courts, tribunals, legislatures and Parliament.” It concentrates its efforts on grassroots organization in order to provide training, tools, strategy and networking opportunities to permit Canadians to influence their government. CFAC’s founder and President, Dr. Charles McVety, is also President of the Canadian Christian College. Dr. McVety strongly supported the provincial Tory leadership bid of Jim Flaherty .. (9)

So Beyers and Rushfeldt went to Washington to speak with Reed and convinced him to help (10):

On November 29th, 2005 [CFAC] it organized a seminar in partnership with the Institute for Canadian Values at which Ralph Reed, a “senior advisor to President George W. Bush’s election campaign,” counselled attendees on strategy for the current election. Previously, Mr. Reed has counselled social conservatives to practice “stealth politics” and “fool voters” by “hiding, or disguising, their religious agenda by promoting popular issues such as tax reform.” Dr. McVety highly praised Mr. Reed just weeks before he came to Canada, writing that Mr. Reed “has motivated millions of Americans to participate in the election of their leaders and has taught millions how to mobilize others based on sound middle class, common sense moral principles, and solid organizations." (9)

Their "stealth" helped to bring Stephen Harper to power, though the real "power" is now in the hands of Charles McVety. Harper couldn't say no to him if he wanted to. And considering that McVety's inner circle includes Jim Flaherty, Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney, we know who's really calling the shots, and those are three members of his caucus that he will never reprimand.

World Congress of Families

Canada Family Action Coalition falls under the umbrella of the World Family Congress, and includes several other Canadian faith based advocacy groups, like Focus on the Family. Many Reform-Conservatives belong to both CFAC and FOTF.

In 2000 they hosted the World Congress of Families Millennium Youth Assembly, in Lethbridge, Alberta, where the young people were asked to write personal statements about one of the pro-family statements, "which use international consensus language."

Here are some sample responses:

1. "Recognizing the dignity and worth inherent in the human person," and that "the child, by reason of his physical and metal immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth, motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance."

2. "The family is the child's first introduction to society and is the essential link between the child and the society they live in. Children can best learn these values when a mother and father who are legally married are present in the home to teach them. The values taught in the family can never be replaced and will guide them all their lives."

3. "I believe that enough emphasis isn't being focused on the family, that is, the nuclear/biological family. The "family" should consist of a mother and a father. Allowing gay and lesbian marriages is a step in the wrong direction and is a mockery to what was and will always be a sacred institution, which is marriage. I think the rights of parents should be put back into law and parents should have the right to discipline their own kids but not to the point of abusing their children."

4. "Human Life is very important, but the world does not see this. Our population is becoming very few because families are having less kids and abortion is killing off a number of people too. Life is a great thing even through all the trials. At the end of these trials comes happiness." (11)

These children are being indoctrinated into the social conservative agenda. Their statements marginalise any family that does not have a married heterosexual couple at the helm.

What Else Did Ralph Reed Teach Roy Beyer?

Roy Beyer also belongs to an investment group that falls under the auspices of Harvest Capital Management Inc., a faith based investment corporation involved in mostly real estate transactions. They have many little offshoot groups and projects, and Beyer's includes Foundation Capital Corporation:

A Lethbridge land development firm will pay a $100,000 penalty as part of a settlement with the province’s securities regulator. Foundation Capital Corporation was asked to answer a claim it made misleading statements in marketing a 923-acre residential development south of Calgary. Its president, Ronald Aitkens, will also pay $30,000 to settle the allegations against him along with $15,000 toward the costs of the Alberta Securities Commission proceedings.

Foundation Capital Corporation, registered as a Lethbridge company, was cited earlier this year along with two related businesses, Spruce Ridge Capital Inc. and Spruce Ridge Estates Inc. A 20-day hearing into those claims had been scheduled for next January. All allegations of misleading statements about the Priddis project were withdrawn after the company’s officers reached an agreement with ASC officials, says Foundation Capital spokesperson Roy Beyer. But company executives agree “confusing statements were made about the exact nature of the company’s bonds.”

Beyer, an Edmonton-based consultant who provided marketing and promotional services for the development, will also pay $20,000 plus $5,000 costs to settle the allegations against him. (12)

Oh but there's more. From a personal testimonial:

"... I received an email from one of Harvest's [Capital Management Inc.] ex-pastor 'financial planners' recommending a couple of investments. One of them was the land development company, which I promptly warned him about as the president had been penalized by the securities commission and had been involved in another real estate scam, Eagle Lake. About a year later it was closed down by the securities commission.

The marketing director, Roy Beyer, formerly sold 'charitable donation tax shelters' for the ParkLane Group. Google it if you want to find out the gory details."(13)

So I did, and this is what I found:

Canada's coffers have been cheated of more than $1.4 billion by scams that provided taxpayers with inflated charitable receipts they used to reduce their income tax. From coast to coast, donors wrote cheques to charities and tax scheme promoters that boasted they were saving the deathly ill, the poor and
disabled, overseas and in Canada.

Now, at least 106,000 individual Canadians are learning the Canada Revenue Agency considers these schemes a sham, and wants to claw the money back. Some also are being hit with major financial penalties. Among the shelters operating recently (according to research by the Star) are: Canadian Organization for International Philanthropy (COIP); Canadian Literacy Initiatives; Initiatives Canada Corporation; ICC Worldwide Missions; Canadian Gifting Initiatives; Global Learning Gifting Initiatives; the Banyan Tree Foundation; and ParkLane Donations for Canada. (14)

Like Reed, the goal may be to force the government to work using the literal word of the Bible, but they clearly don't live under any such notions.

Because it all boils down to what it always boils down to: MONEY!

Sources:

1. Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy: Close advisers schooled in 'the noble lie' and 'regime change', By Donald Gutstein, The Tyee, November 29, 2005

2. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8

3. Requiem for a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics, By Trevor Harrison, Black Rose Books, 2002, ISBN: 1-55164-206-9, Pg. 116

4. Day under fire: Liberals ask the RCMP to investigate the nomination of the Public Safety Minister nearly seven years ago, By Kady O'Malley, Macleans, March 23, 2007

5. Bentley, Alberta: Hellfire, Neo-Nazis and Stockwell Day: A two-part look inside the little town that nurtured a would-be prime minister - and some of the most notorious hate-mongers in Canada, By Gordon laird, Now Magazine, November 2000

6. McDonald, 2010, Pg. 5

7. US Political Wiz Ralph Reed Urges Canadian Social Conservatives to “Make History” This Election, LifeSite News, December 2, 2005

8. The Rise and Fall of Ralph Reed, Time Magazine, By James Carney, July 23, 2006

9. Conservative Party links to Right-Wing American Groups, January 13, 2006

10. McDonald, 2010, Pg. 69

11. World Congress of Families Millennium Youth Assembly, Lethbridge, Alberta, April 28 - 29, 2000

12. Lethbridge Land Developer Fined: Firm hit with $145,000 in penalties, by Dave Mabell, Lethbridge Herald, August 26, 2009

13. Harvest Capital Management? Canadian Business Forum, February 24, 2007

14. STAR EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION $1.4B tax scams nail donors, By Kevin Donovan, Staff Reporter, Toronto Star, September 29, 2007