Chapter Thirty-Two Continued: Faith Feud of Ernest Manning and Tommy Douglas

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

Preston Manning once said that when he was in university, he would be teased about the religious elements in the Social Credit Party, by what he called 'Marxist' or socialists followers of the NDP. So he would show them old pamphlets of the CCF (the forerunner to the NDP) which then called itself "a Christian Party". (1)

However, there was a big difference between the Christianity of Tommy Douglas (CCF) and that of his father's.

Douglas, and members of the CCF belonged to the social gospel movement, that combined Christian principles with social reform. Students of the social gospel were actually encouraged to question fundamentalism, and focus on Christian ethics. (2) Ernest Manning on the other hand, believed in the infallibility of the Bible.

These competing tendencies can be personified in Tommy Douglas and Ernest Manning, two preachers who became premiers. Douglas was a Baptist pastor in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and responded to the Great Depression by becoming involved with the Farm-Labour Party and later the Cooperative Commonwealth
Federation (CCF). ...

... Throughout his years as premier, Manning continued to appear as a lay preacher on the religious radio program that he had inherited from Aberhart. On occasion Manning recruited his son Preston to stand in for him on the show. Ernest Manning ruled Alberta from the right, particularly after the discovery of oil ... He grudgingly introduced welfare measures such as building homes for the aged, but believed none of that would be necessary if people in society were shouldering their Christian duties to care for one another.

In Saskatchewan, Douglas ruled from the left and his party introduced North America’s first state medical care insurance program in 1962. When Ottawa proposed Medicare for all Canadian provinces later in the decade, Manning was opposed. (2)

Ernest Manning's greatest fear was the spread of socialism:

"Throughout his political career, Ernest Manning was motivated by religion, and more specifically, by anti-Socialism: 'Socialism, to Manning, is a system which largely prevents the individual from attaining the state of grace and hence salvation ... Giving to the individual societal benefits such as free medical care ... breeds idleness... causing a break down in his relationship with God'. "Manning argued that 'where the state imposed a monopoly on a service ... the sinful philosophy of state collectivism scored a victory'. ((3)

I believe that had William Aberhart still been alive when oil struck at Leduc in 1947, he would have used the province's new riches to help the people of Alberta. Becaseu for all of his religiou fanaticism, he deeply cared about those who were suffering.

The specific Christianity of Ernest Manning was actually more closely attuned to fundamentalism than was Aberhart's. The latter had moved, says Social Credit scholar Alvin Finkel, "towards views that resembled the social gospel," a more liberal religious view of social action. Manning's gospel was the "gospel of individualism," says Finkel. "... he viewed humans as essen-tially alone in a struggle to achieve eternal salvation and believed that a collectivist state belittled that struggle and made individuals more vulnerable to behaviour that might lead to eternal damnation."
...
This evangelical view of humans as essentially alone in the struggle for salvation leads to a gospel of the individual and also, naturally enough, "in the world" to the gospel of free enterprise and capitalism. It compels many of its adherents to elevate capitalism to the level of Biblical command. Richard Neuhaus, an American evangelist, says it is "imperative for Christians to support capitalism. It is an amazing thing ... It comes from the grace of God."

This fundamentalist view commands its adherents to promote capitalism as the "best hope" of the poor. According to Reverend Ben Smillie, using Ernest Manning as an example, these evangeli-cal sects "have religiously sanctified the privileges of the economically powerful." The multi-millionaire Ernest Manning could denounce the "Godless materialism" of the communist sys-tem, while materialism sanctioned by God allowed him to "equate [his] wealth with the blessing of God." (4)

What I found the most compelling about Ernest Manning was how serious he was. Comedian and talk show host, Percy Saltzman, interviewed him once and had this to say:

Ernest Manning, Social Credit Premier of Alberta, I remember as the coldest fish I ever did tangle with. Ice water in his veins, I swear. Probably due to the notoriously deep-rooted streak of anti-Semitism among the Mormonic Socreds (pace Aberhart and his goys) (5)

I don't think his faith was making him happy and certainly was not cheering up those around him. The following is a brief interview, and I can see what Saltzman meant.

Some of this rubbed off on his son Preston. As a member of the youth wing of the Social Credit Party; he once stated: "We (socreds) believe that Canada is drifting towards socialism even when the majority of Canadians are opposed to collectivism and the welfare state..." (6)

Sources:

1. The New Canada, Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, pg. 95

2. CCF: The Anatomy of a Party, By: Walter D. Young, University of Toronto Press, ISBN: 0-8020-5221-5, Pg. 159

3. Citizenship as ministry: Religious progressives, By Dennis Gruending, Pulpit and Politics, February 8, 2009

4. Preston Manning and the Reform Party, by Murray Dobbin, Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing, 1992, ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 9-10

5. PREMIERS, PRIME MINISTERS, COLOSTOMIES & ME OR ... Life in that Sandbox on the Hill, Percy Saltzman, 2006

6. Dobbin, 1992, Pg. 24-25

Tom Lukiwski: From Mouseland to Dirty Rats

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

I believe that Tommy Douglas is hands down the best Canadian politician that ever lived, and there is a reason why he was voted by the Canadian people, the Greatest Canadian. He was the antithesis of neoconservatism, but unfortunately the neoconservative government of Grant Devine in Saskatchewan, tore down much of what Tommy Douglas had achieved in the province.

And now the neoconservative government of Stephen Harper is on a course to tear down what Tommy Douglas achieved for the country: Medicare.

Same old, Same Old: The Saskatchewan Party

After the scandal that resulted in nearly a million dollars being embezzled from Saskatchewan taxpayers, all but destroyed the Tory party, there needed to be a revamping.

So in 1997, the Saskatchewan Party was formed by a coalition of four former Progressive Conservatives and four Liberal Party members of the Legislature.

However, it was not a formal merger between the two, and the PCs were not disbanded. It was instead allowed to go dormant for the next two election cycles, with assets held in trust. Because the new party consisted largely of former Progressive Conservatives, it was initially derided by opponents as merely a re-branding of the Progressive Conservative name in an attempt to distance itself from the still fresh corruption scandal. This view has continued to follow the party up to the present. (Wikipedia)

During the formation of the new party, they worked alongside another reinvented party, as the Reform was disbanded and a new Alliance Party formed. According to one journalist and budding politician:

Creating political parties was the style of the day, with Reform Party leader Preston Manning pushing forward his United Alternative which sought to emulate the model of the Saskatchewan Party, born from a marriage of progressive Conservatives and liberals in Saskatchewan. I met one of his assistants, Kory
Teneycke, at a Sask Party function and helped to arrange Manning’s appearance on CJME’s morning talk show with John Gormley. Kory and I would talk on the phone from time to time about the political scene in Saskatchewan and Ottawa where he worked. Soon I was approached to be a prospective candidate for the newly created Canadian Alliance, the fruit of Manning’s labour, and the party whose leadership he was now seeking. (1)

Tom Lukiwski remained with the Saskatchewan Party until it was discovered, and brought up by the opposition. After all, he was there throughout the whole mess.

And so I go through a list of people who worked for the Saskatchewan Party and I come upon a Tom Lukiwski. And who is this guy? Well he’s the executive director of the Saskatchewan Party. And who was he? Who was he, Mr. Speaker? He was formerly the executive director of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan. (2)

Not long after, Lukiwski resigned his position to run for the federal party of Stephen Harper, and the Saskatchewan party is running the province under Brad Wall (another person on the infamous tape)

Sources:

1. The Saskatchewan Party and the Canadian Alliance, Brendon Cross, First Nations Party

2. Saskatchewan Legislature, Hansard, March 24, 2003

From Tommy Douglas to the Exclusive Brethren: What a Journey

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

"If instead of giving gems or flowers, we could drop a beautiful thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give." Tommy Douglas

The wonderful Tommy Douglas (1904-1986) once told a story of a day when his father, a burly iron worker, returned home at a time when the local minister was visiting.

"As was his custom, [he] tramped into the kitchen in his dirty pants and boots, the smell of molten metal still clinging to him. "I'm going to have a bottle of beer," he told their guest. "Would you like one?""

The straight laced minister declined.

Douglas claimed that his mother and the rest of the family were horrified, and he decided on that day that if he was going to be a minister, he would be "one who would accept a glass of beer at a parishioner's home, who would accept his parishioners as he found them and would strive to be one of them." (1)

What inspired Tommy Douglas was not the judgemental man of the cloth, but the pain he saw in the faces of his family, the judged, and he vowed to never inflict that kind of pain. He vowed to be one of them and he was always one of us.

Marci McDonald's book, the Armageddon Factor*, will hopefully encourage debate in this country, about the influence of the American Religious Right movement in all it's ugliness. They are promoting a culture war, that is supposed to pit Christians against non-believers.

But we have to remember that this will not be a war against Christians, but against a political movement that is threatening to tear down Canadian society. And I firmly believe that Tommy Douglas would be on our side.

Because he was the epitome of the Canadian spirit. One of the nicest men to have ever called Canada home.

The Exclusive Brethren and the Harper Government

Out of nowhere in 2004, an obscure religious sect burst onto the political stage in Australia. Almost unheard of until then, the Exclusive Brethren was suddenly spending up big in election advertising in support of conservative political parties. But its members were shy to the point of paranoia about who they were, preferring, as they said, to fly under the radar.

Brethren members assiduously lobbied politicians, but did not vote. And they were very close to the-then prime minister John Howard.

What exactly was their interest in politics? Why did their activism suddenly blossom almost simultaneously across the world, from Canada and the United States to Sweden and Australia? And how did a small, fringe group, whose values are utterly detached from those of most Australians, infiltrate the highest office in the land? (2)

In the run-up to the 2006 federal election campaign, and the debate over Bill C-38, referred to as the same-sex marriage act; international fundamentalist groups took a keen interest in the Canadian political scene. Fearing what it meant if the gay and lesbian communities were given equal rights in Canada, they threw millions of dollars behind a variety of movements, all to interfere with our political process. And the man who was running to represent them, Stephen Harper, promised to embrace that interference, rather than protect our sovereignty.

To the American Religious Right there was a concern that our "loose morals" would head south, but why such a keen interest from the Exclusive Brethren? A cult from the United Kingdom? They have now set up offices in Calgary and apparently are even establishing schools here. Do they also believe that Canada will be hosting the "end times", and want a front row seat?

Although they are throwing money into all movement conservative governments, and attacking liberal ones. Their political demands are a seamless mix of business breaks and hard-line Christian morality. Under Hales, the Exclusive Brethren have become a new player in the right-wing politics of the world. And they have lots and lots and lots of money. (3) (my emphasis)

Australia - They poured a lot of money into John Howard's campaign and seem to have had ready access to the PM, much to the dismay of other church groups, committed to social justice. (4) They also made things difficult for the opposition.

A feisty night of heckling in the 2004 Australian elections was the first - but neglected - clue that the sect had plunged into politics. Greens candidate and intelligence whistleblower Andrew Wilkie was at the Gladesville RSL campaigning when a dull night turned nasty. "They had such a threatening presence about them," Wilkie recalled. "They weren't violent but they were very aggressive."

Voices from the back taunted the candidate about his own marriage and about party leader Bob Brown's homosexuality. "I completely enraged them by endorsing Bob and his sexuality. It got them really wound up." All in all, it was an ugly experience. "I'm pretty streetwise," said Wilkie. "But I was rattled." (3)

United States

A fortnight after Howard's re-election, a group called the "Thanksgiving 2004 Committee" registered with the US Internal Revenue Service and placed ads in Florida newspapers supporting the Senate campaign of Cuban-American Mel Martinez, a passionate campaigner against gay marriage ... On election day, the committee placed a hugely expensive full-page ad supporting Bush in The New York Times under the banner headline: "America Is In Safe Hands."

When the financial returns of the Thanksgiving 2004 Committee were published by the Federal Elections Commission in January last year, they revealed that US 377,262 (almost $517,000) of more than $US600,000 raised by the committee came from a Londoner called Bruce Hazell. Press calls to Hazell established little except that he was Exclusive Brethren. (3)

Canada

A political conflagration was soon blazing as the Canadian Parliament debated same-sex marriage. In March last year, households in the electorate of every member supporting the bill received a greeting card raging against the legislation: "The suicidal rush to fundamentally change a 6000-year-old
institution is the canker that will destroy the roots of Canada's 'living tree'."

"What I do not respect is tens of thousands of dollars being spent anonymously with absolutely no way to contact this organisation," said a Canadian Liberal MP, Mark Holland. "My office has been contacted by hundreds of residents who are extremely upset. Maybe this is acceptable to the Opposition but I would like to know who is behind it. We do not know who is behind it. Is there foreign money? Is there a political party behind it?"

His questions were answered by advertising agent Ron Heggie a few days before the Civil Marriage Act was passed last July. Questioned by journalists after placing
a newspaper ad attacking the legislation, Heggie said he and the "Concerned Canadian parents" were Exclusive Brethren. ... (3)

They also took out a full page ad in the Hill Times. (5)

According to Marci McDonald* the Brethren have hired the services of Conservative insider Gerald Chipeur, who has represented the Reform-Alliance-Conservative Party for some time. He was the one who wrote the letter to the Bloc asking for a coalition with Stockwell Day in 2000. (6) Day stated that he knew nothing of the letter but a story in the New York Times published then, revealed otherwise. They also quoted his backer, Conrad Black as lambasting Day for fooling around with separatists. (7)

Chipeur has become the regular counsel for cases challenged on the basis of religious freedom, in the same way that Doug Christie became synonymous with representing the neo-Nazis. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, because everyone has the right to hire a lawyer, and when you can afford it, an expert lawyer. A funny co-incidence is that Chipeur has had a long relationship with Stockwell Day, while Day's father had a long relationship with Doug Christie. It's common knowledge available on Wikipedia.

His father, Stockwell Day, Sr., was long associated with the Social Credit Party of Canada. In the 1972 federal election he was the Social Credit candidate running against New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas in the riding of Nanaimo—Cowichan—The Islands. Day, Sr., supported Doug Christie and was a member of the Western Canada Concept.

I don't think Canadians realize how well connected the Harper government is with the Religious Right, not only in America but elsewhere. They are wealthy and they are motivated. Just getting rid of Stephen Harper will not be enough. We have got to vote to get rid of this party, and once they are gone lobby government to put legislation in place that will prevent something like this from happening again.

A good place to start would be to cancel 'non-profit' status the moment a group becomes partisan, and any church that gets involved with a political party, also loses their tax exempt status.

And we have to be diligent. Everyone should have the freedom to practice their religion, but no one should be given the power to legislate it. Tommy Douglas promoted a social gospel that was inclusive of everyone. This movement on the other hand, is inclusive and divisive, and most members are not even Canadian.

I want my country back.

Footnotes:

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

Sources:

1. Tommy Douglas: Building the New Society, By Dave Margoshes, XYZ Publishing, 1999, ISBN: 0-9683601-4-9

2. Behind the Exclusive Brethren, By: Michael Bachelard, Scribe Publications, 2008, ISBN-10: 1921372281

3. Exclusive Brethren: Hidden prophets, By: David Marr, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, July 1, 2006

4. Elusive Exclusive Brethren, By Wendy Carlisle, ABC Radio Australia, April 30, 2006

5. Secretive religious sect behind anti-gay ads: MPs targeted by mail and ads funded by Exclusive Brethren, By Peter O'Neil, July 15, 2005

6. Day denies report of 2000 coalition plot with Bloc: Former Alliance leader once told reporters, 'I'm not big on labels', CBC, December 3, 2008 .

7. Rightist Shocks Canadians By Flirting With Separatists, By James Brooke, New York Times, August 3, 2000