A while ago - about 8 months - I did an interview on national television and said that I supported Stephen Harper for Prime Minister because I thought that he was the smartest guy in the house. At the time I believed it.

Now this guy is actively campaiagning against same sex marriage. What the hell was I thinking?

This is a non-issue. No one anywhere is suggesting that churches—those bastions of goodness and all that is holy—be forced to conduct gay marriages. Marriage, as an institution, has evolved over time to adapt to changing societies: it used to be that women got married and didn’t work.

Besides, the institution is going to hell in a hand basket: with a divorce rate consistently hovering in the range of 50%, who’s saying the straights are any good at it?

So, what’s Mr. Harper up to?

Arguably, he’s just differentiating himself from the Liberals. This isn’t a bad thing, and there are only a few issues on which he seems capable of doing it. This shouldn’t be one of them though: the religious right in Canada is a population minority, and not likely to get you elected anywhere other than the places you’re already getting elected. Maybe Quebec (where there is a huge Roman Catholic population) but there are so many issues there that I doubt it. You’ll need more traction than this.

Gay marriage is happening, and the world hasn’t stopped turning. Let it go.

Besides, I’d love to see this issue off the front page of the newspapers so that we can get back to some real news, like how Brad is really in love with Angelina, which is why he’s leaving Jen or who Britney is marrying today and how many hours it’ll last. Let’s get our priorities straight.

I still, by the way, think Mr. Harper is smart. That doesn’t prevent him from being an idiot apparently.

Posted by skooter at 8:01 AM This entry is filed under Politics.
This entry is tagged: Conservative Party of Canada, Politics, Stephen Harper