Oh, Jesus....

While Stephen Harper has been promising such miracles this week as cutting the GST and reducing hospital wait times, his fundamentalist Christian followers have taken to the airwaves and op-ed pages to open a second front in the Conservatives 2006 campaign: a culture war Canadians can call our own.

A repeated theme was how Conservative/Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christians felt they weren't respected or included in the country's political establishment, especially since most of them are concentrated in rural Canada and Western Canada. These people may have a point when they answer accusations of intolerance by identifying themselves as good, honest, hard-working people. Unfortunately, they're absolutely clueless as to how Representation by Population works in this country.

Nor do they understand the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. While the Charter recognizes the Supremacy of God, it doesn't recognize a specific God or whether or not one actually has to believe in God. While the Faith-Based Bush Administration has been blurring the Separation of Church and State, in Canada it's still pretty clear, so if you don't want an abortion, don't have one. If you're opposed to same-sex marriage, be sure to marry someone of the opposite sex. Contrary to the zero-sum vitrol from the likes of Focus on The Family, the Charter guarantees the right to carry a child to term and the right to one's heterosexuality.

Unfortunately, these Christian Soldiers will be extremely mobilized during this campaign as it falls during the Holiday Season. That's right, I said Holiday season. If same-sex marriage and abortion weren't wedge issues enough, the Christian right has now gone on the attack against anyone who has the demonic gall to wish his friends and neighbours "Happy Holidays".

Canada's 'War on Tolerance' reached a new height of stupidity this week when the town council in Oxford, Nova Scotia passed an ordinance recognizing no other December holidays except Christmas. What motivated pushing other seasonal cultural celebrations out of the spotlight? The fact that officials in Boston, who have received a tree from Nova Scotia every year since 1917 to recognize that city's role in providing aid after the Halifax explosion, opted to call it a 'Holiday Tree'. Backlash 1, History 0.

For those of you scoring at home, this page does not celebrate Christmas. I do however, celebrate being around family and friends as they celebrate Christmas, and I do recognize Xmas as a Holiday. I also recognize Chanukah, even if it's not as big a Holiday as Yom Kippur or Passover. Kwanzaa, Diwali, Tet, Ramadan, Boxing Day, St. Stephen's Day, and New Year's are also holidays which (may) take place in December and may be important to someone. Nobody set out to celebrate a different holiday to offend anyone, and what did that guy say about turning the other cheek?

Now if you'll excuse me, this page has some Christmas shopping to do...