Marci McDonald was on TVO’s The Agenda last night and she said her goal for her new book was to initiate a discussion on how much religiosity we should have in the public square. For many on the Left and some libertarians, the answer to that discussion is none. Hugh MacIntyre is a libertarian blogger at The Shotgun and he has what should be the last word on the issue of the scary social conservatism of the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper (it won’t be the last word, but it should) :
I’m not Stephen Harper’s number 1 fan. Also as someone who is politically liberal on social issues, I too would fear a religious takeover of the Conservative Party. But that takeover is just not happening. There is no credible evidence of strong religious influence on government policy. The best anyone has come up with is that a couple of Mr. Harper’s advisers go to church. At the same time there is a large amount of evidence that social conservatives have failed to influence Mr. Haper’s decisions.
All of this fear mongering seems to be about trying to shut social conservatives out of the debate for policy. And that is just despicable.
The problem with McDonald’s screed is that she isn’t leading a discussion on the role and limits of religion in the public square; she is leading the fear-mongering about social conservatives.
