Don Hutchinson of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada notes that advance polls will fall on Good Friday, but is thankful that at least there won’t be voting on Easter Sunday. Hutchinson asks whether any of the politicians consulted a calendar. The obvious concern is that Christians will be focused on their religious obligations (quite rightly) and thus could be disenfranchised. The Toronto Star reports that some churches, which often serve as the locations for advance polls, will have difficulty accommodating both worshippers and voters. The overall affect of the timing of advance polls could be to depress the church-going Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical vote, which will hurt pro-life and pro-family candidates in all parties and Conservatives across the board.
LifeSiteNews.com reports that pro-family groups such as REAL Women and the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada praised the Conservative proposal on income splitting. Montreal Gazette business writer Jay Bryan complains that income splitting will primarily benefit families in which one parent stays at home or one spouse makes significantly more than the other. Of course, one rationale for implementing income splitting is to remedy the “marriage penalty” in the income tax system that taxes families in which one partner stays at home or makes much less than a spouse gets taxed at a higher rate than a non-married couple in the same situation. Bryan’s complaint is a feature, not a bug.
