The results are in, and a new minority government holds the reins of power in Ottawa. In some areas the results were surprising; in others, expected. How did the Christian candidates fare? ChristianWeek took a sampling from across the country to find out.
On the surface, the election results were a disappointment to social conservatives in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. All of the five evangelical Christians who ran as Conservative challengers—Cindy Silver (North Vancouver), John Weston (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country), Darrel Reid (Richmond), Phil Eidsvik (Newton-North Delta), and Marc Dalton (Burnaby-New Westminster)—were defeated.
Reid and Silver especially were targeted as “anti-gay” because of their past involvement with Focus on the Family Canada. Reid is a former president of Focus, while Silver served as its legal counsel in the mid-1990s.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of those aspects of my past that people, if they want, can use to create intolerance,” Silver told the Vancouver Sun.
“Reid and Silver both faced Liberal incumbents who, themselves, were evangelical Christians, although not as well known for espousing socon values,” says veteran political journalist Lloyd Mackey. However, in the Fraser and Okanagan valleys, evangelicals Mark Warawa, Ed Fast, Russ Hiebert, Chuck Strahl, Stockwell Day and Rod Cannan all won their seats. “They all were experienced in the ebb and flow of elected politics, either on the municipal or federal levels,” says Mackey.Conservative sweep
In Alberta the Conservatives swept the home-province of newly elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an evangelical who attends Christian and Missionary Alliance churches in Calgary and Ottawa. Mackey, author of The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper, says Harper’s “personal faith has been shaped through such influences as C.S. Lewis and Malcolm Muggeridge.”
Also winning his Calgary Centre-North seat was Jim Prentice, a devout Presbyterian with an evangelical worldview. Prentice, nevertheless, was one of four Conservative MPs who voted with the Liberals in favor of same-sex marriage, despite his strong personal belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Saskatchewan saw the return of former pastor Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin) while a push to get church members to vote is being credited with an extremely narrow win by Conservative Rod Bruinooge over longtime Liberal cabinet minister Reg Alcock in Winnipeg.
A number of evangelicals were also elected to office in Ontario, including the former president of Promise Keepers Canada, David Sweet (Ancaster-Dundas). It was Sweet’s second try for office, and Mackey says his work as vice president of the Work Research Foundation, a respected Christian think-tank, helped him to build his understanding of the community.
Elsewhere in Ontario, Liberal Paul Steckle, former chair of the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast and co-chair of the multi-party Parliamentary Pro-Life caucus easily retained his riding in the southwest, while Conservative Jeff Watson held on to his seat in Essex.
In Stratford, Ontario, Conservative Gary Schellenberger (Perth-Wellington) handily defeated the second place Liberal by more than 9,000 votes.
Support appreciated
Support from the Christian community—including evangelicals—came in various forms, says Schellenberger. “We even had different prayer groups in my office.” Support also came from former Liberals frustrated by that government’s passing of same-sex marriage legislation.
Newly elected is Conservative Harold Albrecht (Kitchener-Conestoga), who resigned as pastor of Kitchener’s Pathway Community Church to run in the election.
He hesitates to suggest evangelical Christians were influential in his win. He says people of faith voted across party lines. “People of all stripes were influential. The issue of marriage was a mobilizing factor for some people, but it wasn’t a large voter issue.”
Accidental blip
While the Conservative Party celebrated winning 10 seats in the Bloc dominated Quebec, some say it would be an error to see it as any sort of demographic shift or as a result of the mobilization of the church to get Christian-friendly MPs in parliament.
“It is seen here in many ways as a kind of accidental blip caused by a backlash to the Liberal scandals and the difficulty the Bloc has had to get practical things accomplished in Ottawa for Quebec ridings,” says ChristianWeek Quebec correspondent Joel Coppieters.
“As always, the silence from the churches and the Christian community here remains deafening. Even when candidates spoke out about poverty, gun control, etc. issues about which Christians should care considerably, the church [both Roman Catholic and otherwise] remained silent.”
Charles Hubbard, a devout Presbyterian who is strongly pro-life and pro-family retained the northern New Brunswick seat he first won for the Liberals in 1993. He told ChristianWeek he has “no qualms about churches taking stands on issues;” but believes “religion and faith has to transcend political parties.”
As someone who believes strongly in the separation of church and state, Hubbard says he was surprised and found it “disappointing” to see clergy working at the polls for the Conservative party during the election. Meanwhile, Mennonite Brethren pastor Paul Francis did not win for the Conservatives in the riding of Sackville-Eastern Shore, a suburban Halifax riding. However, he says, “the Church was probably more involved in this election,” especially in making sure congregations and parishes were aware of the issues.
“It’s a Canadian phenomenon that in the last five to 10 years all streams of charismatic and evangelical churches are beginning to work together in unity on a variety of issues they care about,” he told ChristianWeek. “They have discovered they have a voice.”
Watch for the next issue of ChristianWeek where B.C. correspondent Frank Stirk examines the potential vote on marriage and talks to some of the parties that will be making their voices heard.
(With files from Frank Stirk, Lloyd Mackey, Robert White, Joel Coppieters and Diane Trail)
