Canadians are usually fairly good about not mixing religion and politics. It is one of the less endearing traits of American politicos. That was why it was most unusual the other day when a B.C. member of the Conservative backbench quit his caucus and said he would sit as an independent so that he could practice his religion. If more of his co-religionists followed his lead, Mr. Harper could lose his majority and we might have an election sooner than this Fall.
We mention this in passing as this commentary is also about religion in politics. It is about Canadian politicos who break the rules set by all parties in running the operations of the Houses of Parliament. Believe it or not we have been waiting for Barrie MP Patrick Brown to apologize for a breach of those rules last month.
This has to do with a religious conference held on the premises of Parliament Hill. One of the major speakers at this event was the chap we refer to as the Cardinal of Calgary, Defence and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney. While Brown might not be very up-to-date on parliamentary rules, you would think an aspirant for Mr. Harper’s job such as Kenney would have a staff to tell him when something is a ‘no-no.’
Parliamentary rules allow available meeting rooms to be booked by MPs for outside functions. The rules explicitly forbid fund-raisers and conferences. This conference that Brown booked was charging the 150 or so guests $212.99 a day. Mind you, the only people on the platform with Minister Kenney were Conservatives and their good friends. It seems nobody is sure if Mr. Brown was or was not there. He has that affect on people.
This conference was headlined as being A Conference on Religious Freedom and organized by International Christian Voice which concentrates its efforts on being a voice for Pakistani Christians. The conference was held in honour of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian Minister of minority affaires in Pakistan who was assassinated in 2011.
Since the parliamentary rules stipulate that Brother Brown was supposed to be there hosting the event, somebody should find out where he was. With him running between his duties in the House of Commons and his try for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, somebody on his staff should keep track of him. The boy could be lost.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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