Heard it on CBC Radio this morning, and it’s also in the Globe.:
The Tory Leader began the long winter election campaign by saying he would ask Parliament if it wanted to reopen the controversial issue of same-sex marriage. He said he would respect existing homosexual unions if the House of Commons decided to restore the traditional definition of marriage.
But Mr. Harper said yesterday at a news conference in Waterdown, near Hamilton, Ont., that this would not be one of the first acts of a Conservative government.
“I’m not going to want to leave it forever, but it’s not one of the top-five priorities [of the party] so I suspect we won’t deal with it right away,” Mr. Harper said. “But we will ask Parliament’s opinion in due course.”
As well, the Tories are busily hiding their anti-gay messengers from the very Canadian mainstream some suggest they actually represent. The Tory candidate in Kitchener-Conestoga, Harold Albrecht, has been outspoken on this issue, (though, strangely, he’s never commented on this blog), yet he couldn’t quite get his message out to the ‘majority of Canadians’ yesterday. Also from the Globe:
When reporters tried to question Mr. Albrecht about his views after the rally, Conservative handlers blocked them from getting close. Mr. Albrecht was hustled into a kitchen where he stood alone as the news media were told he was too busy to speak with them.
I love the smell of hidden agenda in the morning.