Harper Takes Tories in Wrong Direction

Stephen Harper, leader of the Canadian Conservative party, has declared that one of his primary issues will be to redefine marriage to mean union between a man and a woman. Also see here:

OTTAWA (CP) - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper launched his election campaign Tuesday by steering it straight into the electoral turbulence of gay marriage.

With the starting gun kicking off the eight-week race still echoing in the air, Harper went out of his way to reopen a politically noxious debate, pledging to restore the traditional definition of marriage - provided Parliament supports the idea in a free vote.

Not that I oppose having words retain their meaning, but I disagree with his position. Even though Harper couched his position in terms of giving all MPs a free vote, he is clearly pandering to the social conservatives with this position, and he is foresaking the more libertarian branch of the Conservative Party. His taking this direction concerns me.

In fact, I fear a number of things from this election.

1. We will most likely end up with another de facto NDP gubmnt (i.e. Liberal minority with NDP support bought via additional major interventionist programmes).
2. The Tories will attempt to become more interventionist to try to win votes from the middle (which is what happened under Mulroney and which is why the Reform Party emerged with such tremendous success as the Tories swung too far to the left).
3. Even if the Tories win a minority (with whom?) they, too, will attempt to use our taxes to purchase a majority in the next election rather than stick to small-gubmnt ideals and goals.

For a different perspective, see here.