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PERSONAL OPINION
What’s happening to Stockwell Day?

John H. Redekop

In recent weeks, numerous people, including many evangelical Christians, have been asking why Stockwell Day is in deep trouble as Canadian Alliance Party leader and seems to be losing control of his party. About a dozen of his own party’s Members of Parliament have asked him to resign, and the Alliance Party’s public support has dropped to less than half of what it was at last November’s general election.

Many Canadian evangelicals had pinned great hopes on the charismatic new leader with his many fine qualities. They saw him as the man who would bring a higher morality to Canadian politics while also bringing new respectability to evangelicals in national political life, especially if he were to become Prime Minister of Canada. Many Mennonite Brethren were among those who last year hailed the new party leader.

Today, increasing numbers of those who cheered him are scratching their heads in disbelief as the party seems to be falling apart because of controversy about its leader. What happened? While definitive answers must wait, given that the story is still unfolding, a partial explanation can be given.

First, when evangelical Christians enter politics at the provincial or national level, they have three strikes against them at the outset. And the more that they try to bring Christian principles to bear in their political activity and the more open they are about their faith, the stronger the resistance to them, especially by the media, will be. On the other hand, if they decide to let public opinion in their electoral constituencies rather than their own Christian beliefs shape their votes, they will be treated less harshly.

Here are the three strikes against them: a widespread assumption that evangelical Christians are intolerant, especially of homosexuals; a widespread belief that evangelical Christians think they are better than others; and an increasingly anti-Christian climate in the country. Given this reality, even though the first two assumptions are inaccurate, every evangelical Christian who enters provincial or national politics faces an uphill climb. If the person is also a party leader, the hill is steeper.

Second, unfortunately, Stockwell Day, as most of the country’s media elites saw it, seemed to validate the widely publicized caricature of Canadian evangelicals. As Alberta’s Finance Minister, he got himself into a lawsuit by writing a letter criticizing a school board member’s legal defence of an alleged purveyor of pornography. He eventually lost this case, and the Alberta taxpayers had to pay $800,000 in legal fees for him. (I read the letter which triggered this case. It was actually a rather moderate statement with which many evangelicals would thoroughly agree.) In any event, this case saddled Stockwell Day with the reputation that he was intolerant.

The notion that evangelicals see themselves as better than others seemed to be validated by Day’s assertion upon taking his seat as Opposition Leader that, “There’s a new sheriff in town.” Having made that statement, and others like it, Mr. Day set himself up to be measured by a higher ethic than were other party leaders. Stockwell Day’s performance on the job was, in the main, less than stellar, and the media elites pounced on him.

Third, in my view, much of Canada’s media, with some notable exceptions, were biased, often severely so, in their treatment of the Canadian Alliance leader. Lapses in political morality by other national party leaders were tolerated or received little attention, but any slippage by Day became headlines. For example, the fact that four politics-related RCMP investigations were occurring simultaneously in Prime Minister Chretien’s own home riding generated relatively little attention and only mild criticism. Had this happened in Mr. Day’s home riding or in former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s constituency, the headlines would have been very bold and brutal.

Or consider the recent revelation about the national Liberal government’s spending on special cultural and sports events across Canada. Two of Canada’s 301 ridings got 20% of all the money; the two were the home ridings of Prime Minister Chretien and of the cabinet minister in charge, Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano. There was hardly any media criticism of this action. Can you imagine the uproar if this had been done by Mr. Day as Prime Minster and the evangelical Christian Chuck Strahl as the minister in charge? The media would have hounded these leaders mercilessly. One could cite many similar examples.

While I do not want to hang too much on this hook, it seems to me that most of Canada’s media people were biased in their treatment of Mr. Day or at least held him to a higher ethic. Maybe he is himself partly responsible for this situation, and maybe it is an inevitable outcome given the high ethic which evangelical Christians embrace, but, whatever the causes, the result has been devastating for him.

Add to all of the above the fact that Mr. Day’s performance and achievement in last fall’s national election were not as impressive as had been expected, and one can see why he is now in very deep trouble. It is doubtful whether he can survive as party leader.

Despite the difficulties experienced by Stockwell Day, one should not conclude that evangelical Christians have no role to play in party politics. They can make important contributions, as has been demonstrated by William Wilberforce and many Christian politicians since his time. But it is also correct to say that in our time it is very difficult for such politicians to be successful. It requires a special measure of wisdom, tact and ability, as well as a willingness to be subjected to some biased and brutal criticism.

John H. Redekop is on the faculty of Trinity Western University and is a member of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified July 10, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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