Thursday, August 21, 2008

In Defence of the "Christian Conservative"

DISCLAIMER: I have never met the "Christian Conservative", nor have I met Gloria Kovach, nor have I been really following the Guelph campaign to date other then what I have read on the Blogging Tories and Liblogs.

Apparently Liberal blogger Jeff Davidson thinks he has landed a one/two punch on Gloria Kovach with his open letters. His weapon of choice..."Christian Conservative: a.k.a Andrew Prescott. The only problem with this is that I don't see the issue in all this.

His thesis is that Christian Conservative's views must be that of the party and of Ms. Kovach. To me, this is silly.

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties are big tent parties, they both welcome people with diverse interests and beliefs. This is what makes Canadian politics so bland.

The Liberals have members that oppose same sex marriage, are pro-life, or might be considered more socially conservative. The Conservatives have people that are for same sex marriage, and are pro-choice.

The Liberals and Conservatives may attract people who tend towards one side of these moral issues or the other. But both welcome them.

Why should Christian Conservative be any different? Why are his views supposed to be seen as, or representative of government policy? I see no reason why Ms. Kovach should even respond to these classless smears.

Christian Conservative declares that his views are not necessarily the views of the Conservatives. It is right on his blog.

All opinions expressed here are solely my own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the Party, its leadership, its general membership, my EDA, or my local Conservative candidate.

At the end of the day he has the right to freedom of speech and expression. If he wants to blog as under a pseudonym all the power to him. I doubt he is really trying to remain anonymous as he posted a picture of himself on his blog. And if he was trying to remain anonymous who the heck cares. Being President of the Guelph Conservative party shouldn't prevent that. It is perfectly reasonable to hold views that are not inline with everything in the Conservative party's policy documents.

Heck, my views on decriminalizing weed and off street prostitution are not exactly strong conservative law and order policy views.

As for him not being a proud Guelphite, I say poppycock. He blogs about the by-election often, and the impact the Green Shift will have on Guelph. Maybe he just figures the GTA is close enough for people not familiar where Guelph is located. I mean, its not a large city or anything.

7 comments:

Hoarfrost said...

Good for you.

The Conservatives as run by Stephen Harper is indeed a Big Tent Party. Some have moderately extreme views in one direction or another but the majority within the party when elected represents the main stream of the country.

Given that, I find it very very difficult to understand how anyone can vote for a Liberal Party that is still suspected to be vainly corrupt. I urge you to vote for an earnestly honest party such as the Conservatives as currently constituted. We pulled the P.C.'s and the Alliance Party together to achieve just that. This is coming from me, a former Liberal who was disgusted with the antics of Chretien et al.

We are not all things to all people. If you lean left in the Liberal hegemony then go left. If you are centre of the road then come to us.

Anonymous said...

And Cherniak represents the Liberal Party of Canada with his blog?

I think not, and Jason would be the first to agree.

Anonymous said...

Did I miss something? Jeff Davidson has an opinion that matters on any issue? he is a fool...case closed!

Jeff said...

His thesis is that Christian Conservative's views must be that of the party and of Ms. Kovach.

my first post asks why the president of the guelph big tent party needs to hide his identity. his religious beliefs aren't the issue.

your premise suggests that all christians oppose gay marriage and support prescott's assertion that bill C-38 leads to the prosecution of churches.

many straight christians support bill C-38 and many homosexuals are christians.

is kovach aware that prescott writes anonymously? is she concerned that his blatant efforts to pose as a casual observer through his blog appears deceptive?

does she share her president's views? it's a fair question given kovach's involvement in social conservative groups.

the next post looks at prescott's views on global warming. he has stated that he is skeptical of cliamte change and might believe that the earth is actually cooling.

this is not the official position of his party. does kovach share his views?

prescott has been deliberately aloof about his identity at his blog. in fact, he has been rather misleading.

several posts attempt to suggest that he is merely a casual observer from outside the guelph area.

why all the secrecy?

if the CPoC is such a big tent party, why does the prsident of the guelph conservative party feel he can't express his views openly?

AnonymousCoward said...

Jeff,

I matched your comments with mine. Paragraph by paragraph.

Likely for the same reason many other bloggers choose to hide their identity.

My premise suggests nothing of the sort.

Of course many Christians have different views on abortion and sex. Christianity covers many different sects. It is a big tent religion.

I think he wants to be able to blog his views without people trying to tie them into Conservative Party policy.

You can ask her if she is pro-choice, for or against SSM marriage and other similar questions. She is a candiate and those are all fair questions. You shouldn't ask if she supports someone else's views. Be aware that on many of these issues she will respond with party policy though.

I don't really care what his views are on global warming, cooling, GHGs or whatever else. Those are his views.

Candidates are going to espouse the parties policies, not their views.

I haven't been reading him all that long, but that is very subjective anyway.

He blogs about Guelph issues a lot though. One would assume he from Guelph. At least I always did.

Again, not sure of the secrecy.

Again I would say it has less to do with policy differences and more to do with people trying to make his views as policy. Since he is the Guelph Conservative Party President his views will be construed by some in the MSM and bloggers like you as representative of Conservative policy. He may have started the blog before he become President as well.

Jeff said...

I think he wants to be able to blog his views without people trying to tie them into Conservative Party policy.

sorry. hard to swallow that. you can't have it both ways.

he has gone as far as stating his intentions to run as a MP. hiding behind a pseudonym when you have clear political apsirations is deceptive.

if the CPoC is a big tent party, surely he should have no fear from his own party for his beliefs.

what's far more likely is a concern that his evangelical views ( extreme in the view of many )won't be accepted by the mainstream.

once again, hiding his position in
the party is deceptive.

harper has worked hard to muzzle the social conservative element in the party.

prescott exemplifies this fact in spades.

AnonymousCoward said...

I think he wants to be able to blog his views without people trying to tie them into Conservative Party policy.

sorry. hard to swallow that. you can't have it both ways.


Why? Why can't a member of a political party hold some views that are not in sync with their party?

he has gone as far as stating his intentions to run as a MP. hiding behind a pseudonym when you have clear political apsirations is deceptive.
Well he isn't running as an MP so what is your point? I want to one day be an MP, can I not blog anonymously?

if the CPoC is a big tent party, surely he should have no fear from his own party for his beliefs.

You're starting to lose me here. I don't think he fears his party, he fears people like trying to attack the CPC because of HIS policy beliefs.

what's far more likely is a concern that his evangelical views ( extreme in the view of many )won't be accepted by the mainstream.
People don't understand extreme. He religious views don't scare me. I don't agree with them, but they don't scare me. I sometimes wonder why people are afraid of religion. I mean, if someone wants to live their life by the 10 commandments I think there are worse things.

once again, hiding his position in the party is deceptive.
You missing my point, he isn't blogging as the President of the Guelph Conservative party, he is blogging as Christian Conservative. They don't have to be the same. It isn't as if he is an MP or a paid staffer.

harper has worked hard to muzzle the social conservative element in the party.
Well because people like you are scared by people with strong moral fiber and put their trust in god instead of the Liberal Party of Canada. Again, someone's personal beliefs does not a party policy make. Take for instance abortion. We all know many CPC'er are pro-life. Tell me, what is the CPC policy on abortion? Why, its not to introduce or support any legislation dealing with it. See personal beliefs that are different then policy.

prescott exemplifies this fact in spades.
Christian Conservative exemplifies someone who just wants to talk on a soap box. That's why we all blog about politics. We are passionate, and we want to debate it. And again, he has his picture on his blog, how much of a secret can he be trying to hide?