Devout Liberal MPs are appalled by their party's attempt to demonize the Conservatives as a bunch of extreme religious zealots and are urging Prime Minister Paul Martin to repudiate the "inappropriate" and "hypocritical" election tactic, The Canadian Press has learned.
For Toronto MP John McKay, the tactic is "antithetical to everything I believe as a Liberal."
"Either we think that we have an inclusive notion of pluralism in this country where we accept people based upon their religion or we are hypocrites," he said in an interview. "I just think it has no place in Canadian politics and, in addition to being offensive ideologically, it is just plain stupid politics."
McKay is one of a number of devout Liberal MPs who were horrified to discover their party last month commissioned a pre-election poll asking Ontarians if they'd be more or less likely to vote for the Conservatives if they knew the party had been "taken over by evangelical Christians."
McKay, who is a member of an evangelical church, estimated that between 10 and 20 per cent of his fellow Liberal MPs share "evangelical sympathies." Among those with strong religious beliefs is Martin himself, a devout Catholic who makes a point of attending church every Sunday, even when he is travelling.
Steven MacKinnon, the Liberals' deputy national director, has defended the polling question, insisting Liberals are not attacking the religious beliefs of Conservatives or their leader, Stephen Harper. Rather, he maintains the Liberals are trying to expose the Conservatives' "social conservatism" and their predilection for "blurring the lines between church and state."
Harper, however, has accused the Liberals of religious "bigotry" and contends the question is a "push poll," intended to plant the impression in respondents' minds that the Conservative party is full of scary extremists.
Toronto Liberal MP Paul Szabo agrees.
"The question isn't appropriate . . . It's a leading question of sorts and it's judgmental about a whole group of people," he said in an interview. "It's very narrow and it's derogatory. It's crossing a line and it's not necessary."
Moreover, Szabo said it's offensive to the many Liberals such as himself who are "people of faith" and who share evangelical Christians' socially conservative views on moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
This is not the first time the Liberals have used religion as a campaign cudgel. During the 2000 election, the party poked fun at the fundamentalist Christian beliefs of Stockwell Day, then leader of the Canadian Alliance which has now joined with the Progressive Conservatives to form the new Conservative party.
McKay said the tactic caused him "a few awkward moments . . . where I had to explain why my party, the party of inclusion and tolerance and acceptance and equality, was doing (that)."
To some degree, Day invited scrutiny by openly declaring his religious beliefs and courting those who shared them. But McKay said Harper "has not played that card" and, hence, the Liberals risk a much bigger backlash this time if they try to make an issue of his religion.
Jim Karygiannis, another Toronto Liberal and a self-described pro-life member of the Greek Orthodox church, said any Canadian citizen is entitled to run for Parliament, regardless of religious affiliation. He said implying that evangelical Christians make bad politicians is akin to saying someone like Monia Mazigh, a Muslim NDP candidate, shouldn't run because she wears a hijab.
Dennis Mills, the Toronto Liberal MP who organized the Pope's visit to the Ontario capital two years ago, said he doesn't understand why the party commissioned the poll.
"Just because a person has strong faith doesn't make him or her a scary person," he said, predicting that Martin will put a stop to the tactic because "he's a man of faith himself."
Socially conservative Liberals have gained influence since Martin took over the party from Jean Chretien. Several, such as Albina Guarnieri and Joe Volpe, have been promoted from the backbench into cabinet while others, including McKay, Karygiannis and Dan McTeague, have been named parliamentary secretaries.
McKay said evangelical Christians account for 10 to 12 per cent of the Canadian population but have historically never voted as a block for any particular party. The one way to turn them into a voting block, he maintained, is "by attacking a leader based upon his or her religion."
'Those are no-go zones and if the big brains in pollster politics . . . haven't figured that out then I've got to question whether they've got any brains at all," he said.
Szabo said a number of devout Liberal MPs have aired their concerns with "the right people" in the party and have been assured the targetting of Conservatives on religious grounds will go no further.
McKay said he too has received assurances but added: "I'll just have to see whether those assurances are worth anything."