Probably just alot more ignorance out here, Global did a special not too long ago about racism in Calgary... it was rather disturbing...
We have our fair share of rednecks out here. :/
Of course! Alberta is your Texas, after all...
Back to the marriage issue, though... the latest news --
MPs not expected to reopen same-sex marriage debate
Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, September 11, 2006
OTTAWA -- When MPs rise in the House of Commons this fall to cast votes on whether to revisit Canada's same-sex marriage law, they are widely expected to put the issue to rest with the majority voting no.
The Bloc and NDP have both decided to vote as parties against reopening debate, a strong majority of Liberals are expected to take the same position and even a sizeable number of Conservatives have either publicly stated their intentions to vote no or are musing they may do so because they think it's time to turn their attention to other issues.
"I do think there's a general feeling that it is time to move on," said Gerald Keddy, a Nova Scotia Conservative MP who was one of four Tories to side with the Liberal government's 2005 legislation legalizing gay marriage. "I believe that people will not vote to reopen debate. There are a number of my colleagues who may not have changed their position on samegender marriage, but are really satisfi ed that the debate has been thorough and the debate is over." Interest groups on both sides in the contentious debate have been lobbying MPs through the summer and trying to assess the outcome of the vote the minority Parliament.
With all 79 Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats vowing to vote against reviving the issue, along with at least 11 Conservatives thus far, the No forces need only 60 of 102 Liberals onside and the vast majority of that party is expected reject the government's motion.
In fact, there are approximately 27 undecideds or gay-marriage opponents in the 101-member Liberal caucus, and even if they all voted to reopen the issue it would still not be enough.
"At this moment, we're cautiously optimistic the majority would vote against reopening," said Gilles Marchildon, executive director of Egale Canada, a same-sex rights group that pushed hard for the marriage law.
"That's our math." In June 2005, the House of Commons voted 158-133 to legalize gay marriage. Marchildon predicted the outcome will be similar this time around, despite the fact that Parliament was reconfi gured by the last election.
On the other side of the issue, supporters of the traditional defi nition of marriage have formed coalition and say they have been lobbying parliamentarians all summer in an effort to persuade dozens of undecided MPs and newcomers since the last election to vote to reopen debate.
Gay-marriage opponent Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of the group Real Women, acknowledged the nature of the motion could prove daunting.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised on the first day of the winter election campaign to table a motion on whether the law should be revisited. In the event of a yes vote, the Conservatives would craft legislation revoking samesex marriage.
"It's a different kind of vote -- it's whether you want to reopen the debate, not whether you're in favour of same-sex marriage -- and that changes the whole dynamic," Landolt said.
"Some of them are afraid of the issue; some of them don't want to get into it when there is going to be another election, certainly in the spring or summer of next year, and they don't want to be caught up in it." Opposition parties and legal scholars have said that Harper would have to invoke the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to revoke gay marriage because several Canadian courts have already declared that it is a right.
Link.
Freedom 1, Social Right 0
