Yeehaw! Time to debate that thar same-sexin' stuff.
This is the week all the funda-mental cases have been waiting for: on Wednesday, the Harper government will waste more taxpayers' money by opening a debate on same-sex marriage, an issue that for most Canadians has long been a done deal. The debate isn't even about equal marriage itself, but rather on whether the SSM issue should be revisited, debated and voted on in parliament. A fucktacular waste of time, the debate is just a bone that Harper can throw to the fundies and say "Promise made, promise kept".
The debate will go exactly nowhere. When the vote to reopen the issue is taken on Thursday it's expected to hit the floor with a resounding thud, as the outnumbered Tories are shut down by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc, almost all of whom will vote against it. So the done deal will once again be a re-done deal.
Or not. How will the social conservatives, for whom this issue seems more important than life itself, react when the vote goes down in flames? Give up and put it to rest? Ha. One should never underestimate the tenacity of the religious right on this issue. When the vote fails, they'll regard it as just another battle in the war on liberal moral decay, recoup and plan future strategies.
Which is why Harper's wasting everyone's fucking time on bullshit that he knows won't go anywhere: it's electioneering. This particular issue energizes the so-cons like no other, with the possible exception of abortion. The failed vote will graphically show the pitfalls of a minority government; every Sunday from that day forward the pulpit pounders will be screaming that God wants Harper to have a majority, and the tory faithful will give their all to make it happen. Which should be scary to anyone on the side of equal rights for all Canadians, but scarier still because these people wouldn't stop at marriage. Given that they regard minority rights as "special rights", you can bet there's a lot more on the line than that.
The debate will go exactly nowhere. When the vote to reopen the issue is taken on Thursday it's expected to hit the floor with a resounding thud, as the outnumbered Tories are shut down by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc, almost all of whom will vote against it. So the done deal will once again be a re-done deal.
Or not. How will the social conservatives, for whom this issue seems more important than life itself, react when the vote goes down in flames? Give up and put it to rest? Ha. One should never underestimate the tenacity of the religious right on this issue. When the vote fails, they'll regard it as just another battle in the war on liberal moral decay, recoup and plan future strategies.
Which is why Harper's wasting everyone's fucking time on bullshit that he knows won't go anywhere: it's electioneering. This particular issue energizes the so-cons like no other, with the possible exception of abortion. The failed vote will graphically show the pitfalls of a minority government; every Sunday from that day forward the pulpit pounders will be screaming that God wants Harper to have a majority, and the tory faithful will give their all to make it happen. Which should be scary to anyone on the side of equal rights for all Canadians, but scarier still because these people wouldn't stop at marriage. Given that they regard minority rights as "special rights", you can bet there's a lot more on the line than that.
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