"Fuck you and fuck your father," actor Harvey Fierstein shouted at Reagan's son Michael on Bill Maher's old TV talk show Politically Incorrect when the discussion turned to Ronald Reagan's mishandling of AIDS.

I wish I could say something similar to Stephen Harper, the odious leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who has cosmopolitan Canadians coast to coast recoiling in horror. The man is more than two cocktail olives short of a dry martini.

And Harper needs a gay fashion consultant badly: When I spotted the guy in some God-awful shirt on the campaign trail last week, I couldn't help but observe that my great aunt has kitchen curtains made of the same material.

But it isn't Harper's disastrous fashion sense that's so offensive. It's his blandness and refusal to whip his backroom boys into shape that disturbs me most. "The danger in having sexual orientation just listed [in Canada's newly-amended hate propaganda law] - that encompasses, for example, pedophiles," Tory MP Cheryl Gallant snorted just the other day. "I believe that the caucus as a whole would like to see it repealed."

Harper - who is reportedly being counselled daily over the phone by former PM Brian Mulroney, who attended Reagan's state funeral last week - didn't even rap Gallant on the knuckles. If I was Tory leader, though, I would have whupped Gallant upside the head.

When Harper himself actually declared the term "sexual orientation" is "legally vague" before telling reporters a couple days later that the term isn't even included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Liberal MPs and the press began pressing Harper on his views about gay civil rights.

Tory supporters then took to heckling journalists asking Harper gay-related questions at press conferences. A June 3 Conservative rally in Guelph nearly ended in fisticuffs when Tory supporters attacked two gay activists.

"Gay and lesbian Canadians are under attack by the Conservative Party," said Alex Munter, former Ottawa city councillor and co-chair of Canadians for Equal Marriage. "First they say they would override our Charter protection against discrimination so they can take away our right to civil marriage. Then Mr. Harper makes jokes after a gay man is punched before his eyes at a Conservative rally. Now they want to change the law to deny us protection against hate crimes. What's next?"

I'll tell you what's next.

Electing goons like the Tories will give moral force to the homophobes who spray-painted "fag" on the back door and wall of openly gay Liberal marquee candidate Glen Murray's campaign headquarters in Winnipeg.

Murray used to wear a bulletproof vest to public functions when he was the mayor of Winnipeg. I wonder what he's wearing now.

All I know is Harper better wear waterproof duds - though he isn't worth my spit - if he dares attend any Gay Pride events taking place across Canada in the days leading up to the nation's June 28 federal election.

Liberal PM Paul Martin, meanwhile, has so far avoided attending Pride events like the plague, even though there is nowhere left for him to turn.

"Three of the highest courts in the land [in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia] have said that discrimination on the grounds of sex in terms of the definition of marriage is against the Charter of Rights," Martin announced June 5 in St-John's, Newfoundland, in a bid to secure the pink vote. "It is absolutely a question of human rights, and under those circumstances there is no way that anybody should be allowed to discriminate or prevent same-sex marriage."

That same day, though, veteran anti-gay Liberal MP Tom Wappel (why oh why didn't Martin rid the party of the insufferable Wappel instead of Sheila Copps?) predicted an expected parliamentary free vote on same-sex marriage next year will be defeated. But will it, even if Harper doesn't become prime minister? Will such a vote be defeated if the pro-gay Bloc Québécois and NDP play kingmaker?

It's much too close to call, much like the election.

In the last federal election I voted Conservative for the first time in my life, not because I supported the Progressive Conservative Party platform but mainly because I wanted then-Tory leader Joe Clark to get a respectable percentage of the Canadian vote. I trusted Joe and he rewarded my vote by accepting to be Grand Marshall of Calgary's Gay Pride parade the following summer.

This year I am planning to vote for the NDP for the first time ever, and not because Jack Layton makes a point of regularly attending Pride parades across the country. Rather - and I think this is the real reason why the Liberals are doing so badly in the polls - it's simply time for a change.

But I can and will change my mind again if Prime Minister Paul Martin attends just one Gay Pride event anywhere in Canada next week.

Shake my hand - at least figuratively - Mr. Martin, and you'll earn my vote.

 
 

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Egale calls for Strategic Voting     PRESS RELEASE STOP THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY ROLLBACK OF CHARTER PROTECTION Egale calls for Strategic Voting Ottawa, June 16, 2004. "Conservative candidates have said that homosexuality is unnatural, that gays and lesbians should seek counseling to change their sexual orientation, and that we should be denied hate crimes protection," said Gilles Marchildon, Executive Director of Egale Canada. "The Conservative caucus has voted almost unanimously against every single measure to advance gay and lesbian equality. Not only does Stephen Harper say he will introduce legislation to take away civil marriage from gay and lesbian Canadians, he says the Charter doesn't protect gay and lesbian Canadians from discrimination at all." "We have never done this before, but this election calls for drastic measures to ensure that all Canadians are protected," said Mr. Marchildon. "Egale calls on Canadians to protect the Charter by voting strategically against Team Harper." "Canada is a constitutional democracy, but Team Harper wants to change that," said Laurie Arron, Director of Advocacy for Egale Canada. "Mr. Harper and his party believe that Parliament should not be accountable to an independent judiciary. They are open to using the notwithstanding clause to ride roughshod over Charter rights and freedoms. Even worse, Mr. Harper is on record as saying he wants to appoint Supreme Court judges who will defer to Parliament rather than uphold Charter rights and freedoms." "Canada's Supreme Court is recognized as one of the best and brightest courts in the world," added Mr. Arron. "Canadians rely on our Supreme Court to keep a watchful eye over Parliament. Canadians do not want the Supreme Court's credibility undermined by the appointment of judges who will rubber stamp whatever laws Parliament sees fit to pass.
Pink Panther	{2 votes}	June 17th, 2004
Three Dollar Bill & dancing on the Gipper grave     "I rejoiced when Ronald Reagan - who abdicated his leadership in the fight against AIDS in the early 1980s and allowed so many to die - died himself earlier this month."--Richard Burnett. Well, that was in unbelievable poor taste. Even now, months after the fact, I marvel at this classless comment. And I didn't even like Ronald Reagan. Reagan allowed many vile things to happen during his presidency, so much so that to list them all would exhaust me and you both so let us just take as a given that Reagan did a lot worth hating. He also did a lot worth not hating but how you measure his contribution to the world is entirely up to you. I have no deep love for the man or his family but I am, unfortunately, intimately acquainted with the illness that ravaged him mind and then his body. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Frankly, any disease that strikes at the body like cancer is preferable in my eyes than one that strips you of your memories and your identity. I understand Burnett's sentiment but to dance on any man's grave regardless of who they were or what they did is low.
Pedro Eggers	{1 vote}	December 17th, 2004
Paul Martin & Tom Wappell     "Why oh why didn't Paul Martin rid the party of Tom Wappell"??? Why didn't Jean Chretien get rid of Rosanne Skokes, or Joe Clark get rid of Elsie Wayne?? No balls, I guess.
Lorne Brown	{1 vote}	June 22nd, 2004

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