I’ve been thinking about all the media attention and noise the minor Christian religious right in Canada has been making since The Conservative Party national executive ruled that candidates must be in place in each riding in the country for the next election earlier this year. 
Prior to this nomination scramble political voices were heard regarding Bill C-38 along with lobby groups that agree such as the Canadian satellite of the Focus on the Family. Ties do exist with the Dobson empire in the US, including board members and and 1.6 million donated from the US organization between 2000 and 2003.  

REAL Women of Canada, the Canadian ideological equivalent of the US Eagle Forum (anti feminism) in the US is an anti-feminist pro family group.
Campaign Life is a pro-life group in Ontario that has supported and started the  Family Coalition Party   They have been operating since 1987 and have not won a seat in the legislature. They hold similar ideologies to their federal counterpart.
Campaign Life operates the online media site - LifeSite News out of New York State, covering Canada’s  pro life movement and other Canadian/religious topics, mostly - but not limited to - Catholic interests. 

The above chart from Wikipedia  represents the votes received by Christian Heritage Party candidates in the last several federal elections. The party was founded in Ontario in 1987, and advocates governing Canada “according to the inspired, inerrant Word of God.”

Most evangelical and protestant denominations in Canada see the Word of God (bible) as infallible, not inerrant. The Christian Heritage Party is socially and fiscal conservative and lost it’s standing in the 2000 federal election because it wasn’t able to field the required 50 candidates. The CHP stated goal is to “apply proven Judeo-Christian principles of justice and compassion to Canada’s contemporary public policy needs”, and therefore claims to represent all Christians in Canada.  They claim they are not interested in converting Canadians, and say they acknowledge Christians are members of or serve in all federal parties. The Christian Heritage platform is:

• pro-life
• against same sex marriage advocates mothers (or fathers - a parent remaining home raising children) and out of the work place
• strong supporters of the US war in Iraq
• believe that God (mentioned in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms preamble) is the Judeo-Christian God

The beliefs are often labelled dominionist, fundamentalist, theocratic and a newer and more accurate term coined by Kevin Phillips - Christianophobic.

There are two main umbrella groups representing conservative or evangelical interests in Canada, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada founded in 1964, with 140 affiliated denominations, ministries and educational interests. About 1,000 local churches across Canada are also members. The goal under prior presidents was to foster co-operation in Canada’s political and social interests.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is well known to Canadian media and has a publication called Faith Today. It also operates the website Christianity.ca to promote public awareness. The site is similar to US religious commercial and media sites such as Crosswalk and other US church and parachurch sites, is established and respected.

While the political parties and adjunct groups lobbied during Bill - 38 and will probably do so in the 2006 fall session as the Conservatives put the vote motion on the floor; there are  groups and people that agree with some of the issues, but are publicly at arms length from the mainstream orthodox and ethical groups.
About 3 million people in Canada call themselves evangelicals and are more pluralistic than the 60 - 90 million in the US. It is not known how many evangelicals - while agreeing on some basic issues - would succumb to fear based single issue voting in Canada.

the Evangelical Association - founded in Winnipeg in 1963 by Charles McVety’s father. As of 1998 it claimed 10,000 persons involved in churches and ministries led by its 350 ordained and licensed members. Members must be fundamentalists, meet board approval and complete courses at Canadian Christian College.
The man currently grabbing  media attention is Charles McVety, an independent pentecostal who puts fundal in fundamentalist. He is President of a private college in Toronto, and well connected with extreme groups in the US such as James Kennedy, Vision America, Focus on the Family’s political arm, The Family Research Council. He owns a mirror college in Florida and runs several Canadian websites. He is becoming well known for his media appearances, verbal skills and attacks.  I doubt I’ve listed all his friends and affiliates within the religious right movement south of the border. Here are a few of his current sites:

Canadian Christian College
Canadian College of Christian Counsellors
Word.ca (TV show)

Institute for Canadian Values - is this the Canadian affiliate of  Traditional Values Coalition run by extremist Lou Sheldon?
Christians United for Israel  - Canadian affiliate of Texan John Hagees Christian Zionism movement
DefendMarriage Canada - A McVety original, regarding Bill C-38. Closely watched by Canadian gay activists
Canada Family Action Coalition  founded 1997 Goals: To mobilize, train and activate Canadians in defending and promoting Judeo-Christian principles in Canadian society 

• homosexuals have no right to marriage
• charge heterosexual couples who marry for the tax break
• against sex education in school

McVety has made a lot of public claims, lists degrees from his two colleges and a  college in Korea. He has made it very clear with his prior opposition to Liberal candidates (and now Conservatives) that he is going to keep politicizing his base. In a recent interview he claimed to have 4 hundred thousand people on a list that support his causes. He also lists himself as an author  of Victory Guaranteed.  He was discovered cyber-squatting in 2005 (buying up Liberal candidate names as URL’s) His TV show on The Miracle Network (which was approved by the CRTC after a failed attempt because of it’s connections to TBN in the US) is aired on Sundays.

Another is lobby group is Concerned Christians Canada out of Calgary. Craig Chandler, and head of Freedom Radio Network, (freetospeak.ca) is a member. the CCC is affiliated with Sky Angel - a multi million dollar media empire in the US run by Marcus Lamb.
They are supporting Steven Boisson, a former national director of Concerned Christians Canada after a complaint was filed by Dr. David Lund regarding a letter by Boisson to local media. Lund is claiming hate speech. More here.

Equipping Christians for the Public Square is also media savvy, well organized and connected, and is run by Rev. Tristan A. Emmanuel. He is an author who has unsuccessfully run for office with The Christian Heritage Party and the Family Coalition Party of Ontario. Emmanuel has been involved in a number of issues including defending teacher and Christian Heritage BC candidate Chris Kempling. He has echoed Franklin Grahams statements about Muslims, criticized the Pope and US President George Bush for accepting Islam and Islamic culture and said gays and lesbians are deviants.

In 2003 Emmanuel organized a “Canadians for Bush” rally in support of the Iraq War. Emmanual peddled his book at an extremist Vision America conference in Washington, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre. Christophobia: The Real Reason Behind Hate Crime Legislation.

CBC News Indepth: Evangelicals, Canadian Conservatism

Exclusive Brethren are a secretive off shot and sect that have come to the attention of political parties in Australia, the US, New Zealand, the UK and Canada since a change of leadership in 2002. Previously shunning the world, a few members in Canada were behind an aggressive and well organized campaign swamping MP’s with emails regarding Bill- 38 (not unlike the behavior of Don Wildemon’s American Family Association)

There are groups and individuals that I know I have left out - and I hope as people read this, more information will be provided. I have room on this blog for each political group, lobby group, issue group and individuals  to give them their own pages. It’s a big task for one person, so if you can fill in information and source it, that would be terrific.

I am an evangelical, and I am centrist in my political leanings; aware that people don’t understand a lot of religious, political and theological terminology, nor do they have the time to learn it. We all know how well agendas can be spoken in coded or soothing language, and our understanding of the evangelicals is most often coloured by what we see in the behavior of televangelists and talk show hosts on TV.

I get irked when I see people bullied in God’s name, deceived, confused, misinformed and lied to and unable to make their own decisions because information is not easy to find.

I am impressed with the efforts of all kinds of groups in the US that provide readers on groups and leaders, beliefs and methods and how to engage effectively and would like to at least provide a bit for what we have going on in Canada in the hope others will pick this up.
I believe we have to learn to use language clearly and wisely because it is being used to further power bases and egos, no matter how small they may be. We can learn a great deal from our friends to the south who have faced religious right leaders, tactics and goals far longer than Canadians have. 
We can become desensitized to the theatre and noise and miss the reality that Jesus Christ gets used in power grabs.

As we move into the fall session of parliament, single issues could take centre stage. Whether they do or don’t many of these groups and others are preparing thier the next push for your attention as a voter.

If you have information, links, background, ideas - feel free to get in touch, your information and news will be appreciated.