John Stackhouse, religion professor at Regent College in Vancouver, is more direct: “My first reaction [upon hearing about the government's tax credit move] is if it came from Charles McVety, it’s probably a bad idea. He is usually going public in a way that I wish he wouldn’t.”Prof. Stackhouse said he shares many of Mr. McVety’s commitments to fundamentalist Christianity. He listed a number of topics - hate speech, corporate advertising, pornography - that he doesn’t believe should get government funds. However, in a free and pluralistic society, he said, the decision of what art is should be left to recognized artistic communities, not government staffers, even if that means offending one person or many people.”The only alternative is either ideologically correct art, which is just propaganda,” he said, “or banality.”

By pushing for this kind of change, Prof. Stackhouse said, Mr. McVety gives credence to the theory that conservative Christians, if given absolute control, will turn Canada into a purely conservative Christian nation.

“Charles McVety is the nightmare that the Liberals want us to worry about,” he said.

Charles McVety is not a Liberal Party nightmare, he is merely a bellicose politically savvy activist of fundamentalist evangelicals in Canada.
He inherited the position from his father and is very good at getting himself and his agenda in the public eye. He is involved in radio, TV, education, a magazine, the internet, grassroots activism, and plays media like a fiddle. Dr. Stackhouse is giving a political party way too much credit.  Charles McVety is zealous, organized, driven and is about pushing  divide and conquer, us/them, polarizing and politicizing.

I doubt The Liberal Party (NDP/Green/Bloq/PC) find ways to use McVety as a public showcase nightmare, Charles McVety is quite able to get media attention without any political party help.

Mr. Mackey estimated that Mr. McVety represents about 10 per cent of the country’s evangelical community - which spans both left- and right-wing ideologies.

In terms of his influence with the current Conservative government, I don’t think they ignore Charles McVety, but I think they will listen to other groups.”

Mr. Mackey said the evangelical activist often focuses on a different set of issues than the broader community, often in a more public way.

I sometimes will wonder if somebody is going after Charles McVety for a story and not others in the evangelical community because they like Charles’s facility with a colourful quote,” Mr. Mackey said. “And there might be others who are not as colourful but have something more substantial to say perhaps.”

The Globe and Mail

ar arr arrr! Another Rick Mercer classic From the desk of Stephen Harper