Dennis Gruending, a journalist and former MP who keeps an eye on the rising influence of religion in politics in Canada outlines four reasons why he believes Canada’s religious right is ascending.

I’d encourage my US friends who study various fundamentalist groups in the US to give him a serious look. I think he has an astute eye and keen ear for the various currents running though this country, and an awareness and less dismissive curiousity of alliances most of us don’t think can succeed in Canada.

Like Mr. Gruending I don’t think Canada’s religious right are kinder and gentler in their approach, that belief is a construct we like to place on ourselves; the same economics, the same zeal and the same organizing skills exist here as they do in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Some researchers argue that religious conservatives in Canada are gentler and less political than their political cousins south of the border. Others contend that religious conservatives spread their vote among political parties and that even if they didn’t, there are not enough of them to make that much of a difference in the voting booth. Political scientist Jonathon Malloy of Carleton University is among those who make that argument. It’s time to revisit certain of these assumptions. Religious conservatives may account for only a minority of Canada’s voters and they are distributed among diverse denominations. But groups that are organized and committed can have a significant impact on public life, particularly in an era of fractured parliaments and minority governments.

I began paying a lot more attention to religious themes in Canadian culture when Marci McDonald came out with her 2006 Walrus piece: Steven Harper and the Theocons. Shortly after that, Chris Hedges, (author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the war on America) participated in a debate with our ‘out front’ religious right Canadian, Charles McVety. The debate took place at the University of Toronto, and was not covered by traditional media. It was however, well attended, noticed by conservative radio personalities and from what I read, McVety supporters were in attendance if for no other reason than to be a cheering section.
I was left asking myself why Hedges was worth of their attention, the debate was not staged for the benefit of our neighbours to the south, or merely to peddle Hedges book.

Gruending looks at Elections Canada snapshots, the growing co-operation between Catholics and conservative evangelicals on social hot button issues (homosexuality, abortion, child-care etc,) and connects the dots. He looks at the rapid growth of religious lobby groups in Canada:

A third indicator of growing influence is the expanding network of advocacy and lobby groups aimed at influencing public policy and changing the intellectual climate in Canada. Many of these groups have come into being in the past four or five years. In Ottawa they include: the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (mentioned above); (BD - Focus on the Family) the Institute for Canadian Values; (BD- Charles McVety) the National House of Prayer (BD- a joint effort of Community Baptist Church members from BC, Watchman for the Nations, The Miracle Channel etc. to not only pray but train evangelicals on political approach) and 4 My Canada, (neo-pentecostal, restorationist zionism) a self-described religiously conservative youth group. One can add to this Ottawa-based list a variety of other organizations across the country: the Calgary-based Manning Centre for Building Democracy, the Work Research Foundation, Watchmen for the Nations; (BD- supports The Kansas City Prophets dominionist/restorationist/apostolic movement) the Centre for Cultural Renewal; the Christian Family Action Coalition, led by Reverend Charles McVety of Toronto; and a group called Equipping Christians for the Public-square Centre,(BD- T. Emmanuel objected to a critique of one of his opinion pieces in World Net Daily) a St. Catharines-based organization that describers its members as “apologists for social conservative Christians.”

Where is this going? I agree with Gruending we don’t know.
I do know for those of us with an ear to the ground, his voice is a welcome one.