Marci MacDonald who wrote the 2006 article:Â Stephen Harper and the Theocons for The Walrus is working on a book:
The prospect that, with a majority, Harper might feel free to translate his fundamentalist Christian principles into legislation scares people who are wary of the party’s attraction for the Christian right.
“That’s the big question,” said Toronto author Marci McDonald, who is writing a book on what she calls the “theo-cons” – evangelicals, conservative Catholics and orthodox Jews – who she’s documented have helped bring Harper to power.
“They are there – they are all over his government,” she said. In cabinet, in the PMO, in the candidates running under the Tory banner, “he may have muzzled his far right, but he hasn’t eliminated them.”
In the end, “it matters less where Harper himself stands, than on what he owes to this constituency, because they will be demanding,” McDonald said.
“They very meekly sat through the 2006 election and the last two years, not speaking to the press, not venturing anything. But they expect payback.”
Jeff Heinrich of CanWest looks at the evangelical vote in Canada and the sense of urgency from neo-pentecostal groups such as 4MyCanada to get out the youth vote for The Conservative Party. (Jeff: The CM&A is not a sect, it is a mainstream denomination) . Many evangelicals do not plan to automatically check off their conservative candidate on vote day and Heinrich points that out. Evangelical vote must be ‘significant force’ on Oct. 14, says youth group4MyCanada is third wave/apostolic, known for it’s attempts to make itself heard in Canada, it’s leader Faye Kystow is affiliated with the National House of Prayer in Ottawa. She holds to the same fringe break off neo-charismatic ideology which supports disgraced ‘evangelist’ Todd Bentley and is often called Third Wave. They also have ties to C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation which has been receiving attention in the US.
While the evangelical vote (3%Â of faith groups in Canada) is not monolithic, many evangelicals feel like persecuted outsiders and may drift to promises of social conservatism from any party.
