By Michael Coren Opinion - Tues., Oct. 1, 2019   
      
      
   Why Andrew Scheer would be a dangerous prime minister   
      
      
   As a 60-year-old white man I didn’t feel enormously qualified to comment   
   about Justin Trudeau’s brown and blackface travesties when the story first   
   broke — though this didn’t seem to prevent countless others from becoming   
   overnight experts —    
   but I will say now that whatever their intention and however long ago, the   
   actions themselves were repugnant.   
      
   But here’s the thing. As much as I am revolted by what Trudeau did with his   
   blackface nonsense, I’m more concerned at the Conservatives’ whiteface   
   antics. That party’s approach to climate change policy, First Nations   
   issues, economic justice,    
   foreign affairs, social equality, and so much else is deeply disquieting.   
      
   Andrew Scheer was never supposed to be the leader, but was the final   
   “anybody but Bernier” candidate standing. The Tory war-room has spent most   
   of its time since then trying to morph the man into what he is not.   
      
   I’ve written before about Scheer’s deeply traditionalist Roman   
   Catholicism, and each time I do so, his people, and the many media figures who   
   claim neutrality but seem to be increasingly reactionary, have accused me of   
   being anti-Catholic. Which is    
   odd, in that I’m an almost daily communicant who believes in the real   
   presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.   
      
   As such, and unlike so many of my detractors, I know Scheer’s faith and his   
   beliefs.  It may well be that he will not reopen debates around abortion and   
   equal marriage — though I do think he will oppose assisted dying — but any   
   honest Ottawa-   
   watcher knows that there are myriad ways in which a prime minister can help   
   causes and movements without introducing specific legislation.   
      
      
   But one of the main reasons I have asked for Scheer to be honest about his   
   personal beliefs regarding same-sex marriage, conversion therapy, and abortion   
   is this: how would you feel if the leader of your country thought that you   
   were abnormal and could    
   be “cured,” that your marriage was a sham, and that your decision to   
   control your own reproduction was infanticide of murder?  Until Scheer   
   clarifies his stance on these subjects, I can only assume that his reticence   
   is due to the fact he still holds    
   to the orthodox Catholic teaching he has long embraced.   
      
   On foreign affairs, Justin Trudeau hasn’t pursued an especially ethical   
   policy, but remember that Scheer publicly supported Brexit, which was not only   
   entirely inappropriate for a foreign politician, but demonstrates his   
   appalling lack of judgment.   
      
   I spent the first half of my life in Britain, still spend much time there, and   
   write for several British publications. Brexit is the most damaging political   
   phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the Second World War, has led to   
   dangerous and potentially    
   violent divisions, will likely break the union with Scotland and Ireland, and   
   cause economic chaos.   
      
      
   On the Middle East, Scheer is naïve and also dreadfully one-sided, and seems   
   eager to encourage an increasingly oppressive Israeli government to behave in   
   any way it sees fit.  He will be a babe in the D.C. woods dealing with the   
   United States, and    
   while Trudeau often gave us platitudes about world affairs, I have never heard   
   Scheer say anything at all of any substance or meaning pertinent to Canada’s   
   foreign policy.  In fact, I’m genuinely worried at what would happen to our   
   international    
   standing under a Conservative administration.   
      
      
   This is a wretched election, with less discussion of authentic ideas and   
   policies than I can ever remember.   I certainly don’t blame Scheer for all   
   of that, although he is surely part of the problem, but the two leaders who   
   are trying to discuss the    
   issues, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh and Green Party leader Elizabeth May, are   
   routinely marginalized or ignored.   
      
   Predictions are never wise, but a minority Liberal government that was obliged   
   to include the NDP and Green Party in its cabinet would probably be the best   
   outcome for a country likely to face global economic recession, a tide of new   
   technology that will    
   eliminate long-held jobs, an unstable political system in the U.S., and the   
   possibility of war in the Middle East and South Asia.   
      
   Canada deserves better than what’s currently being offered, but sometimes we   
   have to hold our noses and make the least offensive choice possible.   
      
      
   http://104.236.16.159/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ONOG8248.jpeg   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)