Remember the PM Martin is responsible for the death of homeless people claim...anyways, MP Layton rants so well in the Toronto Star today you might confuse him for a blogger. (via Norman's Spectator) While I disagree with his assesment of those trying to protect marriage as extremists, if you concede that point the rest flows pretty logically.
...As the last election wound down, Paul Martin urged New Democrats to vote Liberal in order to protect the Charter of Rights from the Conservatives. Many put aside anger over Liberal corruption and voted out of fear rather than hope.
It is the favourite Liberal election theme.They have no qualms about running on social moderation with extremists as candidates. But as Martin's recent threat to call an election over the Charter shows, today's Liberals are not who they tell us.
You know, if I were a New Democratic I would be frustrated about this as well. As they (NDPers) the Liberals campaign left and govern right (if only).
...It is time Martin took responsibility for his rhetoric, and stopped playing politics with human rights. If equal marriage is about protecting the Charter, it should not be a free vote for Liberal MPs. Protecting the Charter cannot be important
enough to go the polls over, yet inconsequential enough to allow Liberal MPs to join Harper in trampling over its protections.
After all, Martin spent a good part of June saying how vital it was to stop Harper's attack on the Charter. He did not tell people that a third of the Liberals elected would agree with Harper. Martin now has an obligation to ensure Liberal MPs vote in accordance with the values he portrayed, wrongly, as theirs.
Within the Liberal caucus are MPs who call for the notwithstanding clause to be invoked, and who voted against including sexual orientation in the Human Rights Act. They have fought lesbian and gay equality for a decade.
During that time, a Liberal majority government did not see Charter rights as sacred. It consistently appealed court rulings on such basic issues as allowing pension rights to same-sex couples. Given this history and a caucus packed with MPs opposed to equality, Martin owes us more than hyperbole about human rights.
...The Prime Minister has fought one election and threatened another around the Charter of Rights. He said Liberals agreed on protecting its rights, and he is now obliged to present the same stark choice to them that he gave to Canadians. In June, he asked Canadians to choose their Canada, and now it is time to tell Liberal MPs to choose theirs.
MP Layton, see the last article I quoted from Mr. MacDonald. "...Martin will say, and do, anything to remain in power".
