By Gudrun Schultz and Steve Jalsevac
OTTAWA, Canada, November 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s Conservative federal government has followed through on a promise to re-open the same-sex 'marriage' debate, announcing Tuesday that discussion on the issue will begin December 6.
There will be a vote in the House of Commons before the Christmas break, the government confirmed. The vote will not address the existing legislation, but will likely ask MPs if they would support repealing or amending the law, the Canadian Press reported earlier today.
During the election campaign one year ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised that if elected he would hold a free vote in Parliament on re-opening the issue of same-sex 'marriage'.
It remains to be seen what the result will be from the intense lobbying by pro-marriage Canadians and organizations and pro-marriage MPs of their fellow MPs in recent months. While the general consensus is that the Conservative motion is unlikely to pass, some pundits predict it could still be a close vote.
Pro-marriage leaders are asking supporters to intensify their communications to uncommitted or opposed MPs in the remaining few days and to encourage every pro-marriage MP to follow through and vote for the motion.
Some Liberal MPs who have consistently voted for traditional marriage are waffling on their support for the upcoming motion and are claiming the Tories are playing politics with the issue. Constituents are being told by these Liberal MPs that the motion is a dishonest political strategy by the Tories to evade their election promises on marriage.
However, all Canadian pro-marriage groups are strongly urging Members of Parliament to vote for the motion. The groups consider the upcoming Conservative motion to in fact be no more or less than what the party has been promising all along. There is some suspicion that the waffling pro-marriage Liberal MPs are themselves playing politics with the issue and perhaps trying to curry favour with party leadership candidates who all favour same-sex ‘marriage’.
|