Liberals Seize On Anti-Gay Tory Remarks
by Martin O'Hanlon, Canadian Press
Posted: January 10, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET

(Ottawa) A Conservative candidate who actually believes Adam and Eve were sharing forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago is being criticized for controversial remarks about gay marriage.

The federal Liberals say comments by Rondo Thomas, who hopes to represent the Toronto-area riding of Ajax-Pickering, at a protest last February demonstrate "intolerant views about same-sex relationships and homosexuality."

The Liberals, desperate to reverse a Conservative surge in the polls by playing on voter doubts about Tory tolerance, released a video Tuesday showing Thomas speaking to supporters about the looming battle over same-sex marriage.

"There is going to be a clash of morality views between those who believe in righteousness and those who believe in immorality and when we collide there is going to be conflict," Thomas says.

"It doesn't matter what the media says, it doesn't matter what the government says - the facts don't count. We are going to win this conflict."

Despite the tough talk, a bill to legalize gay marriage passed the House of Commons in June, supported by a vast majority of MPs from all parties except the Conservatives.
Tory Leader Stephen Harper has said he would allow a free vote in the Commons on banning gay marriage.

Thomas, a pastor at the Toronto Christian Centre, also argues in the video that the definition of marriage can't be changed because it "has been in place since Adam and Eve - that's about 6,000 years ago for those that might not be aware."

The Tories and their Alliance and Reform predecessors have been stung many times by allegations of intolerance involving MPs and candidates, along with concerns about fundamentalist Christian social values.

During the 2000 election campaign, then-Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day was ridiculed for acknowledging he believed the world was 6,000 years old and that men walked with dinosaurs.

Science says Earth is more than four billion years old and that dinosaurs became extinct tens of millions of years before the first humans appeared.

The Conservatives, eager to win over moderate voters, have run a smooth, disciplined campaign this time around and the strategy appears to be working.

The party has vaulted ahead of the Liberals in the last week, with polls suggesting they led by up to 12 percentage points.

A man who answered the phone at Thomas's campaign office on Tuesday said the candidate wasn't available because he was dealing with "personal family problems."

The riding of Ajax-Pickering is currently held by Liberal Mark Holland who won by a commanding 7,000 votes out of 43,000 cast in the 2004 election.

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