Last night David, Judy and I went to see "Brokeback Mountain" on its first night in Saskatoon. It's a very moving and well done movie. Go see it!

Tory Candidate Who Opposes Gay Unions Whisked Away From Media
by The Canadian Press
Posted: January 19, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET

(Kitchener, Ontario)

Hidden agenda? It's more a case of hidden candidates.

Harold Albrecht, a Conservative hopeful known for his views against gay marriage, was hustled away from reporters and into a banquet-hall kitchen Thursday where handlers refused to bring him out.

``He's in a meeting,'' a Tory official insisted, pushing a swing-door closed as Albrecht stood next to empty dish racks in the kitchen.

The former pastor of the local Pathway Community Church resigned the position last fall after deciding to run in the southwestern Ontario riding of Kitchener-Conestoga.

Albrecht has been in the news for several letters decrying same-sex marriage that he wrote to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record.

``Nature alone points to the ridiculous `wisdom' of calling these relationships marriage,'' he said in 2003.

Such partnerships, if allowed to proliferate, ``would succeed in wiping out an entire society in just one generation,'' he added - a reference to the fact gay couples can't biologically procreate.
Albrecht has recently focused his comments to local media on his party's plans for a Federal Accountability Act, tax cuts, child care and shorter wait times for medical treatment.
Conservative campaign co-chairman John Reynolds shrugged off any suggestion that outspoken candidates are being muzzled.

``That's life,'' Reynolds said of Albrecht's hasty retreat.

Critics have also noted that another Tory candidate with socially conservative views, Cheryl Gallant, has been keeping a conspicuously low profile.

The Tory incumbent for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke veered wildly from the mainstream party line in 2004, much to the horror of controlling organizers.

She not only compared abortion to the beheading of an American contractor in Iraq, but also openly discussed how several Tories would like to roll back gay rights.

Gallant did not respond to repeated requests for an interview earlier this month.

Rob Merrifield, running for re-election in the Alberta riding of Yellowhead, also landed in hot water in the last campaign for remarks he made on abortion. Recent calls to his office for an interview were not returned.

Reynolds denied that Conservatives are shielding their candidates from public scrutiny.
But Harper made it clear after his defeat to the Liberals in 2004 that he would not tolerate lax discipline in future.

He promised in an interview three months after the last campaign to be a more ``severe judge'' of those who slip up.

``You expect members, if they're going to be on the team, to be on the team,'' he said. ``Some of what happened last time can't be repeated. And it won't be repeated.''

©365Gay.com 2006

If the Conservatives win the federal election on January 23, which is looking very likely, I hope that it will be a minority government and that the NDP will have a strong presence in the House of Commons.