Vancouver Province
for June 18, 1999

I was away for the best part of the "God" debate but distance often gives a good perspective. And what I saw was an excellent politician at work smoking out his political enemies and making them look like idiots.

Svend Robinson is not everyone’s bag. He is a blowhard, a showboater who flaunts his homosexuality less for the cause he says he serves than for the pleasure it gives him when his critics react so predictably. He throws himself into issues like Sue Rodriguez and dares you to question his motives. He dances off to Kosovo, knowing full well that the only cause that will be enhanced is his own. He is, in short, a gigantic pain in the ass.

But what a politician! Probably the most colourful in this province since Amor de Cosmos, the man named William Smith, who founded the Colonist newspaper, argued British Columbia into Confederation (for which he is unforgiven by many) and became our second premier. Robinson understands politics and he understands the media. No matter how angry he gets at me he volunteers himself as a guest at the slightest provocation. He is a master who knows that the value of an open microphone transcends all other considerations.

Let’s look at what the "God" issue did to the Reform Party of Canada, so subtly but so effectively.

Robinson presented a petition to Parliament from constituents objecting to the use of "God" in the constitution. (I would not dare speculate as to who might have put his constituents up to such a thing!) Then all, ahem, Hell broke loose. Petitions by the score with the names of thousands of outraged citizens popped up like mushrooms. The outrage was so great that his colleague Nelson Riis, who gets elected in Reform Party country and knows why, dumped all over him. Alexa McDonough publicly flayed Svend and banished him to the back row.

Before continuing, let me declare my prejudices – I’m a practicing Christian who agrees thoroughly with Robinson’s position. I don’t think Canada should declare itself subject to my God or anyone else’s. Though I believe that all nations are subject to God I have no right to make my beliefs conditions for other peoples’ citizenship.

But what Svend really accomplished (deliberately, no doubt) was to heighten the scary image given off by the Reform Party – the feeling that they’re going to reform all right and you and I will be the "reformees". Only a couple of Reform MPs got sucked in but that was enough to remind many people, who would otherwise vote for them, what it is about Preston Manning and thousands of his followers that scares the pants off them. It was a throwback to the Vander Zalm years when "Christian Principles" meant do it our way or the high way - and our way is God’s way.

Robinson knows what buttons to push with Reform supporters and they are two in number – homosexuality and Christianity, fundamentalist version. He knows from experience that when homosexuality is an issue, a tolerant statement of sorts will only be forced from the grim lips of Preston Manning after much pressure. He knows that intolerance is so much a part of so many Reform party followers that they can be counted on to rise to any bait.

What Robinson should have taught the Reform Party is that they still have a very serious image problem and that it’s this, more than anything else, that’s keeping them from breaking through east of the Lakehead.

Reform’s roots are in the Ted Byfield/Preston Manning sort of fundamentalism, which spawned the party in the first place. To Mr Byfield’s annoyance, as expressed from time to time in his right wing magazines, Mr Manning occasionally tries to break this mold. But he never quite makes it.

The Liberals, the Conservatives (who used to have Reform’s power base), and the NDP, all of whom have had devoutly religious leaders, are not seen as clerical in make-up or doctrine. Why is the Reform Party so different?

Svend Robinson just neatly provided us with the answer to that question - Reform’s followers will not let the party escape its roots.

Why would Svend Robinson risk his own party’s wrath for this ploy?

Because he knows the NDP aren’t going anywhere and that even if they were, he’s odd man out. To him, the enemy is the right wing and, boy-oh-boy, has he ever got their number!