A Right Proper Liberal Pharisee

According to this CTV report the current Prime Minister of Canada is duly warning the three opposition leaders that a failure to keep to his time table of when an election should be called is to risk offending religious groups by calling for an election during their religious holidays.

PUSAN, South Korea — Prime Minister Paul Martin warned the three opposition leaders today that they could offend religious and ethnic groups by forcing an election over the holiday season.

Martin told reporters en route to this port city for an Asian Pacific summit that the timetable he set for an election in March or April would allow Christians and Canadians of other religious faiths to celebrate their religious holidays without interruption from politicians knocking on their doors.

"When you are talking about the holiday season, there are also other religions that have different New Year's at different dates and their holidays at a different date and I think we have to be respectful of that -- the orthodox churches, for example," he said. "It's up to the opposition. I don't want a Christmas election."

Collapsed Catholic that I am, even I know that calling for a March/April election meanings campaigning in the midst of the holiest days of the ecclesiastical calendar for both the Roman & Eastern rite churches, and I would suspect the same would be true for the protestant churches as well.

I can’t claim to know who taught Paul Martin his Catholicism but obviously he failed to grasp that Lent through Easter triumphs Advent and Christmas. Though it is a pity that it is only after the Prime Minister has rammed his gay marriage legislation through parliament that he found concern for the religious sensibilities of others.

(Tipped off by Neale News)