Doug Collins, may he burn in hell, once wrote for the North Shore News.  During the 1990s whenever a federal election rolled around, people from outside the North Shore would smirk and say “Ted White will win again; North Vancouver is Doug Collins country”.  Well, no longer.  Collins is dead, White was defeated and the North Shore News is not quite the bastion of backwardness that it once was. 

 The worst the North Shore News can dish out these days is Trevor Lautens.  Lautens current cause de jour is transforming Cindy Silver from Christian fundamentalist dedicated to saving marriage from Adam and Steve to socially moderate, pluralist, dare I say, liberal.  He seems to want to be to Cindy Silver what Doug Collins was for Ted White. His efforts have not gone unappreciated; Silver at one time linked to the following article on her website.   http://www.nsnews.com/issues05/w013005/0212 05/opinion/021205op2.html" title="http://www.nsnews.com/issues05/w013005/0212 05/opinion/021205op2.html" target="_blank"http://www.nsnews.com/issues0...   In his most recent column, Lautens has enlisted the help of someone he "admires", Stockwell Day man Ezra Levant.  http://www.nsnews.com/issues05/w060605/0623 05/opinion/062305op2.html" title="http://www.nsnews.com/issues05/w060605/0623 05/opinion/062305op2.html" target="_blank"http://www.nsnews.com/issues0... 

If Levant’s name sounds familiar this why: In response to the Young Liberals take on gay marriage, “it’s the charter stupid” Ezra Levant, knowing how well Randy White’s interview went over last year, fired back “its the stupid charter”.  Martin has since offered Levant a cabinet post.

Silver is a lawyer, and according to Lautens, this means that she sometimes takes on unpleasant jobs; however such is the nature of beast; some lawyers must take unpleasant work to make the system work; our legal system is an adverseral one and we are all better for it.  So, she is a defense lawyer you ask.  No.  Pick your poison; Cindy is either a crusader in every sense of the word, or a hired gun in the employ of those wishing to break down the wall between state and religion.  When a child in Surrey was in danger of hearing that it is ok to have two moms “if they’re nice to you and if you like them”, Cindy did her best to see that the book was banned from the classroom.  The same went for One Dad Two Dads Brown Dads Blue Dads.  Yes the book is as innocuous as its title suggests.   When the UN advocated the use of “artificial methods of contraception” and “gender equality and homosexual rights”, Cindy was there to speak out against them.  http://www.fotf.ca/familyfacts/commentari es/070197.html" title="http://www.fotf.ca/familyfacts/commentari es/070197.html" target="_blank"http://www.fotf.ca/familyfact... 

When Adam and Steve wanted to get married, thereby imperiling marriage in some weird and unexplained way, Silver was there to “defend” it.

 So, you say. Sliver is but one of candidate and if she was elected her affect would be negated by the others in her party that do not share her views. Harper has moved the party to the middle. Alas, you are forgetting the Republican elephant in the Conservative living room and the fact that only 8 out of 98 Conservative MPs have ever disappointed Life Site. http://www.lifesite.net/" title="http://www.lifesite.net/" target="_blank"http://www.lifesite.net/   In a paper, entitled Rediscovering the Right Agenda, in which he dismissed Red Tories as not being true conservatives, Harper advocated that Conservatives embrace the moral majority. 

rebalancing means there will be changes to the composition of the conservative coalition. We may not have all the same people we have had in the past. The new liberal corporatist agenda will appeal to some in the business community. We may lose some old "conservatives," Red Tories like the David Orchards or the Joe Clarks.

This is not all bad. A more coherent coalition can take strong positions it wouldn't otherwise be able to take - as the Alliance alone was able to do during the Iraq war. More importantly, a new approach can draw in new people. Many traditional Liberal voters, especially those from key ethnic and immigrant communities, will be attracted to a party with strong traditional views of values and family. This is similar to the phenomenon of the "Reagan Democrats" in the United States, who were so important in the development of that conservative coalition. http://www.ccicinc.org/politicalaffairs/0601 03.html" title="http://www.ccicinc.org/politicalaffairs/0601 03.html" target="_blank"http://www.ccicinc.org/politi...  

For those who believe that he abandoned such a platform back in March, check out the way he ended his speech to convention faithful.  “Thank you.  God Bless Canada.”  Indeed, Harper is so enthralled with the Republican example that he seems to have forgotten who it is the PM answers to.  This spring Harper informed Paul Martin that he had been “summoned” to Crawford for a meeting.   

 Pace Lautens, this is what Jeffery Simpson of the Globe and Mail got wrong. He made Silver look like the exception rather than the rule.   Silver is not the type of candidate that keeps Harper up at night; she is the type of candidate he wants.  Harper believes, wrongly in my mind, that by emphasizing social issues he can split the electorate in two and to paraphrase Pat Buchanan the Conservative half will be the bigger of the two.  Say what you will about Silver, one thing is sure.   She is just the type of candidate Rove would employ to get the Conservative Party’s social Conservative base out to the polls.  Her one week nomination run proves it.