Opus Dei & the Election

[August1991]

Le président du Parti libéral du Canada en Mauricie, Jean-Éric Guindon, se porte à la défense de la candidate conservatrice dans Saint-Bruno-Saint-Hubert, Nicole Charbonneau Barron. M. Guindon, qui est membre de l'Opus Dei, affirme que l'article de La Presse, qui a mis au jour les croyances religieuses de Mme Charbonneau Barron, est sensationnaliste.

...

De son côté, le chef du Bloc québécois s'en remet au jugement des électeurs. « Voilà une personne, un groupe dont l'idéologie est plus qu'étroite [...] qui se trouve à l'aise au Parti conservateur. C'est le choix que l'on a à faire », soutient Gilles Duceppe.

R-C

A Liberal comes to the defence of a Conservative candidate, both members of the religious group Opus Dei.

In the morning, Duceppe seized on the revelation that one of the Conservatives' candidates in Quebec is a member of the ultra-Catholic group Opus Dei as a candidate saying it is proof that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative party are narrow-minded right wing ideologues who would take away a woman's right to choose.

Duceppe's comments came after the Montreal daily LaPresse revealed that Nicole Charbonneau Barron, Conservative candidate in the South Shore Montreal riding of St. Bruno-St. Hubert is a member of the often controversial group Opus Dei which opposes abortion, contraception and same sex marriage.

Barron, who has acted in the past as a spokeswoman for the group, refused the newspaper's request for interviews. Conservative spokesman Ryan Sparrow said the party stands by Barron and accused Duceppe of intolerance.

Duceppe, who recently lost an MP when the Vatican told Father Raymond Gravel he had to choose between politics and the priesthood, said Barron has every right to run for office and refused to call for Harper to remove her as a candidate.

"I'm not saying they don't have the right (to run). What I am saying is that those people are against a lot of things that are generally accepted in Quebec and that candidate said very openly that self-whipping is a sacrifice they have to make. I question such practices."

Gazette

[Note how the Gazette adds the dig about a Bloc MP resignining.]

So, what to make of this? Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc are very worried about their potential losses and they are now in panic mode, thrashing about. They'll try anything to attack the Conservatives/Harper. In Quebec, this 2008 federal election is like the 2006 federal election in English Canada when the Liberals and Martin got desperate and ran "guns in the streets" ads.

I think for the Bloc, this horse has left the barn and it'll be a downhill, mixed metaphor ride from here.

Edited September 10, 2008 by August1991