I suspect he did it out of fear of being called a homophobe
Absolutely no one talked about the military joining the Pride Parade back in 2007. It came out of nowhere. It seems like Harper wanted to score some political points.
since the CPC were taking a pro-gay position by then ... , but today the whole thing is hyper-partisan
Ford marched in Pride Parades, O'Toole marched in pride parades (as long as the police is also allowed to march), Bernier marched in pride parades. Even here in ultra "conservative" Saskatchewan our Premier Scott Moe attended a Pride Festival. Kinda weird for a "hyper-partisan" issue if there is only one side.
Someone attending doesn't make it nonpartisan.
If parties use Pride parades as a partisan bludgeon against each other, then they are by definition partisan events and therefore should be out of bounds for the miltiary.There's nothing you can say to change the fact that these are partisan events.
And besides that, see my edit to the above. It doesn't matter if 100% of Canadians agree on a political issue, the armed forces are still not entitled to an opinion on it.
Let's say O'Toole wins the next election (there is a chance, so it could happen). Do you really think that the military would stop attending pride parades and stop waving rainbow flags?
Now that they're doing it, it'll look "homophobic" on the part of any future government should they ever decide to bring the CAF back into line and stop them participating in political demonstrations in uniform. It'll be up to O'Toole (or whoever) to decide if it's worth the political capital.
That doesn't change the fact that the CAF should never have been participating in political demonstrations in uniform in the first place. Again, it's a long established principle that the military must stay well clear of politics in a free society. You don't march in political rallies in uniform, period.
I wouldn't blame the Liberals for it when the Conservative set the precedent. A 3 year old could have seen it that the Liberals would push it even farther once the first step was taken.
And now in 2021 banning military members to march in pride parades in uniform would be seen as politicizing it. Conservatives tried to play a game they couldn't win and we lost neutral military.
Absolutely no one talked about the military joining the Pride Parade back in 2007. It came out of nowhere. It seems like Harper wanted to score some political points.
Ford marched in Pride Parades, O'Toole marched in pride parades (as long as the police is also allowed to march), Bernier marched in pride parades. Even here in ultra "conservative" Saskatchewan our Premier Scott Moe attended a Pride Festival. Kinda weird for a "hyper-partisan" issue if there is only one side.
Someone attending doesn't make it nonpartisan. If parties use Pride parades as a partisan bludgeon against each other, then they are by definition partisan events and therefore should be out of bounds for the miltiary.There's nothing you can say to change the fact that these are partisan events.
And besides that, see my edit to the above. It doesn't matter if 100% of Canadians agree on a political issue, the armed forces are still not entitled to an opinion on it.
Let's say O'Toole wins the next election (there is a chance, so it could happen). Do you really think that the military would stop attending pride parades and stop waving rainbow flags?
Would and should are two different things.
Now that they're doing it, it'll look "homophobic" on the part of any future government should they ever decide to bring the CAF back into line and stop them participating in political demonstrations in uniform. It'll be up to O'Toole (or whoever) to decide if it's worth the political capital.
That doesn't change the fact that the CAF should never have been participating in political demonstrations in uniform in the first place. Again, it's a long established principle that the military must stay well clear of politics in a free society. You don't march in political rallies in uniform, period.
I wouldn't blame the Liberals for it when the Conservative set the precedent. A 3 year old could have seen it that the Liberals would push it even farther once the first step was taken.
And now in 2021 banning military members to march in pride parades in uniform would be seen as politicizing it. Conservatives tried to play a game they couldn't win and we lost neutral military.