Full Description
Religion is usually thought of as inconsequential to contemporary Canadian politics. Religion and Canadian Party Politics takes a hard look at just how much influence faith continues to have in federal, provincial, and territorial political arenas.
Drawing on case studies from across the country, this book explores three important axes of religiously based contention in Canada. Early on, there were the denominational distinctions between Catholics and Protestants that shaped party oppositions. Since the 1960s, a newly politicized divide opened between religious conservatives and political reformers. Then from the 1990s on, sporadic controversy has centred on the recognition of non-Christian religious minority rights. Although the extent of partisan engagement with each of these sources of conflict has varied across time and region, this book shows that religion still matters in shaping party politics .
This detailed look at the play of religiously based conflict and accommodation in Canada fills a large gap and pulls us back from overly simplified comparisons with the United States. More broadly, this book also compares the role of faith in politics in Canada to that of other Western industrialized societies.
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Faith and Party Politics in Canada
Part 1: Federal Politics
1 Conservative Faith and Federal Parties
2 Abortion Politics and Federal Parties
Part 2: Persistent Denominationalism in Provincial Politics
3 Religion in Atlantic Provincial Politics: The Special Cases of Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick
4 Ontario's Progressive Conservatives and Tenacious Denominational Politics, 1943-85
Part 3: Religious Conservatism and the Partisan Right
5 Sexual Diversity and the Mobilization of Faith Communities in Ontario, 1986-2015
6 The Declining Influence of Conservative Faith in Alberta since 1971
7 Schooling, Sexuality, and Religious Conservatism in British Columbia Politics
Part 4: Canada's Most Distinctive Regions
8 Conflicted Secularism in Francophone Quebec Party Politics
9 Evangelical Christianity and Northern Territorial Politics
Conclusion: Canadian Diversity in Comparative Context
Notes; Index
