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I presume that Elizabeth May believes that promoting or working in the oil industry is a sin, the planet being at stake and all that, but it’s a question, put explicitly, that she will never have to face.

It just isn’t done to put a progressive on the spot about his or her religious espousal and his or her stands on public policy issues. According to the religion Justin Trudeau professes (Catholic), abortion is definitely a sin — but the precise question “Mr. Trudeau, do you think abortion is a sin?” will never be put to him.

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Simply because leaders who are at one with the secular tide, who give willing assent to dominant secular doctrines (“right to choose” being perhaps the supreme one), are vaccinated by the moment we live in against aggressive inquiries about their private religious views.

If such a question ever so faintly is put to the “right” kind of politician, the rote, formulaic response is predictable and pre-approved: “As a leader and a politician, I would never impose my private religious beliefs on others.” And there’s an end of it. Such treacle slides by the paradox that religious beliefs, deeply held under imperatives of religious conscience, cannot be casually nullified by a person’s stepping into the political arena. Faith doesn’t change with the weather or signing up for a political party.