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Indeed, there was plenty in the Harper record to complain about. But then, the Liberals signed Kyoto and did nothing about it — was that better? Why did it matter why?

And wasn’t religion supposed to be a personal matter? “Many of our prime ministers have been of faith, and it has not been in our tradition to pry,” Lawrence Martin observed.

But … nah, forget it. “Given evangelicals’ strong ties to politics,” said Martin, “the subject should not be left unexamined.” The existence of those ties was precisely the matter up for debate.

“In the wake of the debate over secularism (in Quebec),” Francine Pelletier wrote in 2014, “one wonders if the real threat, true theocracy, doesn’t live more in the Conservative government than in veiled women.”

That was in response to a documentary suggesting Harper would like to open the abortion debate, but couldn’t for political reasons, so he had to satisfy himself staunchly supporting Israel … which plenty of non-Evangelical conservatives do also. Plenty of non-Evangelical conservatives also applauded defunding special interest groups they didn’t like, and not bothering to fight climate change.

It was all quite bizarre. I suspect 2116’s history students will consider it the product of rank intolerance — not by the religious, but against them.