Juno News - September 10, 2021


Christian Heritage Party leader says Christian values needed in Canadian politics

Topics
freedom and Christian values carbon tax vote splitting
Mentioned
Andrew Lawton Show Stephen Harper Trudeau Erin O'Toole Rod Taylor Justin Trudeau Liberals Kathy Wagenthal Andrew Scheer Sandra Cookie
Trudeau goes off the rails against independent media The case of Dr. Julie Ponesse： ethics professor placed on leave for not getting the vaccine

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

173.42

Word count

2,574

Sentence count

144

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I speak with Rod Taylor, the leader of the Christian Heritage Party and candidate in the upcoming election in British Columbia's Skeena-Bulkley Valley. In this interview, we discuss the party's campaign platform and what it means to be a Christian in Canada.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:00:07.140 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:00:09.480 As I've said a few times now, we obviously have given a lot of attention and continue to the major parties and major themes that come up.
00:00:17.260 But one of the things we do differently is also shining a light on some of the candidates and campaigns that aren't getting as much attention in the mainstream media.
00:00:25.900 And with that prelude, I wanted to bring into the show Rod Taylor, who is the Christian Heritage Party leader and also the party's candidate in Skeena-Bulkley Valley in British Columbia.
00:00:37.960 Rod, it's good to talk to you again. Thanks for coming on today.
00:00:41.320 Yeah, it's great to be on with you. Thanks, Sandra.
00:00:43.880 Now, I think the name slightly gives it away, but I'll still let you describe it in your own words.
00:00:48.780 What is it that the Christian Heritage Party is all about?
00:00:51.220 Our campaign theme is life, family and freedom.
00:00:54.560 So we support the protection of innocent human life.
00:00:58.360 We support, of course, marriage between one man and one woman, traditional family values, parental rights, that type of thing.
00:01:05.720 And we stand for freedom and freedom in 2021 has become a pretty big issue in terms of, you know, now they're talking about vaccine passports and that type of type of thing.
00:01:16.020 But freedom of speech, we've seen social media even becoming a place where other opinion is limited.
00:01:24.580 And so we have to stand up for that.
00:01:26.400 The right of parents to counsel their own children, there's a lot of freedoms that are under attack.
00:01:30.820 We saw churches shut down earlier in the year.
00:01:33.140 So freedom has become kind of the front line because if we don't have freedom of speech, we can't defend any of the other human rights.
00:01:42.540 You listed there your top three items, protection for the unborn, restoring a traditional definition of marriage and freedom.
00:01:51.100 And I'm curious, Rod, how you square number two and number three, because the freedom for people to enter into same-sex marriages is not seemingly one of the freedoms you're upholding.
00:02:01.080 How do you juxtapose those two?
00:02:03.140 Well, you know, to us, just marriage is between a man and a woman.
00:02:06.720 And it's, you know, we could create, you know, the freedom for a father to kill their children or whatever.
00:02:12.920 We could, you know, talk about that as a freedom.
00:02:17.400 But, you know, there are certain freedoms that are inherent, rights and freedoms that are inherent in human condition given by God.
00:02:24.200 Of course, government doesn't create rights.
00:02:27.360 Human rights, real human rights are given by our creator.
00:02:31.160 And government can either ignore those and violate them or it can honor them and uphold them.
00:02:37.100 So, you know, we just don't see that there is such a thing as the freedom for men and women to, or, you know, for same-sex marriage.
00:02:45.880 That's, I think, a so-called right that has been created by the left is a funny way of putting it.
00:02:53.440 But so we don't see that we're violating anything at all.
00:02:57.440 So, now, we are not trying to move against people who live a different lifestyle.
00:03:03.820 But we think it's, the government has no business to endorse something and call it marriage that isn't a marriage.
00:03:12.140 That's how we look at that.
00:03:13.600 Now, why is it the government's role, and I say this as a Christian, to endorse a Christian ethic and the government's role to endorse Christian law and basically God's law, as opposed to saying that this is a free country, you as an individual have the right to live your life in accordance with Christianity.
00:03:29.660 Why is that an area where you think a government, and by extension a political party, needs to put a, really put this forward?
00:03:37.920 Well, you know, the preamble to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as Canada is founded on principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.
00:03:46.940 And the, yeah, there are certain, you know, Christians, we don't think everyone needs, you know, we're not trying to impose a Christian theology on this nation, that everyone needs to go to church or anything like that.
00:03:58.120 But there are certain basics, you know, don't lie, don't steal, don't kill, you know, don't commit adultery.
00:04:04.620 Those are ethics that are shared by pretty well every population group in the country, Christian or non-Christian.
00:04:12.880 And I tell people, even if you are not a Christian, you have a Christian heritage because this nation was founded on Christian principles.
00:04:21.000 And the farther away we depart from that, you know, the tougher it gets for everybody.
00:04:27.220 I mean, we think that the principles of love your neighbor as yourself, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you,
00:04:32.680 that these are principles that would make this country a great place, and they don't involve imposing any theological, you know, construct on Canadian citizens.
00:04:42.860 Yeah, and certainly a lot of the values are shared by Jews, they're shared by Muslims, they're shared by Christians,
00:04:48.920 they're even in many cases shared by people of no faith at all that just have this moral code that may align with it.
00:04:54.580 But it still is a Christian heritage party.
00:04:57.760 And in a country in which it seems like through a combination of immigration and education and lots of other factors,
00:05:04.700 people are moving further and further away from identifying as Christian.
00:05:08.200 How is there, in your view, a place for a Christian first political party?
00:05:13.120 Or where are you finding that space, I guess, is a better way of putting it?
00:05:16.240 Yeah, well, we sometimes feel like a voice in the wilderness because our society is largely, has largely abandoned not only Christian faith,
00:05:28.580 but also Christian principles, Christian values.
00:05:32.640 I mean, even, you know, it's when we talk about moral values, it's not just sexuality and family things,
00:05:38.900 but how you spend taxpayers' money.
00:05:42.420 I mean, that's a moral value that we think the scriptures say, don't steal.
00:05:48.240 But I think everyone understands that it's wrong to steal.
00:05:50.640 Well, we're actually stealing money from our grandchildren right now,
00:05:53.980 or the government is handing out money that it doesn't have,
00:05:58.080 but it's going to have to be repaid by our grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
00:06:01.680 Christian values, I think, just supersede basically any theological construct.
00:06:10.640 Again, as I mentioned, we think that loving your neighbor as yourself would be good for every Canadian.
00:06:17.940 And the government, of course, can't force people to be good,
00:06:21.620 but the government can set a pattern and put forward principles that align with, you know,
00:06:29.040 biblical principles and certainly align with our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:06:33.080 Now, looking at your platform, I know you have a couple of items here,
00:06:36.460 like wanting to balance the budget, enforce border protection, eliminate carbon taxes.
00:06:41.560 And in the interest of disclosure, I agree with all three.
00:06:44.240 So all three of those are wins for me.
00:06:46.580 But I'm just curious where the Christian basis is of that,
00:06:50.860 because these are not things that people would inherently associate with religion.
00:06:55.360 They're, I think, good policies.
00:06:56.680 But I'm just curious where you've decided as the leader of the Christian Heritage Party
00:07:01.120 to approach these issues from.
00:07:03.360 Well, the carbon tax, I think, is a matter of following science and, you know, just following the truth.
00:07:10.540 You know, a lot of people have fallen into a political correctness.
00:07:13.900 And now it's, you know, many people think if you're, you know, don't agree with the theory
00:07:20.180 that carbon dioxide is ruining the planet, that there's something wrong with you.
00:07:26.860 And we think we just stand up for the truth.
00:07:28.720 And that goes along with, you know, the vaccine mandates and that type of thing as well.
00:07:32.760 So I guess maybe the backside of that is some people have accused us of being, you know,
00:07:39.720 a one-issue party because we are, you know, the only pro-life party at this point in time
00:07:44.180 in Canada actually standing up for the protection of innocent human life in the womb.
00:07:48.520 And we say, no, we're not a one-issue party, but abortion is a one-party issue.
00:07:55.300 We're the only ones willing to talk about it.
00:07:58.400 But these other issues, I mean, you can't be a national political party without addressing
00:08:02.620 all the issues that are on the table there.
00:08:05.540 I mean, and I think people would rightly reject us if we would only talk about abortion 0.99
00:08:10.640 or euthanasia or marriage.
00:08:12.680 We do have a fairly broad platform.
00:08:16.220 We're working on it all the time to make it better, but, you know, we take stands on
00:08:21.700 things and I guess other people, maybe sometimes even Christians might disagree with us on things.
00:08:27.340 And I have told my candidates, the other candidates that are running in this election, I mean, on
00:08:32.680 life, family and freedom, we're united.
00:08:36.980 If someone has a different opinion about, you know, supply management or about, you know,
00:08:43.760 how to handle the border crisis, I mean, they're allowed to express that.
00:08:48.740 We're not going to be 100 percent.
00:08:50.860 We're not carbon copy images of each other, right?
00:08:54.680 Cookie cutter images.
00:08:56.080 But we are unique individuals and we come to conclusions based on our own personality.
00:09:01.580 But if they're not, you know, supportive of the protection of innocent human life, well,
00:09:05.520 they really probably would be in the wrong party, right?
00:09:07.560 So that's how we sort of divide that up.
00:09:09.940 But we hope to have a broad discussion.
00:09:12.700 We are actually, we are going to have a convention next week, the last week of the campaign, a
00:09:18.560 pre-planned convention, our triennial policy convention in Calgary.
00:09:22.980 So I'll be down there for the last week of this campaign, but then back home in time for
00:09:30.040 voting day.
00:09:30.540 One of the interesting things I will say is that in Conservative Party of Canada politics,
00:09:37.300 it's very difficult, not impossible, but difficult to be elected as a leader without being pro-life
00:09:42.180 or without in some way appealing to social conservatives.
00:09:45.760 We've seen this with Erin O'Toole.
00:09:47.200 We saw it with Andrew Scheer.
00:09:48.560 We saw it with Stephen Harper because social conservatives make up such a huge portion of
00:09:52.900 the Conservative Party's base.
00:09:54.300 You need their support at least in some way.
00:09:56.740 So you are, I think, right to point out here that there is an appetite for a party that's
00:10:01.820 going to take a stand for that.
00:10:03.160 But as we so often see, the Conservative Party of Canada sometimes runs away from that once
00:10:08.000 we get into a general election campaign, which is where we've been in the last couple of
00:10:12.160 weeks on the issue.
00:10:13.600 Right.
00:10:14.020 Yeah.
00:10:14.520 And of course, Erin O'Toole, the current leader of the Conservative Party, was crystal clear
00:10:19.300 during their campaign.
00:10:21.920 He wanted to give the impression that he would allow and work with social conservatives, but
00:10:28.440 he said, I'm pro-choice.
00:10:30.180 I'm supportive of what they call a woman's right to choose.
00:10:34.280 I don't like that phrase, but that's the kind of phraseology they use.
00:10:40.140 And he voted against Kathy Wagenthal's Sex Selective Abortion Bill, C-233.
00:10:46.020 I mean, so his position is not unknown.
00:10:49.060 I'm actually surprised that anyone, I'm surprised that anyone is surprised that he is not supporting
00:10:55.740 pro-life activities.
00:10:58.600 And even you go back to Stephen Harper, who I think was, well, I like Stephen Harper in
00:11:03.960 many ways.
00:11:04.440 But he personally, and with his inner core of the party, resisted four different efforts
00:11:13.900 by his own backbenchers to bring forward pro-life legislation.
00:11:18.840 So I think people who think that the Conservative Party is somehow going to come through in the
00:11:24.500 end and do something pro-life are mistaken.
00:11:27.460 And the idea that, well, I'm just writing a communique on it now about the big blue tent.
00:11:33.060 It's bigger, but are there any tent pegs holding it down?
00:11:37.860 That's kind of, you know, where are the anchors for moral values, right?
00:11:42.340 So with him, of course, now we see there's going to be, he's going to get rid of Trudeau's
00:11:48.780 carbon tax if he has the opportunity, but he's going to introduce his own, right?
00:11:52.420 That type of thing.
00:11:54.880 He doesn't like the concept of vaccine passports, but he's going to have some national system
00:12:04.360 for tracking vaccination and alternatives and whatever.
00:12:07.180 So I think he's trying to, you know, stay close to the middle line.
00:12:12.100 But unfortunately, that's where there's a lot of roadkill along the middle line.
00:12:16.960 You know, you can't please everybody.
00:12:18.800 And if you're trying to please everybody, I think you're going to actually end up pleasing
00:12:21.900 nobody.
00:12:22.920 I know this is one of the most frustrating questions that a leader of a party can get,
00:12:28.300 but I do have to ask, so I hope you'll indulge me on this, vote splitting.
00:12:32.000 It sounds like with the issues that you're taking on, a lot of the votes that you're seeking
00:12:36.300 are going to be with voters that probably would otherwise vote conservative or for some
00:12:41.140 other right of center option.
00:12:43.240 And whenever this comes up, the question people are confronted with is, well, is this just
00:12:47.480 eventually leading to more Trudeau elections, more Trudeau victories?
00:12:51.620 How do you square that?
00:12:53.180 Well, there's a few different answers for that.
00:12:55.240 One is if you don't want to split the vote, I mean, North Korea and China and Cuba are places
00:13:02.120 where you don't really split the vote because you only have one choice, right?
00:13:04.920 I mean, our system is designed, whether it's a perfect system or not, it is designed to
00:13:10.960 split the vote.
00:13:11.700 People are, if people actually voted for what they wanted instead of voting against what
00:13:16.700 they don't want or pragmatically thinking, well, my neighbor is probably going to vote
00:13:21.460 this way, so I better vote that way, right?
00:13:24.140 Or whatever.
00:13:25.680 I think we would have a lot closer representation of the views of Canadians in Parliament today.
00:13:30.680 But people have tended to base their voting habits, they vote out of fear instead of out
00:13:38.440 of hope, I guess.
00:13:40.360 And, you know, so vote splitting, I think if people voted for what they wanted, we would
00:13:47.140 actually have a better idea of what Canadians want.
00:13:49.560 And, you know, I think there's many more people, I've been told many times, people would,
00:13:54.180 oh, I'd love to vote for you, but I don't want to split the vote.
00:13:56.660 Well, in my writing, Skeena-Bulkley Valley, the Conservatives have lost in the last six
00:14:02.180 elections.
00:14:03.160 So the idea that they're going to get rid of our NDP member by voting for a Conservative
00:14:08.680 who's going to lose, and somehow that's going to take power away from Justin Trudeau's
00:14:13.940 Liberals, it's just not logical, but people think that way.
00:14:17.580 We ask people to just vote for what they believe in, and if they did that, our numbers would
00:14:24.440 be much higher than they are, and that would give people hope, right?
00:14:28.680 Christian Heritage Party leader Rod Taylor joining me now.
00:14:31.580 Rod, thanks so much for your time today.
00:14:32.880 Good to speak with you.
00:14:34.020 Thank you, Andrew.
00:14:34.920 It was really a pleasure being with you, and all the best during the rest of this election
00:14:38.360 and on through.
00:14:39.560 Take care.
00:14:40.460 Thank you.
00:14:40.880 God bless you.
00:14:41.840 Yeah.
00:14:42.440 Take care.
00:14:42.700 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:14:45.100 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.