Just got this in my E-mail:
Stockwell Day and his record in Alberta.
Dave Clarke from Edmonton, Alberta writing. I've lived here for nearly ten years. Watching Stockwell Day move onto the national stage alarms me. Most people I talk to don't think he has a chance of becoming Prime Minister. I don't agree. If not this election, what about the next one?
Voters outside Alberta don't have a sense of who Day is and where he comes from. As he woos a national constituency, Mr. Day stresses his fiscal record and downplays his social conservatism and evangelical Christian background.
He has an excellent advisor and spin doctor -- Rod Love, Premier Ralph Klein's associate for two decades.
Mr. Day frequently points to his past record and suggests it speak for him
If you have friends or family living outside Alberta, may I suggest that you forward this email so that they may be better educated about Mr. Day's past record.
(My comments are in brackets.)
JUSTICE
In 1994, Mr. Day advocated the death penalty for teenagers convicted of first-degree murder.
He has advocated American-style work camps for some young offenders.
In 1997, he drew condemnation from all political stripes when, in a speech, he suggested serial-child killer Clifford Olson should be dealt with by fellow prisoners.
"People like myself say, "Fix the problem. Put him in the general (prison) population. The moral prisoners will deal with it in a way which we don't have the nerve to do.''
ABORTION
In 1988 Mr. Day said granting greater access to abortion would prompt a rise in child abuse.
"The thinking is," he said, "if you can cut a child to pieces or burn them alive with salt solution while they're still in the womb, what's wrong with knocking them around a little when they're outside the womb."
(Mr. Day fought hard to have abortion in Alberta de-insured by Medicare.)
--from the Calgary Herald, June 12, 1995
Labour Minister Stockwell Day's comments arising out of the legislature's all-Tory community services committee may have provided a defining moment in the debate over abortion funding in Alberta.
The Red Deer Tory, who proudly wears his Christian fundamentalist principles on both sleeves, declared Alberta health care should only pay for abortions required to save the mother's life.
Asked if that excluded a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, he did not waver, answering that medical necessity is the only grounds he would accept.
"Women who become pregnant through rape or incest should not qualify for government funded abortions unless their pregnancy is life-threatening."
GAYS
(Mr. Day, a leading opponent of gay rights, was bitterly opposed to the Supreme Court's decision to force Alberta to include homosexuals in its human rights act. He tried to get his government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to overturn the Supreme Court decision writing protection of gays in the human rights code.)
--Calgary Herald, April 9, 1998 "The freedom for homosexuals to choose their lifestyle is there. But when I'm asked to legislate, in some way, approval of their choice, then I have a problem,'' he says. "How can I do this without a mandate to alter in public policy a centuries-old definition of what a natural family is?''
"The homosexual issue is a real source of concern because they don't know how far it's going to go,'' Day says. "There is a concern, yet to be determined, that it can't be stopped. These type of unknowns have people alarmed.
"The same people who don't want to see homosexuality in their sex education curriculum and same people who don't want to see gay parades in their city also say people shouldn't be fired just because they're homosexual. You know what? People miss this, but people are not being fired because they are homosexual.''
"Homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured by counselling."
He has said homosexuality is "not condoned by God'' and maintains being gay is a matter of choice.
--The Edmonton Journal, August 16, 1997
Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day wants the Red Deer museum to return $10,000 in lotteries money because it is doing a study on gays.
"We all make mistakes and they made a mistake in pursuing a project which purports to reflect the sexual choices of one per cent of the population,'' Day said in an interview.
Some statistics suggest between four to 10 per cent of the general population is homosexual.
(Mr. Day was appointed minister of family and social services in 1996. For several years he enforced an unwritten policy not to approve "non-traditional families'' for adoption.)
EDUCATION
From 1979-85, Day was administrator of the "Bentley Christian Training Centre'' -- an independent school of 100 students and six teachers run by the Bentley Christian Centre, a fundamentalist Pentecostal church, 25 kilometres northwest of Red Deer.
The Bentley Christian School taught the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum.
The ACE program was American-based and was rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible. It taught creationism over evolution, for example.
A 1985 government audit of the general curriculum concluded ACE students were rarely called upon to be creative, original or critical. The auditors were concerned the program created "a degree of insensitivity towards blacks, Jews and natives.''
In newspaper articles at the time, Day vigorously denied the curriculum was bigoted in any way.
"God's law is clear," an angry Day told Alberta Report in 1984. "Standards of education are not set by government, but by God, the Bible, the home and the school."
Day refused in an interview recently to say if he still believes that.
South MLA Victor Doerksen created a stir when he called on the government to remove all books from Alberta's school curriculum that demean God or Jesus Christ. He produced the award-winning novel Of Mice and Men as a novel he considers unacceptable.
The book was brought to his attention by a Wetaskiwin man who was unsuccessful in getting it banned from schools. Doerksen introduced a petition from 881 Albertans wanting all education literature removed that is intolerant of religion, and profanes the name of God or Jesus Christ.
Labour Minister Stockwell Day, MLA for Red Deer North, supported the move.
(This happened in the middle of the national Freedom to Read Week, 1996)
DEMOCRACY
(Mr. Day's sneering, high-handed behaviour in the Legislature is well-known to Albertans who have attended a sitting. The Alberta Legislature has a sad history of limiting debate, too much to go into here. The recent Bill 11 Private Healthcare Bill was just the latest example. Here's an editorial from 1995's Edmonton Journal.)
So Stockwell Day is fantasizing "in kind of a blue-sky way'' about cancelling the fall sitting of the legislature.
The government house leader knows that too much democracy is a dangerous thing. "The longer we're in here, the temptation is too great to come up with more laws and more regulation,'' he says. Even if the Conservatives resist the urge to work, Day believes the Liberals will fill up the empty hours with yelling. Those pests. His ears hurt. He wants to go home.
Why not shut down the legislature altogether, Mr. Day? The Alberta taxpayer would save $15,000 for every day the door was locked. The new dictatorship would never have to listen to questions, answer questions or debate public concerns. The opposition would not exist. It would be so quiet in Alberta, wouldn't it? You could go home to Red Deer North, and stay there, and never come back. Think of it.
HEALTHCARE
(Mr. Day was part of the Alberta Cabinet that decided to cut the Health Care Budget by over 30% while at the same time hiking up "premiums" so that "fees" paid by individuals to government were made to cover all the actual costs without resorting to any tax funds what so ever.)
CULTURE
--Ottawa Citizen, June 8, 2000
"Stockwell Day added he would eventually end all taxpayer financing of CBC television and eliminate all cultural subsidies to all cultural institutions and individuals."
OTHER TIDBITS
When elected in Red Deer North in 1986, Mr. Day made an evangelical-style speech that made explicit his literal believe in the Bible. Mr. Day is a Creationist.
In 1987, he raised the hackles of women's groups when he disputed a poll indicating one million women had been abused physically, emotionally, sexually or economically.
Mr. Day was appointed minister of labour in 1992. He made Alberta's minimum wage the lowest in the country.
He has called official bilingualism an "irritant'' and questioned the effectiveness of sex education in the schools. "There is a growing body of literature suggesting that, as sex education becomes more comprehensive, there is a corresponding increase in sexual activity." (In fact, the opposite is true. Canada has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in the west)
(All these quotes are available online. If you need citations, just drop me a line - stancat@email.com. Here's a few Stockwell links)
Hellfire, neo-Nazis and Stockwell Day
vue.ab.ca
The man who shouldn't be prime minister home.dencity.com
cbc.ca
From preacher to politician--Stockwell Day's religious roots subtext in election
thestar.com 0001029NEW01c_NA -WALK.html
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