No....you ignant!

Election day in Alberta on Monday.  It's a little bit terrifying.  People have been clamoring for years for an alternative to our PC party which has been in power for 40ish years.  My more liberal friends probably assumed that this would be a more liberal alternative.  What we have on the horizon instead is the "Wildrose Party".  Some of their ideas are good...others not so much.   They're definitely a few shades further right than the PC's they're neck and neck with in the pre-lim numbers. 

What's most disturbing to me is some of their more right wing social views.  I'm all for fiscal conservatism, but I'm definitely fairly liberal leaning when it comes to the more social aspects of things.  I really don't mind most of our conservative politicians because they have a good grasp of the separation between church and state and have historically been able to govern without forcing their morality on others.  This seems to be slipping the last few years.  Not as badly as in the theocracy to our south, but it's a disturbing trend.


One of the hot-button news items that have come out regards one of the wildrose candidates blogs - he's a pastor in some church and apparently doesn't approve of homosexuality.  They've tried to blow it off saying his personal views are his and not necessarily the views of the party....but it's concerning.  He's not the only one with a questionable moral agenda.  I really think the government should not try to legislate morality.  Things like gay marriage etc should be put to one simple test:

• Does allowing this infringe on anyone's rights? (past the point of minor inconvenience)
• Does NOT allowing this infringe on anyone's rights? (or deny them rights others have)

 Easy.   To stick with my example..... There are only 2 reasons to argue against equal marriage rights for all people.

1. RELIGION: Your religion forbids it
2. EW, Gross!: Gay sex is icky

That's it.  2 reasons that have any basis in fact or reality.  All the other ones like "if you allow gays to marry, people are going to start marrying toasters next" are so ridiculous they border on insane, and a bunch of the other ones: "think of the children" come down to an extension of 1 or 2.  

Neither of which by the way, is an acceptable reason to deny a right to one group of people while allowing it for others. Even if you personally think that homosexuality is a sin or if it's just not your thing you have no right to base any kind of legislation on that. 

Well, happy voting day alberta.