No New Vote on Same Sex Marriage

In a predictable move, the Canadian Parliament voted this past week, to not bring a new motion to repeal same sex marriage rights. The Bloc Quebecois, New Democrats, the majority of the Liberal caucas and a dozen Conservatives including some Cabinet Ministers all took a pass card on reopening the divisive debate.

Polls this year have shown that a majority of Canadians (51%) support the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. A larger percentage however responded that this issue should not be reopened by Parliament.

The Federal Conservatives knew that this was a non-starter; any bill that they crafted to end gay marriage would surely be struck down by the Supreme Court. Quite frankly making law that you know is not constitutional is more than dumb, it's un-Canadian.

Harper had promised his conservative Alberta and Christian base that he would put the gay marriage issue to a a free vote. He kept his word and the motion was defeated. It will be interesting to see if these folks can now move on and accept the answer. They can no longer blame this on "Interfering Judges" which is one of the favourite arguments of the right. Twice now, Parliament has decided this matter.