FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved
Cover
by SEE STAFFThe Man Who would be PM:
Stockwell Day's Greatest Hits1938, Bible Bill attempts to defuse extremism in his party and winds up blaming Jews for anti-Semitism: "Personally, I have little doubt that in working through the Jews, the Jewish financial group has sacrificed its own people on the altar of its greed for power and this group is pre-eminently responsible for the poisonous anti-Semitism which is rampant in the world today."
1960s: anti-Semitism rocks Ernest Manning’s Social Credit government. Education Minister Earl Ansley is expelled for Holocost denial and promoting Jewish conspiracy theory. Preston Manning stays aloof from the morass, despite his unsuccessful 1965 federal election attempt for Social Credit. Bonus: Stockwell Day Sr. runs for Social Credit in the 1972 federal election in Vancouver against Tommy Douglas.
1986: Stockwell Day becomes MLA for Red Deer North.
"His acceptance speech railed against homosexuals in the armed forces and pornography. He called for harsher penalties for violent crimes, and attacked other issues that belong in the federal domain," reported the Red Deer Advocate.
1987: Stockwell Day disputes a poll indicating one million women had been abused physically, emotionally, sexually or economically.
"I want to know how many women in Alberta are physically battered and not just insulted by their husbands," Day told reporters. "If we talk insulted by their husbands, then I'm afraid that I'm guilty from time to time of abusing my wife." Bonus: the Reform Party is born in Winnipeg, bringing together Social Creditors, Western separatists, Fraser Institute, social cons and neo-cons. Preston Manning is elected leader.
1988: Day argues that greater access to abortion will prompt a rise in child abuse:
"The thinking is, 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?"
1991: Day champions Family Values in the Alberta legislature:
"The percentage of single-parent households with children between the ages of 12 and 20 is significantly associated with rates of both violent crime and burglary."
1994: Newly anointed as government house leader, Day advocates the death penalty for teenagers convicted of first-degree murder
1995: At a Tory party convention, Day says:
"Women who become pregnant through rape or incest should not qualify for government-funded abortions unless their pregnancy is life-threatening."
1996: "Doug, it is time for you, the captain to call "All Aboard!" Stockwell Day Sr. becomes semi-regular contributor to the newsletter of the Western Canada Concept, a fringe party run by Victoria Lawyer Doug Christie, "lawyer for virtually every KKK member, anti-Semite, white supremacist, and nazi who has fallen afoul of Canadian law" (as described by anti-racist researcher David Lethbridge).
1997: "Homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured by counselling." Alberta’s new treasurer fights a $10,000 lotteries grant to study the lives and history of gays in Alberta. "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 uses his cabinet leverage to lead a charge against the human rights case of Delwin Vriend, a gay man who was fired because of his sexual orientation.
March 2000: Realizing Bible Bill’s own national aspirations, Stockwell Day enters the Canadian Alliance leadership race. Despite his inaugural call to limit the scope of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Day dismisses concerns that he might alienate Canadians:
"My social policy is built on people having freedom of expression." "People want to see less government in their face. Less government on their backs. That covers all areas of life."
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