i noticed this attitude coming from singh during the campaign as well, and what's underlying it is this kind of entitlement towards being voted for.
her argument is essentially "it doesn't matter what a politician believes, you should vote for him anyways because....". because you like his hair? and, it's really just laughable on it's face.
listen: nobody is saying that andrew scheer can't be a social conservative, and nobody is saying that he can't run for office as a social conservative. but, my voting rights are conscience rights, and subject to whatever whim i may fancy them on - i may choose not to vote for somebody because of their values, or their religion or their skin colour or anything else and that's entirely up to me to decide.
he can say he won't legislate all he wants, but smart people know not to believe a politician for very long. as a voter, i need to make a judgement call, and that judgement call is based overwhelmingly on what i think that person's beliefs are.
again: if somebody's politics aren't a reason to vote against them, what is? why are we voting at all?
it's just some classic right-wing entitlement.
yes, maria, your beliefs are up to scrutiny when you run for office, which doesn't mean you can't have them, but does mean i don't have to support them, and if you don't like that then you shouldn't run.
but, my concerns this election on this front were not about andrew scheer, they were about jagmeet singh. and, while the media coverage maybe didn't reflect it, this is one voter that avoided voting ndp due to discomfort about the leader's personal beliefs - and tried to make an issue out of it.
if there's any valid point to pull out of this, it's that we don't need less criticism of the conservatives on this, we need more criticism of the other parties. the ndp leader was a fundamentalist sikh and should not have gotten a free pass on it; the green leader was an ordained minister and should not have gotten a pass on it, either.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-maria-harrison-1.5359225