Religious belief as weakness.

During the recent federal election, I was invited to talk to a group in the political science department at Montreal's McGill University. The topic was the implications of Stockwell Day's Christian faith for Canadian politics. Preparing for the event, it struck me as a golden opportunity for me to say less and listen more, to actually hear and learn what a sampling of intelligent, thoughtful, informed Montrealers were thinking on the issue.

Battling the urge to just say 'nah' and shoot my mouth off as usual, I limited myself to short remarks, then turned it over to my audience. The group comprised, as anticipated, a highly intelligent, informed, and thoughtful assemblage reflecting an appropriately Montrealish range of age, sex, ethnicity, background and opinion.

The discussion went on for about 90 minutes. To say it covered the waterfront would do a flippant disservice to its probing, intellectually stimulating character. One always carries snippets and sound bites away from such adventures. One in particular has stayed with me. It emanated from a mature woman who was neither especially offended by Day's Christianity nor strongly opposed to it becoming a campaign issue. She just wondered why he bothered bringing it to the political table. "Religious belief is a weakness," she said. "Why would a politician want be seen as weak?"

Intrigued, I asked what she meant. Irrationality, she replied, is a form of weakness. And religious faith is a form of irrationality. How, she asked in turn, can political goals be achieved if they are based on the weakness of religious irrationality?

The question, posed without insincerity or anything approaching malice, seemed answered by its context. We were at a top Canadian university built by emphatic Protestants in a city where an abundance of streets bear the names of Catholic saints.

If providing the populace with the means to first-class post-secondary education, and giving it physical access to the site, can be described as political goals, then it seems neither end has been weakened by the "irrational" presence of Christian faith in Canadian history.

On the contrary, that faith has proved not only a benefit, but also a foundation. Arguably, what is truly irrational is how quickly and conveniently Canadians, Quebecers and Montrealers have learned to ignore the very heritage that comes up to meet them in their daily surroundings. A politics shorn of its origins, especially origins still so omnipresent, soon stops making sense. It is an absence of sense people may play along with for a while as they would a running gag. Sooner or later, the gag becomes gibberish and interests wane.

Perhaps that explains what happened, particularly here in Quebec, last November 27. After a campaign notable only for its cacophonous nonsense, fewer than two-thirds of eligible Canadian voters cast ballots for the lowest turnout in more than a century.

Here, only 63 per cent of electors bothered to spend the 15 minutes required to troop over to the local school, community hall, church basement or other polling station and mark an X on a square of paper.

Hailing the results as a great democratic victory for Prime Minister Chretien is risible verging toward the irrational. True, the Liberals did gain federal seats within the province at the expense of the Bloc Quebecois. No one knows whether this represents an exhaustion of the separatist option, as pundits and Grit politicos were quick to claim.

Separatism has been dead many times. Lazarus in his grave clothes had nothing on the ability of sovereigntists to cause the kind of stink that lets them rise and fight again.

What seems indisputable is the correlation between the intellectual feebleness of the 2000 campaign and its failure to engage the spirit of Canadians, particularly Quebecers.

Chretien declared at the outset the battle would be about values, then proceeded to prove the Liberal party's complete vacuity in that regard. He demonstrated instead the irrational pursuit of power for its own sake. It is little wonder intelligent, informed, thoughtful Canadians continued and continue to show a loss of faith in the political process. How long before they recognize that the system will be restored only by granting religious belief its strong and rightful place in the public square?

Peter Stockland's column appears five times a year. He is editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette.