Ex-Reformer Strahl has a strong support to lean on

By Lloyd Mackey

I have a lot of respect for Chuck Strahl, both as a Christian and a politician. As I sit in question period and look down the opposition front benches, I take some mischievous delight at seeing former prime minister Joe Clark hemmed in on either side by the Fraser Valley MP and feisty Elsie Wayne, who shares his evangelical Christian convictions.

Elsie Wayne was the one Tory most opposed to the idea of a parliamentary coalition between the Democratic Representatives and the Progressive Conservatives, when it was first being proposed this past summer. It was only after she received a phone call from Brian Mulroney that she decided that it might be worth the risk.

There is a bit of history to that Wayne item. It runs counter to the fact that there was little love lost between evangelical Christians who were Tories and those who formed up with Reform, in the early '90s, when Reform was sweeping the West.

Chuck Strahl was one of the new kids on the block. But he serves a riding that has a history of evangelical MPs. And they have all been Christian leaders in their own right -- not just back pew warmers. Moreover, they came from three different parties.

The first was the late Alex B. Patterson, who was a Nazarene minister in Abbotsford before entering federal politics in the late '50s as a Social Credit MP.

He was defeated in the Liberal Trudeau sweep of 1967 by egg producer Jerry Pringle, but regained the seat in 1972 as a Conservative, after Socred leader Robert Thompson, who many evangelicals will recall as a Christian statesman extraordinaire, folded the Socreds into the Tories.

That fold-in laid the groundwork for the Conservatives to gain the critical mass they needed to form the short-lived Joe Clark government in 1979, then to create the massive 211-seat Mulroney sweep in 1984.

Patterson only sat on the government benches during the Clark tenure. Ross Belsher succeeded him in '84. Belsher was a community leader, department store manager and chair of the Fraser Valley University College board. And, to him, community leadership meant taking on church leadership responsibilities, too. He was treasurer for some years at Sevenoaks Alliance Church in Abbotsford.

But the interesting part of this story was the goodwill and respect that Mr. Belsher and Mr. Strahl developed for each other during the time that the latter was defeating the former, in the 1993 election.

That Strahl was known as a leader in Chilliwack Alliance Church was part of the equation: it likely paved the way for him to defer to, and seek the advice of the gracious and experienced Belsher.

There was a bonding between the two that stood Strahl in good stead during that time when deep tensions between Tory and Reform Christians were becoming the order of the day.

The acrimony, what there was of it, was more subdued in the Fraser Valley riding than it was elsewhere.

And, as some believe, that is one of the reasons why Strahl seems to have survived and grown in his new role, both in the House of Commons and the riding he represents.

True, not everybody loves him. Many saw him as a traitor to the Canadian Alliance, when he made his decision to step away from the CA house leader's role. But he stayed on message, when the smoke started to clear. Once he put his criticism of the Alliance leader on the record, he left the subject alone and moved ahead to the task that fell to him. He and Peter MacKay, Tory MP for Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough -- who had been his Conservative counterpart when he was Alliance house leader -- had built an interesting sense of friendship and trust. That made it easier for them to develop the PC-DR caucus when the time came.

And, in his riding, surveys show that a high percentage of his support has stayed with him. As well, he has been able to bring both Tory John Herron, the PC-DR environment critic, and Mr. Clark, onto his turf. Herron supported him in raising awareness in the riding for the opposition's stance on the Sumas SE2 power station issue. And Clark spoke about the Alliance's coalition-building ideas without once expressing the sense of disdain for his CA counterparts that has, in past, been part of his trademark.

I have some theories about the Christian part of the CA-DR-PC scenario currently chasing through the federal political minefield. And the conduct of the three most recent Fraser Valley riding MPs has, for me at least, demonstrated the validity of those theories. They relate to the difference between 'doing politics Christianly' and 'Christianizing politics.'

Some Christians become quite annoyed when their MP does not say, right away, "How high?" when they tell him or her to jump on some particular 'Christian' issue. Others support their MPs in prayer and encourage them to live out their faith, foster reconciliation and practice biblical servant leadership.

Strahl thrives because he has many of the latter in his riding.

He has been reminded, by some of those who would encourage him, of the famous photo of Chelsea Clinton, clinging to the arms of her parents, Bill and Hillary. There, on the White House lawn, chasing a helicopter, she kept them from figuratively flying off in different directions, at a most difficult time in their relationship.

Chuck Strahl and his little band of DRs represent Chelsea Clinton in this scenario. The CAs and the PCs are the parents, but they don't always get along with or behave as they should toward each other. So they lose the opportunity to build their case as a credible government-in-waiting.

My observations of the Ottawa scene are admittedly tainted with a stubborn belief in the need for conciliatory politics and journalism in a naturally adversarial setting. At the risk of becoming known as a perennial pollyanna, I would like to encourage Chuck Strahl to stay on message, keep building bridges and remember that a sovereign God will be his strong tower when he needs it.

Lloyd Mackey is editor and publisher of Christian News Ottawa.