What is startling about reading Michael Wagner’s valuable, original account of the Christian Right in Canada in Standing on Guard for Thee: The Past, Present and Future of Canada’s Christian Right is the realization that, from the inside, where Wagner is, it is a really hard place to be. Indeed, what he reveals is the existence of two fundamentally opposed narratives about conservative Christianity in this country.
From the outside looking in — that is, from prevailing news media accounts and alarmist secular warnings overly influenced, I believe, by what is happening south of the border — the Christian Right is presented as an increasingly muscular and well-organized force, holding the ear of the Conservative parliamentary caucus and some of its ministers, its hand poised to turn off the federal tap for funding inappropriate films, skillfully...
Michael Valpy is a journalist and author. Through a long career at The Globe and Mail, he served as foreign correspondent, national political columnist, member of the editorial board, and deputy managing editor before leaving to teach in 2010.
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