Political commentators in Canada questioned Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre's priorities for his appearances in three evangelical churches in Toronto on a recent Sunday, one day before Canada Day on July 1, while ignoring Pride events, according to the Global News.
Of the three multi-ethnic churches, one was reportedly in Markham, with a largely Chinese congregation, and the other two churches in Brampton. He seemed to have visited churches on other weekends too.
Liberal strategist and political commentator Andrew Perez was among those critical of the church visits taking place during the city’s gay Pride celebrations. “The far-right Evangelical Christian movement is a scourge on our politics. They’re a dangerous lot. Yet these are the sort of groups Poilievre seeks out. He met with these folks three times last weekend while not attending a single Pride event,” Perez wrote on X.
Similarly, Vancouver-based liberal political strategist Mark Marissen commented that “...Poilievre chose evangelical churches over Pride events. This was a deliberate choice. He could have gone any other weekend.”
Brian Dijkema, president of the Canada branch of Cardus, a Christian think tank, was not surprised to see evangelicals becoming a focus for Conservative politicians such as Poilievre, with the General Election due by October next year, 2025.
“The one thing that Christians and particularly evangelicals, but Christians in general in Canada, are wanting right now is a little show of support for a community that has seen, I think, significant restrictions of their freedoms,” Dijkema told Global News.
“It’s not just freedom to go to church on Sunday. It’s freedom to practice the fullness of their faith in a pluralist society where others are free to do that as well,” he said.
'Freedom is Canada's nationality'
Poilievre, raised a Catholic but not particularly prone to giving public testimonies about Christianity, made a short speech in Family Life Centre, Brampton during his visit there, referencing God but largely staying focused on political matters.
At the start of the meeting, Rev. David Saffrey who pastors the church linked the worship service to Canada Day 2024: “I think we are specially blessed today, hallelujah! In our celebration of Canada Day to have the official leader of the opposition for Canada, the honorable Pierre Poilievre.”
The opposition leader, sitting at the front next to Tim Iqbal, Conservative candidate for Brampton and a board member of Bramalea Baptist Church, then stood up and waved back to the congregation and a video camera filming the service.
Poilievre was then invited by Saffrey to share some words with the congregation and, after listing the issues he sees in the country, said that the “good news” was that “Canada our home” wasn’t like that before current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “and it won’t be like that when he’s gone.”
“It is an immense honor for me to be here, to express gratitude for the home that God gave us, to thank Jesus Christ for the life we live and to live it out in his honor,” Poilievre said, “Let us rebuild our country in a way that would make him proud based on the commonsense of the common people united for our common home. Your home, my home, our home – let’s bring it home. God bless you.”
The church prays regularly for the political leadership of Canada, the pastor said, pointing out the multi-national congregation with members from Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, Nigeria and islands of the West Indies.
Saffrey also commented on Canada's historical connection to Christianity, saying, “In 1917, there was a fire on Parliament Hill and they had to redesign the buildings and in the center of the parliamentary buildings there is the Peace Tower, and over the east window there’s a Scripture for us from Psalm 72 verse 8, 'he shall have dominion from sea to sea,' and over the south windows there is a scripture for us, 'Give the king thy judgements oh God, thy righteousness unto the King’s son,' from Psalm 72:1 and in the west window is Proverbs 29:18, 'where there’s no vision, the people perish.'”
Saffrey who had been reviewing some of the nation's history for the occasion of Canada Day, said it served as a reminder of the role the Christian faith played for the formation of the country.
“There was a time when the foundations of Canada were very strong in the Christian faith, Amen! And I was just thinking through for this weekend some of the history, and if they built that Peace Tower today, what would they have engraved in those windows?”
Saffrey encouraged the would-be prime minister to lead the country “in righteous pathways”, if his political ambitions are realized. He prayed for him to receive wisdom and to consult with God. “I am believing in God that the next prime minister will be the one to turn things around,” Saffrey remarked.
In his speech, Poilievre picked up on an analogy the pastor used about “shifting foundations” and said the country was showing “a lot of cracks”, adding that it didn’t “feel like the Canada we knew and loved.”
Hoping to become prime minister, the leader made a series of political promises to the church congregation, from axing the carbon tax to stop printing cash to control inflation. He promised to “fix the foundation,” saying that freedom is Canada’s nationality. He added that Canada was a home entrusted to its citizens by God.
“We need a prime minister who is a servant, who is humble and sees him or herself as serving the people, not the other way round. We need to become the freest country on Earth where you are free to speak your mind, and raise your children with your own values on matters of gender and sexuality, where you are free to express yourself, where you are free to keep more of what you earned on yourself or your family or your place of worship,” he said.
In recent years, Canada has developed a negative view of evangelicals
Rick Hiemstra, who serves as director of research at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, outlined the background to why evangelicals were largely ignored by the political establishment highlighting that the term 'evangelical' is associated with negative labels.
In a video interview with Global News, he explained that the term ‘evangelical’ had become shunned in the country over the last 20 years. He observed that some churches had even veered towards a community-orientated identification rather than evangelical per se because evangelicals are now viewed negatively in society.
“A lot of churches are distancing themselves from the denominational tradition and becoming community churches, and what tends to be reported in the media are salacious things, for instance of paedophilia or people behaving badly but you don’t have any firsthand connection so religion becomes a strange thing.”
Hiemstra said he watched online video channels, such as Netflix, “just like everyone else” and the perception of evangelicals and devout religious people generally was extremely negative, with believers portrayed as “deviants.”
“So this is really where people are getting a lot of ideas about religious people generally and forming those opinions not based on firsthand experience or knowledge, but on what they are presented with.”
