Canadian Marriage Defender Encouraged by U.S. Elections

by Chad Groening
November 12, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Canadian pro-family activist says he is encouraged that 11 U.S. states passed constitutional amendment measures protecting traditional marriage earlier this month, and he hopes his own country is prepared to move in the same direction.

Brian Rushfeldt is the co-founder and executive director of the Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC). He says he watched the recent U.S. election carefully and was pleased that even a liberal state like Oregon passed its marriage amendment.

"That encouraged me, watching that," Rushfeldt says, "because I've certainly watched Oregon with some of its liberal, anti-God policy, if you will. And I was encouraged to see that there's enough common sense in that state even to say no to something like homosexual marriage."

The CFAC spokesman hopes the results in the U.S. elections will help advance a similar pro-family effort in Canada. "We're going to be doing a fair amount of work on the marriage issue," he says, "because it will come up. The Supreme Court of course heard the opinions of some of the people. Now they have to write an opinion for our Parliament, which says it's going to deal with this."

CFAC is planning to re-launch a fairly aggressive program called "DefendMarriage.ca," Rushfeldt says, "because we do think that there is a potential in Parliament. If it goes to Parliament properly, we do think we can win the vote in that, but it's going to take a lot of work."

The pro-family activist says an overwhelming number of Canadians support the preservation of traditional marriage. "There are 60 to 70, perhaps 80 percent of us who do not want homosexual marriage," he asserts, "so it's only divisive when the politicians make it that."

The Canadian parliament is expected to take up the marriage issue soon. Rushfeldt says he believes the proponents of traditional marriage will eventually win out, but he predicts that ultimate victory will require a substantial effort.