I wasn't planning to write about politics today. It's Christmas Eve, I've totally surrendered to the spirit of the season.
And with all the goodies that arrived from Scotland in the last few days, including TWO Christmas puddings (after my Mum thought the first one had got lost in the mail) my buddy and I have enough food in the house to feed ourselves, our friends, and the whole neighbourhood.
But despite that, and the big blue box under the tree with my name on it, I still can't help thinking about how different things would be if the Cons had won the election.
I've tried hard to explain why I find Andrew Scheer's religious homophobia so deeply disturbing. I think it's important to do that because it explains so many things about Scheer, including his diseased hatred for Justin Trudeau.
But it's not easy to portray something that ugly.
Scheer knows how to hide his true feelings behind a creepy smile.
So I'm really glad that the Liberals dug up this video of Scheer during the same sex marriage debate.
Believe it or not, Andrew Scheer is now trying to pose as a tough guy, in a desperate attempt to make Justin Trudeau look weak.
Even though Trudeau makes Scheer look like a yappy Con chihuahua.
The one they call Weak Andy, who would embarrass us on the world stage, by talking big, carrying a small stick.
And looking and sounding ridiculous.
This month will mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that helped spark the rise of the gay liberation movement.
And all over the world Pride marches are taking place to celebrate the anniversary, and fire up the seemingly never-ending struggle for basic human rights.
A struggle that continues all over the world, even in Canada.
Ever since he became the leader of the Cons, Andrew Scheer has been very careful to conceal his extreme religious views.
He won the leadership with the support of social conservatives, but deleted his platform minutes after he was elected.
And although does send out an occasional dog whistle to his rabid religious base, he has been able to conceal his own extremist past.
Like the angry way he reacted when Dr Henry Morgentaler was awarded the Order of Canada.
Or how he began his political career working in the office of one of the ugliest religious bigots this country has ever known...
A Missouri-born Baptist preacher and Canadian Alliance MP named Larry Spencer, who believed that gay people should be arrested and jailed.
In late November 2003, Spencer caused controversy in Canada by Vancouver Sun reporter Peter O'Neil when he said that he would support any initiative to outlaw homosexuality. He stated that in the 1960s, a "well-orchestrated" conspiracy began and led to recent successes in the gay rights movement.
This conspiracy, he further said, included seducing and recruiting young boys in playgrounds and locker rooms, and deliberately infiltrating North America's schools, judiciaries, entertainment industries, and religious communities. According to him, this conspiracy started with a speech given by a U.S. gay rights activist in the 1960s whose name he could not remember.
Spencer was eventually fired as Canadian Alliance Family Issues critic by Stephen Harper.
He left politics and went back to preaching, forgot that apology, and started portraying himself as a victim of religious persecution.
In the manner LGBT people know only too well...
But as for Andrew Scheer, he never apologized for having worked so cheerfully for such a ghastly bigot.
On the contrary, as Neil Macdonald points out, not only is his anti-gay record abominable.
He voted against a law normalizing same-sex marriage, arguing in the Commons that "homosexual unions" are antithetical to raising families.
Not only he did he refuse to extend hate crime protection for transgender Canadians, one of the country's most brutalized minorities.
He even defended another religious bigot who called for outlawing, and presumably jailing LGBT Canadians.
He also defended Alberta Bishop Fred Henry, who told parishioners in a 2005 letter that gay sex is "an evil act, whether it is performed in public or private" adding that:
"Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the state must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good."
Henry faced complaints to the province's human rights commission. That angered Scheer, who maintained Henry was merely instructing the faithful.
"To think that a Catholic bishop must answer to a civil authority over matters of faith is abominable. It is abhorrent to me, to other Catholics and to every member of every faith community," he said.
A person who has met Scheer many times, tells me that his hatred for gays is palpable, and horrifying to behold.
And for those who think that there is nothing Scheer can do to hurt gay Canadians, they obviously haven't been watching what has been happening in Trump's America.
Social conservatives in the United States have used all sorts of creative schemes to impose their views on populations in states where they hold sway. You often don't need legislation to get your way.
A little de-funding here, a little creative regulatory tweaking there, and you can accomplish what you want without big, loud, bothersome House of Commons debates.
So here's my question:
When Scheer tells his religious base that they should not be afraid, because he will protect them.
What I want to know is who will protect women, gay people, Muslims and others from his Christianist fanatics?
And when will Canadians finally realize who Scheer really is?
And what he might do to this country and its values, if he ever becomes Prime Minister.
Know the enemy.
Vote Canadian...
It's hard to believe that it has been four years already, since the Canadian actress and producer Ellen Page came out at a gay right's conference in Las Vegas. And delivered a powerful anti-bullying message.
Because for people like me who had to fight bullies before I fought Cons, it was such a great moment it seems like yesterday.
So I'm glad to see that Page hasn't lost her fighting spirit, when she appeared on the Late Show last night.
And took aim at these two anti-gay bigots.
It's like a nightmare come true. And after only three months in power.
It's Saturday night. Parts of Ottawa are looking like a disaster zone after a tornado hit the region. Thousands are in the dark.
But please don't bother Doug Ford.
He's busy.
Like many Canadians I have long wondered why Andrew Scheer hates Justin Trudeau so much.
For hate him he does, with a passion that far exceeds what we might expect from an opposition leader in Canada, and borders on the maniacal.
I have tried to find out whether there is anything in Scheer's past that could help explain his disturbing behaviour. But that wasn't easy, because no politician has tried to bury the past as much as he has.
But now at last I think I have found it.
It's the day of the Pride Parade in Toronto, and in just about an hour or so, thousands of members of the rainbow army, and their straight allies, will march down Yonge Street, while about a million people cheer them on.
And it will be what it has always been, a community's celebration of survival in a world full of bigots.
And a chance to send out a message of solidarity to the LGBT people all over that world who are still suffering and dying from the hate that kills.
But this year Pride Month in Canada has also made it only too clear which parties support the human rights of gay Canadians, and which one doesn't.
It's been almost two weeks since Andrew Scheer came rushing out to denounce Justin Trudeau for imposing un-Godly restrictions on the government's summer job program.
But since then Scheer has been strangely silent about the issue, and has dropped it like a hot or hellish potato.
Which is weird, considering he's a religious fanatic who would love the government to pay kids to put up posters like these all over the place.
Ever since Justin Trudeau came to power, the Con media in this country has found any excuse to attack him like a pack of rabid zombies.
But now they may have found the foulest excuse yet.
Now they're accusing the son of the man who brought in our Charter of Rights of violating that charter.
Yesterday, I wrote about a Globe article where Andrew Scheer claimed that him and his Cons were more tolerant than the Liberals.
And I wondered whether Scheer was losing his mind, and why the Globe would print such nonsense.
So I'm happy to see the Globe is now trying to make up for that.
And for Scheer and his Rebel acolyte Hamish Marshall it couldn't be more devastating.
Not long ago I warned that Andrew Scheer's shadowy inner circle of religious fanatics, the group known as The Conclave, was in a full blown panic, or a friggin' frenzy.
Their attempt to destroy Justin Trudeau had failed, and worse, had left Schmear looking like Mr Ugly.
So the time had come to try to make him look like Mr Nice Guy, or a nicer guy than Trudeau.
Which I thought was ridiculous.
I mean who would you rather get stuck in an elevator with? Justin or Schmeagol?
But if that was ridiculous, this is INSANE.
When I heard that Justin Trudeau was going to deliver an apology to LGBT Canadians I arranged to get the day off.
I wanted to watch all the speeches, and hear what the survivors had to say about those dark times when gay people had no rights, and were treated like criminals.
But I wasn't sure how I might react.
Would I be moved like Justin? Or would I explode with anger at those stories of injustice?
So when I finally watched the speeches yesterday I was surprised by my reaction...
After fighting for years for their human rights, and having to endure the most disgusting discrimination and violence, this was a good week for transgendered Canadians.
A few days ago at a ceremony to mark Pride Month, they saw their flag raised on Parliament Hill for the first time.
And yesterday they finally got their transgender bill of rights.
Transgender Canadians will soon have the same human rights protections as everyone else, after the government's attempt to add gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act passed in the Senate Thursday afternoon.
And for both of those things they can thank Justin Trudeau.
I suppose I could have asked for one more thing to make yesterday an even more perfect day.
I could have asked the Great Polar Bear God of the Great White North to make it stop raining, and make spring feel like spring not winter.
But that would have been greedy, because for me at least, yesterday was a great day to be living in the New Canada.
Well it wasn't the yellow brick road, it was just the rainbow crosswalk in Toronto's gay village.
But it did lead to an amazing place.
A celebration so big that two million people are expected to attend, and at one point 25 city blocks will have to be closed off.
And all I could think was, we have come a long way eh?
And so has Canada.
It's International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. A day to remember the millions of LGBT people in the world who are being oppressed, hurt, and even murdered for the "crime" of being who they are.
A day to remember that even in Canada, the hatred that kills is still a problem.
For how can I forget that it almost killed me?
I almost wish Margaret Thatcher was still alive so she could have seen the rainbow flag flying over government buildings in London today.
Because her infamous Section 28 anti-gay law, which was similar to the one in Russia today, crushed a generation of young LGBT people.
So the sight of those flags and all those happy couples probably would have killed her.
It seems only right that the day Spring finally arrived, was also the day that Fred Phelps finally departed.
Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church known for its virulently anti-gay protests at public events, including military funerals -- has died, the church said Thursday.
And I must admit that my first reaction was to put on my party tuque, turn up the music, and prepare to kickoff five days of wild celebrations.
Because I feel about his death like Christopher Hitchens felt about the death of that other anti-gay bigot Jerry Faldwell.
If you gave him an enema you could bury him in a match box.
