Freedom Party Leader Paul McKeever Rejects Progressive Conservatives' Advocacy of Majority Rule on Prayer in the Legislature

May 9, 2008 - Toronto - Freedom Party of Ontario leader Paul McKeever today condemned PC House Leader Bob Runciman's call for the majority to rule on whether to keep the Lord's Prayer in the Ontario Legislature. The Canadian Press yesterday reported that Runciman called for free vote, arguing that the legislature cannot brush aside the concerns of 30,000 Ontarians who had called or signed petitions.

"Although the advocates of prayer in the legislature pretend that they are motivated merely by tradition, most pro-prayer advocates know that recognizing and praying to an alleged god in the legislature serves two purposes" says Freedom Party Leader, Paul McKeever. "First, it implies that government gets its authority from a being of unlimited authority and power, and that the government's power and authority is, therefore, just as unlimited. Second, it implies that government's laws must not conflict with the laws of an alleged god. In truth, those are the defining beliefs of a theocracy. They are irreconcilable with democracy.

"In a democracy, the government gets its authority from governed individuals, not from an alleged god. And, because no individual has the right or authority to violate another person's life, liberty or property, no individual can give that authority to the government. Any power lacked by the individual is also lacked by an individual who has been elected or who wears a crown on her head.

"By removing observances of the allegedly supernatural from our legislative proceedings, we strengthen our commitment to democracy. If we keep prayer simply because 30,000 want it, we are implying the counter-democratic view that that the only limit on god-given governmental authority is the whims of the majority.

"Those who, like Mr. Runciman, advocate the continued marriage of mysticism and the legislative process in Ontario would do well to observe, as Lord Acton did, that even Jesus called for the separation of governmental decision-making from supernatural belief when he argued that one should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's."

This media release distributed to all major news media and to Ontario's MPPs.