How faith schools proved to be electoral arsenic for the Conservatives in Canada

They may be wrong, but they are also popular. So goes the refrain about faith schools. So how to explain why in Canada when the Conservatives proposed to introduce religious schools into Ontario it became the main election issue, voters objected strongly leading the Conservatives into a crushing defeat. The Conservatives now describe their faith schools policy as "dead as a doornail". Well, fancy that. 

Comments

[Patti]

They didn't propose to introduce religious schools to Ontario. We've always had those here, and Catholic schools have long been receiving government money to help them run. What the Conservatives proposed was to open up government funding to ALL faith-based schools, as long as they complied with certain provincial educational guidelines.

Personally, I strongly objected to the idea. I would rather see them take away government funding from the Catholic schools and let them make it on their own like all the other faith-based schools always have.

I was gratified to see the rest of Ontario so soundly trounced the Conservatives for proposing to expand funding for faith-based schools. Even though they withdrew the idea a week before the election, it was too little, too late.