Say it ain't so

What????

Well I wasn't going to write anything today, but I just saw this before I went to bed. I don't understand this at all, didn't we, as Conservatives, argue for free votes on this issue? I thought we had no official stance? I agree that the fiscal conservative wing of the party cannot take the social conservatives for granted, but it has to go both ways. The question I get asked most from people after saying I'm a Conservative is how can I be against gay marriage. Sure it isn't the biggest issue facing most Canadians, but it is an issue that is on the minds of people. I can right now proudly say that our party is for free votes on the issue and explain that we allow for differing view points on social issues. If these advertisements are true (it is ctv after all, hopefully it is just a smear campaign) then how am I supposed to back up my claim? Getting away from that argument even, it isn't smart marketing to constantly change the message you are trying to sell. During the election the party was trying to not position itself as hardcore social conservative, if we go down that road now, we cannot go back any time soon. If we change our party's position on this, we would be very inconsistent to go back, giving the Liberals plenty of ammo for attack ads. Social and economic conservatives within the party hopefully can agree to disagree and not put anything official, or unofficial as in these ads, into our platform on this issue.