U.S. religious right enters electoral fray (Ralph Reed invades Canada)

[sonicx]

TORONTO -- The man known to have blazed the trail for the religious-conservative movement in the United States rallied Canadian faith leaders yesterday, urging them to get behind the vote.

Ralph Reed, who led hundreds of thousands of members of the religious right to get the vote out during the era of former U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, told delegates to a Christian conference last night to put on their work boots and tennis shoes and knock on doors.

"Come Jan. 23, there's going to be a new Canada of conservative traditional values," he told a cheering crowd of 400 people who greeted his remarks with a standing ovation.

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"We're not trying to change a church into a political party, and we're not trying to change a political party into a church, but if the people of the church don't get involved, somebody else will."

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Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College, said yesterday any political changes in Canada would not be nearly as extreme as they have been south of the border. "The demographics are just too different," he said. "There will never be an evangelical movement here."

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