Canadians. You have to stop making those of us in the U.S. feel even worse than we already do. You get Justin Trudeau. We have Christ, its sad to finish that sentence. You have a Cabinet thats diverse and full of experts in their fields. We have a bunch of evangelicals who deny science and have no business running their departments.

And now, a new poll suggests that Canadian citizens wouldnt let someones atheism, sexual orientation, or gender identity get in the way of their voting habits.

The Angus Reid Institute found that an astonishing 80% of the population would have no problem voting for a party led by someone whos an atheist. (By comparison, Gallup found in 2015 that only 58% of U.S. voters were comfortable supporting an atheist from their own party for President.)

In Quebec, specifically, the percentage of people supporting atheists jumped to 83%. And the numbers for openly gay leaders were no less amazing.

some seven-in-ten (71%) see a gay man as likely to become PM a development that would see Canada join the small handful of countries, including Ireland as of earlier this month, to have a gay leader.

Similarly, large numbers of Canadians anticipate a Jewish, lesbian, or atheist leader. Notably, the percentage who expect each is higher than the perceived probability of an evangelical Christian leading Canadas government

The difference in support for an atheist leader in the U.S. and Canada was larger in than any other category. And I suspect its not that Canadians have an urge to see an atheist in office so much as they just wouldnt care. Why would it matter? Its not like atheist leaders would push their non-beliefs on everybody. They know full well, however, than evangelical Christians in power would do everything they could to use the government to promote awful faith-based policies. Hell, all they have to do is look to the south to see how thats working out.

To be sure, a candidates gender, religious beliefs, ethnicity, etc. shouldnt matter at all. People should only care about the candidates ideas and policy proposals. Good ideas can come from devoutly religious people and Ive heard plenty of bad ideas from the mouths of atheists. So while I wish all of these percentages were higher, its nice to know that at least in Canada, theyre nearly all closer to where they should be. We all have a long way to go in some categories, but its a shorter distance up north.

Theres more analysis at Canadian Atheist, if youre interested.

(Thanks to Dorothy for the link)

Read the original post:

Canadians Would Rather See an Atheist Prime Minister Than an Evangelical One - Patheos (blog)