Canadian Lawmaker Draws Derision By Denying Evolution, Even From His Own Party

It’s a relief to find that Christian legislators in the U.S. aren’t hogging all of North America’s allotment of crazy.

When Ontario’s parliament discussed a new sex-ed curriculum for public schools today, tempers soon began to fray.

The morning question period was especially nasty — Education Minister Liz Sandals mocked McNaughton and other right-wing Tories saying they “want to make the teaching of evolution optional.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” thundered [Progressive Conservative Party] MPP Rick Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex). His heckle provoked groans and eye-rolling from some Tories and a death stare from [New Democratic Party] MPP Catherine Fife (Kitchener-Waterloo).

But it was just an ill-considered, spur-of-the-moment outburst, right? Well, maybe, Nicholls half-clarified afterwards.

The off-the-cuff remark during a heated debate over the new sex education curriculum landed Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex) in hot water with Conservative colleagues and left him ridiculed by others. … But Nicholls stood by his line when asked about it Wednesday. “For myself, I don’t believe in evolution, Nicholls told reporters.

I still have to hand it to our neighbors Up North: A guy like Nicholls can make an actual political spectacle of himself by declaring that he doesn’t think evolution is real. In American politics, they call that “Wednesday,” or any other day of the week ending in Y.

(image via Shutterstock)