Canada. Gay MP inundated with calls of support after Christmas card controversy.
Letters and phone calls of support, including one from Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, have been pouring in for an openly gay Nova Scotia MP whose Christmas card ignited controversy this week because it showed him with his partner.
“I’ve had so many positive e-mails, calls over the last few days from across the riding, across Canada and around the world,” Scott Brison said Sunday from his home in Cheverie, N.S.
“Everybody is saying the same thing: It’s just a Christmas card. It should not create a controversy.’”
The card shows Brison with his partner Maxime St. Pierre standing in an orange-coloured autumn field next to the ocean near their Nova Scotia home with their golden retriever, Simba. Brison is one of the few openly gay members in Parliament. He and his partner married in 2007.
Brison, who represents the Kings-Hants riding, said he was shocked when the Christmas card created a stir after it was written about on a national newspaper website.
A number of readers posted homophobic comments about the card and the website had to close the comments section as a result.
“The overwhelming opinion of Canadians is that we’re looking forward to a day where a Christmas card showing two partners and a dog, next to fields in rural Nova Scotia is not a big deal,” he said. “In fact, I never expected there to be a news story in the first place; it’s just a simple card. Politicians sending family Christmas cards is not news.”
He said the bigoted comments came from a “tiny minority” of Canadians.
The photo on the card was a wedding photo taken by a Nova Scotia photographer.
