Darrel Reid gets a promotion. Will Harper's base be mollified?

As Kady noted yesterday, according to GEDS, Darrel Reid has scored another promotion and is now deputy chief of staff to Stephen Harper, one step removed from the right hand of the father himself.

How quickly he's advanced through the Conservative ranks since then environment minister Rona Ambrose hired him as her chief of staff. At least one of them came out of that relationship on an upward career trajectory.

But, who, you ask, is this Darrel Reid? If you already know, you're no doubt asking if the Conservative talent pool has really gotten this shallow. Apparently, sadly, it has.

You may remember Darrel as the president of Focus on the Family Canada, an Evangelical Christian lobby group and offshoot of James Dobson's U.S.-based Focus on the Family. You know, the folks that told us Spongebob Squarepants was the speartip of some sort of homosexual conspiracy.

Or you may remember Reid as the Conservative candidate in Richmond in the 2006 election, where he used the churches to campaign against his Liberal opponent. And after Reid's defeat his former campaign manager, Robbie Robertson, blamed the loss on the Jewish-controlled media.

Reid has been a virtual quote-machine over the years, but here's a few of my favourites:

*[Bill C-250, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, adding "sexual orientation" to the list of "identifiable groups" to be protected] "isn't the first time in human history where tyranny has been imposed on people, you know it happened in Germany in the '30's, and frankly I see some real parallels there, because you know Adolf Hitler and his bunch really didn't care ultimately what you thought personally, but they really cared about what you said, because that became dangerous, and therefore when people spoke up about things like freedom or spoke up about their religious values, that was when the power of the state started coming down."

*"I think every Christian is under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values," says Reid. "Different Christians are going to try to change different laws, according to the call God gives them, you see Christians in all political parties. That reflects different understandings of what God's call is to us. That's a healthy thing. If the yeast congregates in one part of the loaf, it makes for pretty bad bread."

*"The liberalization of divorce laws was the biggest disaster to hit Canada, short of common-law marriage," asserts Darrel Reid of Vancouver, president of Focus on the Family Canada. But such "trial marriages" carry a high risk: marriages following common-law relationships are almost twice as likely to end in separation or divorce. "The statistical story on common-law marriages is very clear," says Mr. Reid. "They're short, they're dangerous, they don't promote any kind of social harmony.”

*Here in B.C., Darrel Reid, the Conservative candidate in Richmond, has described parents of an evangelical perspective as being "in a war" when it comes to what children are taught in the public school system. He worries about children being bombarded with messages about permissive sex education, evolution, or a curriculum that encourages young people to understand Islam.

*"I am not by any means an authority on human rights tribunals, but I am very much aware of places and issues where, for example, passages from the Holy Bible and from the scriptures have been ruled out of order. No, I'm not sure that it's for the chair people of human rights commissions to rule the bible out of order. I would certainly appeal to a higher authority."

So, congrats on the promotion, Darrel! Maybe this will keep some of the disillusioned ideologues on board the floundering ship Conservative.

Or not.

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