By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU CHIEF
TORONTO -- Thousands of Ontarians have signed petitions and sent on-line submissions urging Premier Dalton McGuinty to retain the Lord's Prayer, but he has yet to see the light.
McGuinty said he continues to believe that the Ontario legislative day should begin with a more inclusive opening that reflects the province's diverse communities. Currently, the legislative day begins with a recitation of the Lord's Prayer.
"This is not an easy thing for my (Catholic) mother, but my job, our job, is to represent the future to the present," McGuinty said yesterday. "We continue to change as a province, as a society in terms of our make up and our cultures and our faiths, and I think we have got a responsibility to ensure that all people feel truly at home here. I think we are going to come up with a solution that will be a great solution for Ontario."
REVIEWING ROLE
An all-party committee tasked with reviewing the Lord's Prayer's role in the legislature had received 6,000 on-line submissions as of yesterday.
Committee member and Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop said he has personally received hundreds of e-mails with 90 to 95% expressing support for the Lord's Prayer.
"They're quite negative about McGuinty even bringing this up," Dunlop said.
McGuinty said other legislatures have dealt with this issue by eliminating opening prayers altogether or substituting a moment of silence.
"One of the possibilities that keeps coming up again and again is that we keep the Lord's Prayer and add another prayer on top of that that is rotated," McGuinty said.
Conservative MPP Peter Shurman said that he does not have a problem with keeping the Lord's Prayer even though he is Jewish.
"If you want to talk about incorporating some other customs, that's fine with us, and I think it is fine with the people of Ontario," he said. "But the Lord's Prayer should stay."