Christianity has a long history of shaping public policy in Canada. Historically, Christian groups such as the Social Gospel movement have served to reform and create effective social policy as a moral project of collective responsibility. The 1933 Regina Manifesto, the founding program of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, was profoundly influenced by the Social Gospel and called for the nationalization of transportation, communications, electrical power and other services. The Social Gospel movement also proposed social service programs such as publicly funded health care that would be seen as deeply aligned with progressive objectives.
Despite the progress Christian social movements have delivered onto Canadian society, other conservative movements have also held back these achievements by suppressing the gains made on women’s rights, reproductive autonomy, and the human rights of LGBTQIA2+ communities. Christianity as a political movement was also used as a tool of colonization that led to the genocidal residential school system and the intergenerational trauma of Indigenous communities. In the contemporary context, the increasing power of Christian nationalism and the Canadian far-right cannot be ignored in today’s public policy discussion.

