Same-Sex Marriage Continues

Newfoundland and Labrador has (or should that be "have"?) legalized same-sex marriage. It's the eighth province or territory to legalize same-sex marriage, and 87% of population of Canada lives in one of those 8 jurisdictions.

The remaining 5 regions, by population, are:

1. Alberta (3,064,249)
2. New Brunswick (757,100)
3. Prince Edward Island (138,500)
4. Northwest Territories (40,900)
5. Nunavut (28,200)

The other night, Peter Mansbridge had a lengthy one-on-one interview with Paul Martin. Mansbridge asked really good questions, and Martin mostly spouted out stock sound bites. At one point, Martin explained that he wasn't going to have a referendum on same-sex marriage because it was a Charter issue and it was wrong to look to a majority decision to define minority rights. Mansbridge then asked, basically, so if this is a minority rights question, would Martin, say, consider it appropriate to hold a free vote in Parliament over a question of women's rights or First Nations rights? Martin had no coherent answer to that.