Niagara West-Glanbrook NDP candidate Anthony Marco landed in hot water, today, when the Ontario Liberals accused him of comparing Nazism to religion. The Liberals focused on a specific comment of a podcast on Marco’s website, lovehatethings.com, where he said:

"For some people, the old politics of Nazi Germany might be their religion. And just as I can't condemn other people's religion, I can't, I don't agree with them, but you can't stop somebody from believing in something ... You're the one who is pretty messed up if you're going to devote your entire life to trying to convince somebody not to believe what they believe."

Thornhill Liberal candidate and former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress Bernie Farber was particularly upset by comments made on the Podcast. Farber stated: " I’ve devoted my life to this cause, and there is no place in Ontario politics for someone who doesn’t understand that Nazis and everything they stood for deserves condemnation. He needs to go."

However, the Ontario NDP says the quote was taken out of context and supplied more of the text:

"For the most part, I would never advocate burning books. When I read a book, as bad as the book is, I’m the type of person that wouldn’t throw books away, I’ve got books all over the place, maybe I should throw books away, but I don’t throw them away.

"But there are a couple that I would suggest burning, and it’s not even from an ideological perspective. Like 'oh, burn stuff by Adolph Hitler …' Whatever. If you want to read that stuff, read that stuff. For some people, the old politics of Nazi Germany might be their religion. And just as I can’t condemn other people’s religion, I can’t, I don’t agree with them, but you can’t stop somebody from believing in something. And to bash your head against the wall trying, is not their fault, it’s your fault. You’re the one who is pretty messed up if you’re going to devote your entire life to trying to convince somebody not to believe what they believe.

"So, If you’re going to be burning books over the next little while, here’s what I suggest you do: just sit back, don’t burn any books for a while. Get a real book hate-on. Just envision, nothing on the cover, just a book, generic book, no title, no picture, and think of the fire burning.

"And now what I want you to do is as you see that fire burning, I want an image to come to your mind on the cover of that book. And not just that book but a stack of them, a hundred books, a thousand books, all stacked up in a pile, all burning a la Fahrenheit 451, and every single copy is burning in the flames and pieces of charred paper are flying off into the atmosphere, endangering other people’s households, I want you to look at the cover of that book, and all of those books, with exactly the same cover and I want you to see … Justin Bieber’s autobiography.

"If you want something to burn, and feel good about it, burn Bieber’s book."

- Anthony Marco, Podcast 196: Of Wiki Bibles and Burning Beiber Books, lovehatethings.com

The Grits demanded that the NDP dump “candidate Anthony Marco (Niagara West-Glanbrook) over comments posted to his website.”

Marco responded today by defending his comments, saying he won’t apologize just because he is running in the election. In the Toronto Sun he was quoted as saying: “It’s different, I know, [but] I am nothing but proud of the podcasts I have done. I would hope I’d never have to go back and apologize. I hope that by listening you would respect that I’d be as honest as I can with you, that I’m open to dialogue.”

Ontario NDP leader and Hamilton Centre incumbent Andrea Horwath is not listening to the Liberals demands and sticking up for Marco, suggesting that the Liberals are just singling out one candidate and are misleading people rather than discussing issues.

Is the NDP making the right decision by sticking by their candidate? Did you find Anthony Marco’s words about Nazism and religion offensive? Should he have apologized or was he right to stick to guns?