OTTAWA, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Legalizing gay marriage in Canada has given the country's religious conservatives a political boost, a report says.
Six evangelical groups now have offices in the capital of Ottawa, four of them opened in the past year, The New York Times reported.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is an evangelical Christian.
"Traditionally people of faith in Canada have not been politically active," said Charles McVety, president of the Canada Christian College in Toronto. "But now we're finally seeing organizations that are professionalizing what was a very amateur political movement."
Evangelical groups are putting pressure on Harper to keep a campaign promise to reopen the debate on gay marriage.
Harper does not have an overwhelming mandate. The Conservative Party won a plurality, not a majority, of the seats in parliament.
"Harper needs to show he is not the right-wing evangelical's rump if he wants to grow into a majority government," said Jonathan Malloy, a student of the politics of evangelical Christians in Canada who teaches at Carleton University in Ottawa.
