As someone who is both Catholic and politically involved, I’m well aware of this tension. Unlike many in my shoes, I don’t think the answer lies in simply electing more Christians. That would certainly be nice, but our present party system, where policy is usually determined by the party leader and their inner circle, doesn’t give much power to individuals. In other words, one or two people of faith within a secular party likely wouldn’t have as big an effect as we would like it to.

More importantly, I believe in a system informed by populism, or direct representation of the public’s will, so I’m not convinced that an individual politician’s views should entirely determine his or her decisions. This, however, is where our opportunity lies.

Because we understand the difficulty of bringing faith-informed perspectives into politics, too often people of faith give up on influencing policy. We need to remind ourselves that in a democratic society our views are just as valid as secular ones. Granted, we aren’t really the ones who need convincing on this. Still, I’m convinced that we do need to learn to push harder and not be intimidated by the powerful voices that insist faith and politics shouldn’t mix.

People often question why the United States has a strong religious right movement when its constitution argues for a separation of church and state, while Canada doesn’t, even though our constitution doesn’t have the same requirement. But the American religious right didn’t come from nowhere — it’s the product of concerted mobilization and recruitment. Now, American presidential elections always include discussion of issues like abortion because voters push for that information. Our elections don’t because we don’t.

Political parties mainly develop their policies by directly consulting members at policy conventions, so we have only ourselves to blame if our voices aren’t being heard. While most parties are, admittedly, hesitant to embrace potentially contentious religious issues, if enough support exists amongst members the party position will eventually shift. The important part, though, is not just that the support exist, but that party leadership is aware of its existence. This can be frustrating and time-consuming, but I believe my generation in particular needs to attempt this, since we’ll be the ones to benefit from or suffer the consequences in the future.

We all know and lament the secular political system and want to infuse it with our beliefs. Consider this a call to action. We need to elect politicians who share similar beliefs, but more importantly, we need to make all politicians aware of those beliefs and not let ourselves be dismissed by secular mindsets.

(Steele, 20, is a third-year Sociology student at Dalhousie University in Halifax.)