"Harper makes political pitch at Sikh event" the Toronto Star's Tonda MacCharles and Andrew Mills report, in shocked, shocked tones.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper made a direct pitch yesterday for political support from Sikhs at a religious celebration, despite an explicit request by Sikh organizers not to raise the controversial issue of same-sex marriage. "Your community has no greater friend for its values and faith in freedom and family than the Conservative party," Harper told the crowd of several thousand gathered at Nathan Phillips Square. "We know ... that Sikhs believe strongly, and your faith promotes strongly, family and the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In Canada today, only we Conservatives defend that traditional definition of marriage." His move disappointed Sikh leaders. Immediately afterward, one Sikh religious leader spoke in Punjabi and reminded the crowd it was to keep the politicized topic of same-sex marriage out of the day's ceremonies. Before Harper spoke, Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla (Brampton-Springdale), a Sikh, accused the Conservative leader of using the Sikh community to get votes.

Using the Sikh community to get votes? Why, it's unheard of:

[P]arty leaders of all hues resorted to blatant political hackery at the annual Sikh Vaisakhi festival in Toronto yesterday, stopping just long enough to try to extract some votes from a large crowd in the shadow of Toronto City Hall

reports The National Post's John Ivison.

Flanked by his Toronto-area Sikh colleagues Ruby Dhalla, Nadeep Bains and Gurbax Mahli, the Prime Minister made a brave fist of it under gloomy skies. Liberal values of human rights, equality, tolerance, honesty and brotherhood are Sikh values, he implored. ''We are building an inclusive society, a new identity in this country,'' he pleaded...

Maybe the Star had gone inside.