Marriage Quote by Stockwell Day

Day’s move here is to disarm you with humility before he delivers a hard line. He starts by puncturing the fairy-tale premise of marriage: not perfect, never was, still worth having. That confession is strategic. By admitting imperfection in his parents’ relationship and his own, he inoculates himself against the charge that “traditional marriage” advocates are selling nostalgia or moral purity. He’s saying: I’m not pretending straight marriage is spotless; I’m arguing it’s the institution that deserves the state’s protection.

Then comes the classic politician’s pivot: the affectionate joke - “My wife is, but I happen to be imperfect” - a bit of domesticated self-deprecation designed to warm the room and position him as relatable, even charming. It also smuggles in a hierarchy: the wife as idealized moral anchor, the husband as flawed but earnest. That old sitcom dynamic isn’t neutral; it cues a familiar gender script that “traditional marriage” politics often leans on.

The key word is “definition.” He’s not defending marriages so much as defending the boundary line around marriage. That frames the debate as one of linguistic and legal integrity rather than equal access, shifting attention from who is excluded to what must be “protected.” In the early-2000s Canadian context, when same-sex marriage was moving from courtroom to Parliament, this rhetoric functioned as a softer-edged argument against expansion: compassionate tone, firm gatekeeping. It’s conservatism with a shrug and a punchline, built to sound like common sense rather than culture war.