I will not be voting Conservative in the upcoming Canadian elections.

[Peter]

It's an interesting anomaly of late how the so-called "Conservative" parties have generally come out tentatively and even markedly for gay marriage and civil unions.

The British Conservative Party voted for it before the Parliament last year, with only about a quarter of the Parliamentary Party voting against it, and MPs such as Francis Maude actively hammering for it to be passed.

[Peter]

Only a small handful of tories support same-sex marriage.

I'm sorry, given the propensity to get confused, I'd ask that you denote which nation's Conservatives you refer to when you do.

Assuming you mean the British Conservative Party, I'd say that the Conservative front bench voted for the Civil Unions bill last year, along with a number of backbenchers. Lets be honest: Civil Unions are gay marriage in all but name; Other than a slight problem regarding pensions, which was actually an oversight on the part of Parliament, they entail identical rights and privileges.

There's also some legal concern over formally calling in marriage in  the UK because there is a danger that the state church, the Church of England, may be forced to hand out marriages to gay couples against its will. Given that I don't want to force that sort of situation upon any religious organisation, I'll happily accept the comprimise.