Christians must create their own election strategy.

Is Canada a dying nation? We say it is. We say its dying is a fact. We also say that for Canadians to close their eyes so as not to have to deal with this fact, is gross stupidity.

The demographic crisis which is upon us now is far more threatening and in need of urgent action than the issue of climate change, important as that may be in its own right. Catholic Insight therefore pleads with Canadians to proceed with great haste on facing its own population crisis.

In this edition Catholic Insight brings its fourth installment of the "Future of Canada" series, begun in February under the subtitle "Election Part I." As explained again in Part IV, the series has three sections, with Section C devoted to philosophical/religious renewal.

In the A and B sections we discuss future national and provincial policies as we, Catholics and other Christians, interpret the needs of the nation, not as Canada's mainstream newspapers and television interpret them. Naturally, we do use their reports and news as the raw materials for our reflections, and because this political news is often distorted and difficult to interpret, the reflections often seem feeble or tentative. For example, Section B Part Two, entitled "Record of the Conservative Party," presents a summary of the March 2007 budget as 'family-friendly,' followed by a short essay on the government holding fast to its efforts in bringing about changes in judicial appointments, despite shrill criticisms. We interpret both the budget and the judicial changes as good omens for Canada, but whether it will work out this way remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, we are on solid ground when we make two main demands. The first one pertains to the coming demographic crisis (Section A); the other to the legal mess created by the previous Liberal government when Prime Minister Paul Martin gave legal status to homosexual unions as equal to real marriage in 2005 (Section B).

With respect to the first issue, Canada's regressive, plunging birthrate demands that abortions and sterilizations be halted immediately. Together with this, the government's promotion of contraception should be suspended. Instead they should increase financial support for the family. We summarize this part with the slogan: Abortion: an election issue.

The other issue, same-sex marriage's (SSM) newly acquired legal equality, has created, in Canada and elsewhere, two opposing principles, equality for SSM against freedom of speech and religion. This cannot and must not be accepted. Many news items and two past editorials have commented on this phenomenon: "Same-sex 'marriage,'" "The battle against God and Country" (July/Aug. 2006) and "Canadians' right to speak freely" (Nov. 2006). This last editorial listed a series of attacks on the freedom and right to reject the government's and the Supreme Court's actions in this respect. We summarize this issue as: Freedom of speech and religion: an election issue.

As the British Cardinal Murphy O'Connor recently put it, in circumstances now similar to Canada, religious freedom is more than the freedom to worship:

"It is the freedom to serve the common good according to the convictions of our faith. It seems to me we are being asked to accept a different version of our democracy, one in which diversity and equality are held to be at odds with religion." He added, "What looks like liberality is in reality a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere."

We want to add: it is not only a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere, it has intruded into the private sphere. Canadians are told what they may not say and do in the workplace, or what letters they may not write to newspapers, or articles they may not publish in magazines. Municipalities are told that they must recognize and honour parades by those who have made their distorted sexuality into a personal identity.

Canadians of all religions must pull together and work to end the deadly silence imposed by the politically correct media, politicians, academics and jurists on abortion and coerced homosexual equality. We are running out of time both on the population crisis and on the consequences of same-sex marriage on freedom of speech and religion.