Why we should vote in the coming federal election.

Most of you vote at election time, I suspect, though at every election the number of Canadians voting seems to go down. I would like to exhort you to make sure you go to the polls in the coming federal election.

For myself, the only question in recent elections has been: is the candidate pro-life or pro-abortion? My current MP, Liberal Dr. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Toronto), is a pro-abortion feminist who also supports same-sex marriage (S.S."M", from here on), so I shall vote in the hope that she will lose her seat. In the past, the other candidates in my riding were not pro-life either as far as I could make out, so I followed the rule which I apply in such cases: vote against the incumbent; in other words, defeat the sitting member. Each voter has to figure out whether that should apply in his or her riding as there may be personalities involved which may vary the choice, but I believe it to be a sound rule.

The reverse rule applies in ridings with sitting members who have a proven pro-life record. We should be united in support of these candidates.

Different election

There are two factors which make this election different from previous ones. The first is its ideological, anti-Christian character. The second is the angry response of Catholics and Evangelicals at the proposals put forward by the Liberal government. In addition there is the availability of the voting record of all sitting Members of Parliament which makes it possible to vote effectively and accurately.

The available voting record concerns precisely the anti-Christian views at issue: abortion, S.S."M", and Bill C-250. The last one threatens freedom of thought. The voting record you have received already: see the eight-page insert in C.I., February 2004 or the insert in the January 2004 Campaign Life Coalition Newsletter. Further copies are available from us, or from Campaign Life Coalition, or you can duplicate them yourselves.

What is so urgent?

What is so important and urgent about the coming election? Answer: Political analysts have calculated that if church-going Catholics and Evangelicals go to the polls with the above issues in mind, we can deliver a tremendous blow against the culture of death, strengthening the pro-life cause something that may resonate for ten years or more.

It will require the defeat of fifty to one hundred or more sitting MPs who are pro-abortion, pro-S.S."M". Impossible you say? Outlandish? Not so.

In Ontario alone there are 30 to 40 MPs who could well be defeated if church-going Catholics and Evangelicals turn up at the polls to vote them out of office. Remember, out of Ontario's 103 ridings, 98 are in Liberal hands; among them some 15 MPs have been consistently pro-life. But many of the remainder have ignored Christian teaching in favour of remaining politically correct. In other words, they chose to follow the Chr,tien-Martin line instead of listening to the vocal protests in their ridings.

What is the election about?

First, there is no real reason for a new election other than to confirm Mr. Paul Martin in office. After two months in charge, he has shown already that he has no new Policies. With a few minor exceptions, Martin is continuing the Policies of previous Liberal governments and therein lies the rub.

By the summer of 2003, the Chr,tien government was preparing an all-out attack on Christianity. First, Chr,tien bluntly put himself again on the "pro-choice" side. Second, he and his justice minister agreed to declare all ordinary marriages unconstitutional. Third, he dismissed the Church's defence of marriage, including the Vatican's, as of no concern to him. Fourth, with Bill C-13 he proposed to expand abortions to include embryonic research. Fifth, with the advice of homosexual and feminist counsellors in the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of Justice, he treated NDP MP Svend Robinson's dangerous private member's Bill C-250 (adding sexual orientation to the Hate Crimes Act) as a government bill, and saw it through the House of Commons (see article on C-250 in C.I., Jan. 2004, pp. 11-15).

What has Paul Martin done? Bill C-250 has been revived in the Senate. Bill C-13 (now Bill C-6) is about to be brought back. The Prime Minister has reiterated several times (in December 2003 and in January 2004), either personally or via his Minister of Justice, that he remains committed to same-sex "marriage," via the Charter and the Supreme Court. He is, of course, also pro-abortion, despite the ever-growing evidence of what a disaster this anti-life stance will have on Canada's future.

Some practical observations

Some Liberal MPs have disappeared already. Some have been pushed out or have resigned: Herb Dhaliwal (Vancouver); Martin Cauchon (Outremont); David Collenette (Don Valley East); Robert Nault (Kenora); Lyle Van Clief (Prince Edward-Hastings). Others resigned voluntarily, such as John Manley (Ottawa South), or got posted away: Alan Rock (Etobicoke-Centre) and, of course, Jean Chr,tien will not run again.

Other demoted Cabinet Ministers were placed by newspaper columnist Jeffrey Simpson (Globe, Jan. 10) as among the "living dead": Don Boudria, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Gerry Byrne, Charles Caccia, Elinor Caplan, St,phane Dion, Wayne Easter, David Kilgour, Lawrence MacAuley, Jane Stewart, Robert Thibault and Susan Whelan. With the exception of David Kilgour, all the above voted the abortion-marriage party line. If they stand for office again, they cannot promise their constituents to have much influence in Ottawa.

Other pro-death candidates such as Sheila Copps is fighting Tony Valeri in Hamilton, and Carolyn Parrish and Steve Mahoney in Mississauga are fighting one another for the Liberal nomination. Add the fact that Martin organizers are also undermining the re-nomination of a number of Liberal MPs they don't want to return to parliament, including a number of women candidates. In summary, we are looking at the disappearance of some 30 pro-abortion, pro-S.S."M.", MPs without having lifted a finger.

Unfortunately, this process of undermining sitting members also includes trying to get rid of pro-life MPs such as Paul Szabo. Szabo, a Catholic and champion against Bill C13 (now Bill C-6), is being opposed by an untested Portuguese Canadian who no doubt has been promised a reward if he succeeds in defeating Szabo for the nomination. He has used the one Portuguese parish among the six parishes in the Mississauga-South riding for his base to get the ethnic vote signed up secretly, while Szabo had a hard time getting membership forms from his party office. Szabo has been Bill C-13's major opponent and the Martin organizers want him out because he has "embarrassed" the past Liberal government.

Conservative Party

Among the Conservatives, the six pro-abortion, pro S.S."M.", MPs have departed already either from the party, or from Parliament, or both. Andr, Bachand (Arthabaska) has retired; Joe Clark (Calgary-Centre) sits as an Independent and is unlikely to run again; Rick Borotsik (Brandon-Souris) has retired. Defectors Scott Brison (KingHants), John Herron (Fundy Royal) and Keith Martin (Esquimalt) are running in their old ridings but as switchovers to the Liberals. All three should and can be defeated.

Now what about Prime Ministers who are Catholic?

What about our "Catholic" Prime Minister? The P.M., apparently, sees nothing wrong with the Supreme Court declaring the marriages of millions of Canadians, including his own, "unconstitutional." As he has said many times, he is prepared to accept the Court's rulling. This means scuttling the God-given injunction that marriage should be restricted to the voluntary union of one man and one woman (see insert i-viii, "Faith without works?" C.I., Feb. 2004). Lately, he has seen to it that the Supreme Court will not hear the "marriage" case on April 18, as scheduled. By introducing a new question for the Supreme Court to answer, he has insured that the hearing will be in the fall of 2004 at the earliest, that is, after the election. Thus, he thinks, S.S."M." will not be an issue during the election and Canadians will simply forger it. It is precisely what we hope to prevent.

A particular question

Some Catholics ask: why should a Catholic Prime Minister impose his Roman Catholic views upon the nation? Why not leave him alone? Isn't he the Prime Minister of all the people, including those who don't agree with the traditional definition of marriage?

And, of course, Mr. Martin agrees: "I am a practising Catholic and I have responsibilities as a legislator and those responsibilities must be taken in a wider perspective," he stated in response to the Pope's July 30, 2003 invitation to consider the nature of marriage from an older perspective than that introduced by the "same-sex marriage" judges. (See C.I., Feb. 2004, insert p. viii.)

What is the fundamental flaw in the thinking of such Catholics? They have forgotten what Christianity is all about. The widest perspective on all issues is found in authentic Christianity, precisely because it is a God's religion. When the Church defends moral standards, it does so on behalf not just of Catholics or Christians in general but on behalf of all mankind.

Canadian judges base their same-sex rulings on a Canadian Charter of Rights all of twenty-two years old; the Church, on the other hand, goes back to the beginning of time. "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them" (Genesis: 1:27). It then connects this to Jesus of 2000 years ago, who added: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. So they are no longer two but one" (Matthew 19:5-6).

What more can we say here than the simple observation that the casting aside of traditional marriage will have disastrous consequences for out nation, just as abortion and the whole contraceptive mentality have skewed out future population (see editorial). So let us be courageous. Get involved. Oppose the culture

Urgent Action Required

1. Pray that Catholics and Evangelicals vote pro-life in the federal election.

2. Pray for the success of pro-life, pro-family candidates in the coming election.

3. Get family and friends involved in opposing the culture of death.

Fr. Alphonse de Valk is a Catholic priest by vocation and a historian by profession.