I reluctantly tuned in to the third and last debate between Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush. I was afraid they might have gotten into a fist fight. Well, nothing exciting like that happened.

However, a lot of curious things did happen. There was a subtle attempt by both Bush and Kerry to grab the Catholic and evangelical Protestant vote. There was Kerry bragging about being an altar boy, with his religious beliefs now as far away from the Catholic church as the Dalai Lama’s. To demonstrate his rich religious knowledge, he rattled off the first two Commandments. He failed to mention any of the other eight including “Thou shalt not kill” – one of which would cover killing unborn babies.

Kerry was most unconvincing when he discussed his religious beliefs. They just didn’t ring true. (Maybe the rumour is true that he did pray God would send him a wealthy bag woman. And sure enough, he ended up marrying a Heinz billionaire divorcee. That’s what Kerry, in the debate, described as marrying really up.) He dragged his late mother into it, saying that on her death bed, she told him that she had only one word of advice for him: “Integrity. Integrity. Integrity.” (Sorry, Mrs. Kerry, he hasn’t got any. Any. Any.)

Your tender childhood beliefs, Senator Kerry, are sure put to the test when you enter the arena of adult life. When you say publicly before millions of viewers that you’re a Catholic, but you don’t think there’s anything wrong with partial-birth abortion, or killing unborn babies or experimenting with embryonic stem cells (when adult stem cell research has proven better), then you’re not – as you pretend to be – a practising Catholic, even if you went to Mass every day.

Fudging answers is a practised skill of all seasoned politicians. Senator Kerry, to say that you are in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman, and then bragging on TV about your acquaintances of both sexes who are engaged in all kinds of sexual acrobatics with your rousing approval, is hard to stomach.

When asked hard questions by the interviewer about his stand on Roe v. Wade and abortion, Senator Kerry was further away from the Catholic church’s position on abortion than Henry Morgentaler. Henry does not believe in partial-birth abortion. Morgentaler says publicly it’s a baby after 21 weeks. (And Morgentaler is a left-wing Liberal voter, too.)

When Kerry was asked questions about his stand on picking U.S. Supreme Court judges, he assured the audience that in no way would he or Senator Ted Kennedy (no relation) accept a pro-life judge. No matter even if he was as brilliant as pro-life judge Robert Bork, who a number of years ago was denied a position on the Supreme Court. To us Canadians it’s a tactic that’s very familiar. So much for Kerry’s vaunted stance on fair play for all.

I almost fell off my chair when they were debating king-sized guns (the kind that would blow a hole in a side of a building) being available to U.S. citizens, when Kerry mentioned that he was a hunter and a “gunman!” Heavens! Kerry a gunman? To us in Canada, it brings back connotations of media coverage: “Lone gunman sticks up bank and makes off with half a million.”

John “Chicken Little” Kerry would be sorely lacking as a leader on the world stage if he had to wait for approval from the United Nations to commence military action. By the time he got unanimous approval, he would be invading a giant cemetery. Check out Rwanda and North Africa for confirmation of this.

Why should Canadians be concerned about U.S. elections? They are a mirror image of us. We are lucky in many ways that we are facing the U.S. and not Mexico. The U.S. is our biggest trading partner. Our feature films, our music and theatre are heavily U.S.-influenced and so on. We have a lot in common with the U.S. – 90 per cent of our comic strips are U.S. syndicated. With a “Kerry Catholic” in the White House (God forbid), we would have a mirror image of ourselves with a “Kerry Catholic” now prime minister of Canada and a “Kerry Catholic” as premier of Ontario.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said bluntly to us in his TV debate: “I believe in a woman’s right to reproductive choice.” Martin thinks a woman has a right to kill her own unborn baby.

No, she doesn’t. Every Catholic should know that.