Tim Hudak, provincial leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservate Party, made a generally favourable impression at the press conference at Queen’s Park I attended recently. There’s a core there that feel that he’s an apple that needs some polishing. (But so did former Premier Mike Harris.) I found that Hudak was forceful, articulate, and exhibited strong leadership talents.
Hudak reminded me of U.S. Republican vice-president hopeful, Paul Ryan, who I saw on TV, an unlikely Wisconsin congressman who was hidden in a farm field of would-be-presidential candidates before being selected by Mitt Romney to be his running mate. Unlike Canada’s foggy political system, if Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are elected as a team, Ryan is only a bad cough away from being the President of the United States.
What astonishes me is the different approaches the U.S. and Canada take regarding religion when it comes to picking political candidates. The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, was some sort of “bishop” in the Mormon church while his running mate, Paul Ryan, father of three children, proudly claims that “he tries to apply the teachings of his Catholic faith to his work.”
In Canada, many Catholic politicians would rather eat a bushel of cold spaghetti than openly admit they were “Paul Ryan” Catholics. In the U.S. politicians run after the Catholic vote; in Canada they run from it. Most Canadian Catholic politicians and their advisors feel if they could get the Catholic vote it would cost them more votes than they would get. With them it’s winning. Principles can wait until they get elected.
Paul Ryan doesn’t wait for the Promised Land to occur but takes steps in that direction. “This is a time where people of all faiths – especially Catholics – have to stand up and speak for our rights,” Ryan said. “And if we do we will rekindle civil society.”
Paul Ryan has the same problems in the U.S. that Canadians face with our religious liberties are being sacrificed.
In an August 17 conference call, organized by the on-line fundraising group, Catholics2012.org, Ryan expressed concerns about a U.S. federal mandate that requires most employers to offer health insurance plans that offer contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so it violates their consciences.
This mandate in the U.S. has drawn strong criticism from people from various religious and political backgrounds and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. Critics of the mandate said it infringes upon religious freedom and could force Catholic hospitals, schools and charitable institutions in the U.S. to shut down operations rather than violate their sincerely held religious convictions. Ryan warned that this “assault on our liberties” constitutes “a serious threat to all peoples of faith.” Ryan also said “it is a violation of the First Amendment of the (U.S) Bill of Rights.”
Tim Hudak is seeking to be the next premier of Ontario, ridding Ontario of Dalton McGuinty, a politician who claims to be a Catholic but is pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage,” and who yawns at historic Christian values.
Unfortunately we don ‘t have a Paul Ryan in Canada, but we do have a Timothy Patrick Hudak, with some similarities: Hudak is a Catholic, of Slovak descent, from his father’s side and Irish/Franco-Ontario from his from his mother, Anne Marie’s, side. Tim Hudak married Deb Hutton and they have a young daughter, Miller.
In 2009 Hudak told a conservative group of Christians that he opposed abortion and back in the 1990s had signed petitions calling for the defunding of abortions. However, on July 18, 2011, leading up to the Oct. 6 provincial election last year, Hudak may have tempered his position, there was no indication that he had abandoned it. When he was asked loaded questions by a hostile press whether he was “anti-choice” or “pro-choice,” Hudak understandably refused to answer this loaded question. It’s an “anti- choice” tactic and a false alternative to give people. It should be: pro-life. Would politicians like to be asked whether they are in favour of killing pre-born babies or putting them up for adoption when they were born? I can imagine a flood of pro-abort politicians heading for the exits.
Tim Hudak is anxious to tap into a big city vote that has largely avoided his party’s courting. They are not going to accept the Tories if Hudak doesn‘t come out courageously as a loyal pro-life Catholic, a practicing Christian seeking the premier`s job. He might be surprised how many other people with similar values are on the side of the angels. Hudak`s record indicates he has the qualifications and the capabilities but that’s not enough. He’s got to have the guts. Like Paul Ryan does.
