Eight long-time pro-life Conservative MPs are not running for re-election: David Anderson (Cypress Hills- Grasslands), Brad Trost (Saskatoon-University), Guy Lauzon (Stormont -Dundas -South Glengarry), Larry Miller (Bruce-Grey- Owen Sound), Alex Nuttall (Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte), Bev Shipley (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex), Kevin Sorenson (Battle River-Crowfoot), and Dave Van Kesteren (Chatham-Kent-Leamington).
Campaign Life Coalition national president Jeff Gunnarson told The Interimthey, along with Mark Warawa (Langley-Aldergrove), who announced he would not run but passed away this spring, will be greatly missed. Gunnarson noted that they regularly attended the National March for Life and Rose Dinner, sponsored pro-life events, hosted press conferences with pro-life groups, presented petitions in the House of Commons, advertised in The Interim, and all had 100 per cent pro-life voting records.
Anderson and Warawa introduced pro-life legislation: Anderson on conscience rights earlier this year and Warawa on sex-selection abortion in 2013. Gunnarson said he hopes another pro-life MP will take up Anderson’s conscience rights’ bill in the next Parliament, after the Liberal-dominated Parliament defeated his private member’s bill in May.
Gunnarson had a special acknowledgement for Trost, who highlighted pro-life and pro-family issues when ran for the Conservative leadership in 2017. “Campaign Life Coalition and the pro-life movement owe Trost a great debt of gratitude for his agitation on behalf of the unborn and pro-life cause.” Gunnarson said Trost was “one of the few to take it on the chin for his pro-life position and he will be missed.”
Gunnarson said it will be “tough to replace them but the reality of politics is we have to keep working to fill the House of Commons with pro-life members.”
The CLC president said “although they will be missed, we look forward to working with returning and new pro-life MPs.”
