Earlier today we blogged about Day 10 of the Canadian election campaign and noted that abortion had yet to be mentioned on the campaign trail. Of course, no sooner had we posted that and the Prime Minister was asked about abortion and other social issues. He denied any interest in re-opening the abortion issue if the Conservatives win a majority. Disappointing but [...]
Ten days into the campaign and the Liberals/NDP/Bloc have yet to drop the "hidden agenda" bomb. There is plenty of time for the Coalition Left to use social issues in an attempt to make the Conservatives look scary, but it is far from clear it works (see 2004, 2006, 2008). My own theory is that Liberal fear-mongering on abortion/same-sex marriage drove many [...]
In a column on the similarities of the Conservatives and Liberals in terms economics and relation between government and the governed (excessively centrist with elections fought "between the 45-yard lines") Conrad Black notes that the only major difference between the left and right is abortion: The right-left distinction is down to Liberal demands for more daycare and the conditionalizing of foreign aid on aggressive abortion programs, [...]
This Michael Swan article in the Catholic Register implicitly sets up the false dichotomy of moral values vs. social justice. Note that Swan implies pro-lifers are single issue voters. Campaign Life Coalition is ready for the election. As Jim Hughes says, "There is nothing more important than saving life." As Joseph Sobran pointed out years ago, abortion is the ultimate issue, so single-issue [...]
Amnesty International released a report today condemning Canada for failing to live up to its reputation (in AI's eyes) as a worldwide leader in human rights promotion. (Full report is available as a PDF here.) Among the complaints in the report is that Ottawa has cut funding for feminist NGOs and that the Harper government's G8 maternal health initiative (the so-called Muskoka Initiative) did [...]
Seems like day 155. Yesterday all the discussion was about Green Party leader Elizabeth May being excluded from the leader's debate. This, May and her supporters say, is undemocratic because all views should be represented. May told reporters she will ask the uncomfortable questions no one else asks. But if the criteria is that all views be represented and leaders who ask difficult [...]
Rep. Mike Pence has an excellent piece at NRO about the need to defund Planned Parenthood. Bottom line: PP does not help women. PP and their media sycophants like to say that defunding Planned Parenthood will jeopardize women's health because it will put at risk the organization's ability to provide, for example, mammograms. Live Action exposed that lie and conclusded that "Planned Parenthood is not [...]
Rory Leishman's March column is on politicians who duck dealing with moral issues; he's looking specifically at Stephen Harper who stated in a January interview that he would not raise the abortion issue, even if he won a majority. (Indeed, he said of abortion: “I have spent my political career trying to stay out of that issue.”) Of course, as Leishman notes, politicians are all too [...]
Don Hutchinson of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada notes that advance polls will fall on Good Friday, but is thankful that at least there won't be voting on Easter Sunday. Hutchinson asks whether any of the politicians consulted a calendar. The obvious concern is that Christians will be focused on their religious obligations (quite rightly) and thus could be disenfranchised. The Toronto Star [...]
Rick Santorum was merely stating the obvious when he said in a New Hampshire radio interview that over the past 40 years not enough babies were born and therefore there are not enough workers (taxpayers) to support the growing number of retirees collecting Social Security. Abortion and anti-family policies and culture has a direct economic impact on society. This is self-evident and yet it [...]
The Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops 2011 Federal Election Guide lists has listed “Respect for life and human dignity: from conception to natural death” as the top issue for Catholics to consider when they cast a ballot. LifeSiteNews.com story here. The United Church of Canada 2011 Federal Election Kit does not mention abortion directly, but does call for [...]
As Xtra!, the homosexualist newspaper reminds us, Bill C-389, which would add transsexual and transgender to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the hate crimes provisions of the Criminal Code, has died on the Senate Order Paper because the election was called. Interim coverage of C-389 can be found here including voting records of MPs present for the vote in December.
The March issue has a chart and short story showing that abortion is the leading cause of death in Canada. Each year there are about 70,000 cardiovascular deaths and 70,000 cancer deaths, but about 100,000 abortion deaths. Not that Stats Can counts abortion as a cause of death.
Election news relevant to pro-life and pro-family Canadians. In the first policy announcement of the election, the Conservatives are proposing income splitting for families with children un der 18 -- but it won't come into effect until Ottawa balances its budget. Of course, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff doesn't like the plan. Liberal MP Raymonde Folco ( Laval-Les Iles), a pro-abortion feminist, has [...]
We will have election coverage of the Canadian election throughout the campaign here at TheInterim.com when it comes to the life and family issues. And an American libertarian David Weigel has already implicitly raised the hidden agenda/scary conservative meme: What are the stakes? I will leave it to Canada experts, but an immediate worry I see for small "L" liberals is that a [...]