Ontario's pro-life community hopes to make some impact in provincial municipal elections scheduled for Monday, November 10. While the provincial government's mega-city legislation is expected to dominate the municipal election agenda, voters will be curious to note what measure of pro-family sentiment might be found among candidates vying for city councillor and school board trustee positions. Pro-family elements will also note what [...]
Former MP and committed pro-life supporter Roseanne Skoke is considering her political future after failing in her bid to become the next Premier of the Province of Nova Scotia. In a July 12-13 leadership convention, Skoke finished well behind eventual winner Russell MacLellan. The margain of victory was nearly 3,000 votes. Skoke, who recently won the Joseph P. Borowski Award for her [...]
Christian groups on hit list? Interim special Pro-life organizations have expressed concern over Department of National Revenue plans to revoke the charitable status of a number of Christian or church-affiliated organizations. The July 12, 1997 Canada Gazette which publishes federal government notices, lists hundreds of organizations facing a change to their charitable tax status. Charitable status allows organizations to issue tax receipts [...]
There have been many requests for information on the ‘Gag Laws’, their effects on pro-life efforts, and why people were unaware of them. The two gag laws, C169 and C114 illustrate how easily citizens can be robbed of their democratic rights. Bill C169: October 25, 1983 On its face Bill C169 was a dull series of amendments to the Election Act, mainly [...]
Two key figures in the recent Ontario Liberal Leadership race have shown their true colors on life and family issues. Ottawa South MPP Dalton McGuinty, now leader of the party, had previously tried to appeal to pro-life Ontarians. In an Interim interview during the race, McGuinty presented himself as a “moderate” on the abortion issue. Although he promised no concrete measures to [...]
Interim special In the wake of the June 2 federal election, Christian Heritage Party leader Ron Gray expressed concern about whether the CHP and the pro-life movement have yet succeeded in forming a solid bloc of pro-life voters in this country. “Why are some pro-lifers not voting pro-life?” he asked. “It seems as if some pro-lifers are voting more according to their [...]
Interim Staff Pro-life supporters can take small consolation from the results of the June 2 federal election, which saw the Jean Chrétien Liberals returned to power with a reduced majority. The election also saw the Reform Party replace the Bloc Quebecois as the official opposition, while the Conservative and New Democrat parties rebounded from the 1993 catastrophe to regain official party status. [...]
Pro-life supporters sometimes have a difficult time putting a positive face on what appears to be a steady diet of distressing news. A case in point is the recent federal election which saw the Chrétien Liberals returned to power for at least four more years of middle-of-the-road opportunism. Although the significance of a reduced majority won’t be lost on the government, there [...]
One of the surprises of the 1997 federal election campaign was the number of New Democratic Party candidates who claimed some measure of pro-life sympathy. According to information compiled for Campaign Life Coalition Voters’ Guide, the majority of NDP candidates either skirted the pro-life question or retreated to the party position on “women’s issues.” By election day however, Campaign Life had received [...]
Interim Staff Voters’ guides and questionnaires are gaining new prominence as a way to determine candidates’ positions on a variety of issues. A number of organizations, led by Campaign Life Coalition, have turned to questionnaires to help voters make a more informed choice at election time. Despite candidates’ reluctance to deal with questionnaires, the experience of the recent federal election reveals their [...]
Interim Staff Reform MP Sharon Hayes won’t forget the ordeal she went through to retain her Port Moody-Coquitlam (British Columbia) seat in the June 2 federal election. In an election marked by Reform’s effort to wrestle Opposition party status away from the separation-bent Bloc Quebecois and by individual MPs need to overcome bigotry charges clumsily placed in Reform’s path, Hayes faced a [...]
Former MP Roseanne Skoke, now a candidate for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party leadership, says if the provincial party wants to avoid the sort of collapse that wiped out federal Grit representation in the province on June 2, they’d be well advised to support her at the leadership convention in Halifax on July 11-12. “Enough is enough,” says Ms. Skoke, 43, who [...]
Interim Staff Pro-life supporters can take small consolation from the results of the June 2 federal election, which saw the Jean Chrétien Liberals returned to power with a reduced majority. The election also saw the Reform Party replace the Bloc Quebecois as the official opposition, while the Conservative and New Democrat parties rebounded from the 1993 catastrophe to regain official party status. [...]
While an incumbent MP would naturally encourage pro-life voters to support his or her party in the upcoming federal election some pro-life Liberal Members cannot in conscience support their own party. When it comes to life and family issues selected Liberal backbenchers oppose the anti-family stand taken by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and the Liberal cabinet. This can prove problematic for pro-life [...]
The pro-life movement has seen in the Reform party a hope for achieving the legal protection of life from conception to natural death. In fact, some pro-lifers have sought nomination to run for Reform in the election. I was one such aspirant and my experiences expose a flaw in Reform’s appeal to pro-lifers. Attending the meetings of the riding associates, I found [...]