By Paul Tuns The Interim Pro-life, pro-family groups in four provinces are urging citizens who hold traditional values to get involved in local politics. Municipal (city council) and school board elections will be held in Nova Scotia Oct. 21, in Saskatchewan Oct. 25 and in Ontario Nov. 14. Municipal elections will be held in Prince Edward Island Nov. 6. Campaign Life Coalition [...]
The media, meanwhile wring their hands over the rise of the 'religious right' By Paul Tuns The Interim The ascendancy of Stockwell Day in Canadian politics has focused attention on the role of pro-life and pro-family organizations and citizens in the political arena, leading the political Left to worry about the rise of a so-called Religious Right in Canada. Maclean's Sept. 11 [...]
In the days following the death of Pierre Trudeau, a memorial Mass for the former prime minister was held at the Roman Catholic cathedral in a major Canadian city. A young woman, known to us here at The Interim, attended the Mass to pray for Trudeau, and to try to come to terms with his legacy from the perspective of her faith. [...]
Former Prime Minister's legacy is abortion on demand and judicial activism By Mike Mastromatteo The Interim A newspaper article in the fall of 1999 listed Pierre Elliot Trudeau as the most influential Canadian statesman of the twentieth century. The article was prompted by the former prime minister's 80th birthday, and by the frenzy of list-producing that accompanied the arrival of the year [...]
A wild rumour was circulating around Ottawa that Prime Minister Jean Chretien was planning to join Ted Turner's Religion. It was going to be done publicly after the recently held Millennium Peace Summit on religion and world peace at the United Nations. As The Interim'sofficial rumour investigator, I was asked by our editor in chief, David Curtin, to investigate it. I phoned the [...]
By Paul Tuns Just because you don't hear much from the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus (PPLC), that doesn't mean they aren't doing anything. Indeed, like much caucus work, this unofficial caucus (it doesn't receive funding from Parliament) works behind the scenes. While they won't release the names of PPLC members, the number of MPs in the caucus, or even the party breakdown, the [...]
By Paul Tuns The British Columbia government filed a petition in the BC Supreme Court July 20 asking the federal government to allow same-sex marriages, becoming just the latest legal challenge along with the City of Toronto, six separate Ontario same-sex couples and a Montreal couple seeking societal approval of homosexuality. Although marriage is a federal responsibility, provinces and municipalities issue marriage [...]
Pro-lifers who've been at it for any length of time have experienced many frustrations. One of the most peculiar is the tendency of so many otherwise pro-life Canadians to vote Liberal, even when the Liberal candidate in their riding is pro-abortion. Experienced pro-life leaders say that Catholics are especially loyal to the party, even though the party hasn't been very loyal to [...]
If I wasn't suspicious by nature, I'd say that elections were decided by Joe Public getting out and voting. Everybody's vote is equal - right? Wrong. It's who's got the extra clout. In five years, according to Robert MacDermid, a political science professor at York University in Toronto, who tracks such things, the Ontario Tories have received a staggering $50 million from [...]
Espousing radically conservative views on abortion, capital punishment and same-sex unions in a largely liberal country is not the route to 24 Sussex Drive," wrote Robert Lewis, editor of Maclean's magazine recently. Mr. Lewis was responding to protests that the magazine's July 10 cover headline "How scary?" beside a photo of newly-elected Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, was a bit over the top. [...]
Commentary by Paul Tuns The Interim On July 8, Canadian Alliance (CA) members elected former Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day as their new leader, giving hope to pro-life, pro-family conservatives that a national leader might finally represent their views in Ottawa. Day beat his competitor, party founder Preston Manning, by almost two to one. The four-month campaign was relatively quiet until late May [...]
The preoccupation of pro-life and pro-family people in federal politics these days is the Canadian Alliance leadership race, so much so that pro-life leaders have had to fend off allegations that they are shifting from their traditional non-partisan stance. For the longest time Canada's pro-life movement has endorsed or rejected individual candidates, whatever their party affiliations, based on their track records and [...]
Church leader challenges Prime Miniter Chrétien on upport for abortion In a homily delivered May 31, Ottawa's Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Gervais issued an unprecedented challenge to the Liberal Party of Canada and the government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, for their support of abortion. The homily was given at a Mass for the Feast of the Visitation, in which Catholics commemorate [...]
Long leaves key policy questions unanswered Analysis by David Curtin The Interim *Note: this on line version contains a few corrections to the original printed version Campaign Life Coalition's recent survey of the Canadian Alliance leadership candidates affirms what The Interim reported last month: that Preston Manning and Stockwell Day are acceptable or even promising on life and family issues, but that [...]
I was shocked to learn that a 15-year-old high school student known as `Mafiaboy,' the alleged suburban Montréal-area cyber hacker who was charged recently with jamming CNN web sites, has announced that he is challenging Joe Clark for the federal Tory leadership. Mafiaboy, readers may recall, shut down in February some of the world's most popular Internet sites, costing the operators hundreds [...]