Soconvivium

In the May issue Interim columnist Rory Leishman writes about why Canada should hold a referendum on abortion funding. Leishman says: A referendum is a powerful tool for educating voters. If a referendum on abortion funding were to get underway in Canada, chances are that as more and more Canadians considered the issue, the proportion opposed to the current regime of full [...]

Campaign Life Coalition says that May 12, just ten days after the Canadian federal election, is the perfect time to take part in the National March for Life in Ottawa: The timing of the federal election, less than 2 weeks before our National March For Life in Ottawa could not be better. As a slew of new MPs are preparing for for work [...]

Belatedly The Interim wishes every mother a Happy Mother's Day, and echo the sentiment in this Frank Klees tweet: "Happy Mother's Day to all who have that awesome responsibility. You all deserve to be nominated for Sainthood." As we editorialized last year: The family is the school of love and it is taught only as it is given. The cultural problems arising [...]

Earlier today Oz Clark complained that Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak flip-flopped on HRCs and the Tory leader deserves to be criticized for doing so. But I want to add to Clark's comments on political parties broadening support. Clark observes that often politicians seek to broaden support by abandoning the positions that got them elected leader in the first place (this happens on both the Left [...]

I was disappointed but not surprised to see Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak backtrack on his leadership race campaign promise to scrap the Ontario Human Rights Commission. When Hudak ran for the PC leadership in 2009, he said he favoured using courts to prosecute cases where legal niceties such as presumption of innocence and evidence are taken into consideration and thus get rid of [...]

Harold Albrecht is the Conservative MP from Kitchener-Conestoga and is a principled pro-life, pro-family conservative. On Monday night as he and his wife Betty were preparing to go to the victory party -- he had just won a third term -- she suffered a spontaneous intracranial hemorrhagea. Betty died yesterday. She was 59. By all accounts Betty was a supportive wife in all of [...]

Steve Jalsevac of LifeSiteNews has a good commentary on the Canadian election in which he calls for more engagement with our elected officials. He says it is the responsibility of MPs to uphold what is right, not to slavishly follow the party leader. It is our responsibility to ensure MPs are educated about moral issues, especially in light of the failure of so-called religious leaders to [...]

Here is my first initial take on the election which resulted in Conservative majority, the historically large NDP opposition, halving the Liberal caucus and practically eliminating the separatist (and socially left-wing) Bloc Quebecois. Several pro-life Conservative incumbents who were thought to be vulnerable (Kelly Block, Stephen Woodworth) did well, but by my count, the majority of pro-life Liberals lost (Alan Tonks, Paul Szabo, Dan McTeague). There is [...]

On May 2, Canadians will go to the polls for the 41st time in the country's history and Globe and Mail columnist Judith Timson attempts to resurrect the hidden agenda meme one more time. The life section columnist says 1) Stephen Harper can't be trusted to not re-open the abortion issue because unlike Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff he has not affirmed [...]

From our May issue, report cards for the Canadian party leaders (based on life and family issues): Jim Hnatiuk: A+ Stephen Harper: C+ Michael Ignatieff: F Jack Layton: F Gilles Duceppe: F Elizabeth May: F

Former Interim columnist and larger-than-life pro-life personality Fr. Ted Colleton passed away last night at the age of 97. Fr. Ted's favourite quote is the one attributed to Edmund Burke: "All evil needs to flourish is that good men do nothing." That is why, after spending most of his life in Ireland and Africa, upon coming to Canada for the final few years [...]

On the weekend, Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson said even if many Conservative caucus members are pro-life, Stephen Harper doesn't want to touch the abortion issue because he thinks it will prevent him from gaining seats. That's the conventional wisdom, at least. The NDP has a plan for universal daycare:  emulate the Quebec model of subsidized $7-a-day daycare. It will cost [...]

Here is a list of 10 pro-abortion, anti-family candidates I hope lose on May 2. There were many to choose from and it would have been a different list if certain incumbents were running again, but alas Liberals like Keith Martin and Raymonde Folco,  NDP Bill Siksay, and Bloc Quebecois Francine Lalonde did not run for re-election. Furthermore, I would have had a different Tory on the list [...]

There are five riding social conservatives should watch with particular interest: 1. Mississauga South features a pro-life Liberal and pro-life Conservative. 2. Guelph features a strong pro-life, pro-family Tory challenger against a Liberal MP who insinuates he is pro-life and pro-family by telling church-goers he attends church himself -- despite voting for Bob Rae's motion to include abortion in maternal health. 3. Kitchener Centre [...]