Rod Taylor
When the election writ was dropped, Christian Heritage Party leader Rod Taylor was running in the by-election in Ottawa West-Nepean. Taylor told The Interim in May that he chose not to run in Skeena-Bulkley Valley, where he ran three times before, so he could increase the CHP’s media exposure by running in a riding near the nation’s capital. Taylor’s local efforts will include knocking on doors, signage, and online advertising in order to “run a strong and highly-visible campaign” in the riding.
The CHP nominated 22 candidates when The Interim went to press on August 21. More than half of them were in Ontario (12), along with four in Alberta, three in Manitoba, two in B.C., and one in Prince Edward Island. The party was still looking for candidates to run in other ridings where the Conservatives are not running a pro-life candidate of their own.
In the party’s August 4 communiqué, Taylor said, “our candidates will be getting out on the streets and up to the doorsteps across this nation to tell voters about Canada’s only federal pro-life, pro-family, common-sense, small-government, freedom-loving party.”
Taylor said that the extended campaign is an opportunity to talk about important issues, noting that the political leaders and the media ignore abortion. “The fact that we are terminating the equivalent of 4,000 classrooms of children each year is something (Stephen Harper) does not want to talk about.” The CHP, however, does want to talk about abortion and euthanasia, among other issues other parties ignore. “We think how you treat the vulnerable and defenseless is at least as important as balancing the budget.”
Taylor connected abortion to the economic issues that many politicians and voters do care about. “Protecting life might help us to balance the budget,” he wrote. “Approximately 900,000 babies have been killed by abortion since the Conservatives have been in power. Had they been born, they would have added to the nation’s economic growth, first as consumers and later as producers. Children need food, toys and clothes. They need teachers. As young adults, they buy houses and cars and build businesses. Children have value, not only for their intrinsic worth as human beings but also for their creative potential.”
CHP deputy leader Peter Vogel said in an August 11 communiqué that the August 6 leaders’ debate hosted by Maclean’s was missing 13 party leaders who were not invited to join Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservatives, NDP leader Tom Mulcair, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May on stage. Vogel said that host Paul Wells narrowly focused the debate on four topics: the economy, the environment, the state of Canadian democracy, and foreign policy and security. Vogel said “because CHP Canada’s leader was excluded,” issues such as justice, family, and the sanctity of life “were not raised.”
Exclusion of the CHP and other parties from the debates, said Vogel, is a form of “political donation” to the four parties that were invited. Vogel complained, “preferential treatment of political parties skews voter’s knowledge of their options.”
