The Christian Heritage Party of British Columbia is running five candidates in the provincial campaign. BC is the only provincial wing of the party. CHP-BC leader Rod Taylor said there was a need for a provincial party because, “it is important that men and women of Christian conviction: pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-free speech and pro-fiscal sanity—stand up together to raise the standard of righteousness.” Taylor told The Interim, that education and health care are a provincial jurisdiction and that it is there that the “intentional undermining of Christian values” are most visible, the “two areas in which human life and family are most vulnerable.”
Taylor said CHP-BC candidates are raising concerns about the push for transgender rights in the curriculum and the undermining of parental rights by the education establishment. He also said the party’s candidates are pointing out that teachers that dissent from the sexual diversity agenda of the education establishment have no conscience rights and therefore no job protection.
CHP-BC supports a voucher system so parents have more choice in education, “which would allow parents and their children to use the per-student allocation of funding in whatever school choice they deem best suited to their beliefs (public, chartered, independent or home schooling) and which they feel will help their children achieve academic excellence.”
Taylor has condemned the fact, “the BC government continues to promote and facilitate unfettered access to taxpayer-funded abortion,” and his party would defund abortion (and assisted-suicide). CHP-BC would reinvest money saved by defunding abortion to support adoption, maternal care, mental health, and life-affirming palliative care.
The party also advocates conscience rights for doctors, nurses, and all medical staff.
Taylor said socially conservative British Columbians need an alternative to the Liberal Party of BC, which “have done nothing to protect the unborn and still have the abortion ‘bubble zones.” He points out that the government hurriedly passed Bill 27, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the BC Human Rights Code. He said “until Christians and all pro-life people stand up and vote their consciences, the big party machines will continue to compromise,” on moral issues.
The party ran two candidates in 2011. This year, the CHP-BC candidates are Dan Cameron (Abbotsford Mission), Ron Gray (Abbotsford South), Kevin Pielak (Surrey-Guildford), Lynn Simcox (Abbotsford West) and Rod Taylor (Stikine).
Election day is May 9.
