Lewis is the only pro-life candidate among six vying for Tory leadership
Paul Tuns:
Of the six contenders for the Conservative leadership, only one, MP Leslyn Lewis, has been rated pro-life by Campaign Life Coalition.
CLC was hoping that former Ontario MPP Roman Baber would be a viable down-ballot candidate for pro-lifers because he has vowed to allow MPs to vote their conscience and bring forth pro-life private member’s bills, but after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, Baber made it clear he supported legal abortion.
The five other Conservative leadership contenders, MPs Scott Aitchison and Pierre Poilievre, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, and former Quebec premier Jean Charest, have all vowed to not restrict abortion if they form government and would not allow MPs to bring forth private member’s bills or motions on abortion.
Conservative Party members can rank their preferences, but Campaign Life Coalition is urging supporters to only support the lone pro-life candidate, saying that “pro-abortion politicians do not deserve the support of pro-lifers.” CLC national president Jeff Gunnarson told The Interim that the long-term strategic costs of pro-lifers voting for pro-abortion candidates is that “politicians believe they can win the support of socially conservative voters while offering nothing to protect life and family.” Gunnarson stressed that Lewis is the only candidate that “deserves our support.”
Gunnarson noted that since being elected an MP last year, she has been outspoken against Trudeau’s plan to strip pro-life groups of charitable status. She was one of three MPs to address the Save our Charities rally last November on Parliament Hill.
When Roe was overturned last month, Lewis issued a statement saying she favours an “open debate” on the abortion issue, as she accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of importing American issues to divide the Canadian public. “We shouldn’t bring U.S. politics to Canada,” Lewis states, “But that means we need to have a respectful, adult discussion about all important issues and have honest discussions with fellow Canadians.”
Lewis updated her official leadership website to state, “with the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade today, it does not take a soothsayer to know how the (Trudeau) Liberals will run in the next election. It will be all about abortion.”
She said the Conservatives need to “take control” of the conversation. “We have a choice. We can try what our party has done in the last several elections and run from the issue, letting the Liberals set the agenda, or we can be the voice of unity and take control of the conversation.” Lewis said, “One way or another, this conversation is going to happen, and our party can choose to respectfully set the tone, or we can let ourselves be hapless bystanders once again. I am ready for this conversation.”
Lewis reiterated her pro-life policies which have been posted on the website since she launched her campaign: ending sex-selective abortions, banning coerced abortions, supporting pregnancy care centres, and ending foreign funding of abortions. “I have put these forward because these are the policies that bring all my friends together, both pro-choice and pro-life,” Lewis wrote.
Lewis says Liberals cannot accuse her of having a hidden agenda because she has been open about her pro-life views and willingness to debate the issue.
Lewis also said she opposed euthanasia. In a new section to her campaign website, she said Canada has become a “death on demand” country and she would like to see the country reverse course. She said, “many of us warned about a slippery slope back in 2016 as the Trudeau Liberals pushed through the legalization of euthanasia across Canada,” and, “Of course, we were dismissed and told that our fears of a government-funded death-on-demand system would never happen.” Lewis noted, “Sadly, we were right” although she “underestimated how fast this Liberal government would sprint down the slippery slope, and run towards the cliff.”
“Canada’s MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) law isn’t about compassion,” Lewis explained. “It is a betrayal of the most vulnerable among us who we should be protecting … It’s time we have a Prime Minister and government who will offer help and hope, not a death-on-demand regime that threatens the poor, the mentally ill, youth, women, the elderly, and the disabled.”
Lewis vowed to “repeal and replace Bill C-7 to restore important safeguards to protect the vulnerable and refocus efforts to deliver care to the suffering, not push them towards death.” She said a Lewis government would expand mental health treatment services and suicide prevention resources, increase access to palliative care, and double the number of weeks for Employment Insurance to family caregivers to make it “easier for families to provide the care their loved ones need.”
Lewis also promised to “enshrine conscience protections for doctors,” whom she said should “never be coerced or pressured to violate their conscience by participating in MAiD.”
