Pro-lifers, however, have little reason to celebrate Tory victory

The summer Nova Scotia election gave pro-life, pro-family voters little to cheer about, other than that the solidly pro-abortion, pro-homosexualist NDP did not win, and in fact lost seven seats and barely held on to their official opposition status (subject to several recounts). Naturally, the media leftists were disappointed, but declared this mediocre showing yet another “moral victory” for the NDP.

One wonders where “moral” enters into that notion, given the NDP’s enthusiasm for pre-partum infanticide and its concerted attack on virtually every tenet of traditional social and family morality. No NDP candidate returned the Campaign Life Coalition Nova Scotia pre-election questionnaire, and according to CLC, the party is solidly pro-abortion, advocating an expansion of abortion access to all communities, and making sex education and birth control available to all children. The partyfederal NDP MPs voted against the definition of traditional marriage that was put to a vote in the Commons on June 8.

The NDP also ran Nova Scotia’s first ever openly homosexualist candidate, Elizabeth Cusack, in Cape Breton South.

Pro-lifers can thus be happy that the NDP’s electoral bid crashed and burned, but the Tories, who stunned political pundits by winning a modest majority (also subject to several recounts), didn’t provide much encouragement to the pro-life, pro-family cause either. To their credit, more Tories (19 out of 52) responded to the CLC survey than Liberals (11 responses). Most of the answers, however, were middle-of-the-road and wishy-washy, especially on the issue of medicare funding for abortion, where the party line seemed to be, “the courts have ruled; we obey the law.”

Of course no one is suggesting that they break the law, but I’m not convinced that the law cannot be changed. These folks are supposed to be lawmakers after all, and meekly deferring to the courts on major moral issues is a cop out. There is also such a thing as moral leadership in protesting unjust laws.

Don’t expect much of that from Nova Scotia’s new Tory government, however. Premier-elect John Hamm has made some safely non-specific affirmations about restoring “forgotten family values,” and there is general agreement that Dr. Hamm is a gentlemanly and decent man, but his conservatism is definitely of the “progressive” rather than the traditional sort. For example, he said a candidate’s sexual orientation would not make any difference to him; “No, none, none whatsoever.”

Despite John Hamm’s affirmation that “we have traditional values and we must hold on to these more aggressively than we have been recently,” he did not show much courage when confronted directly with some of those issues on the campaign trail. Several of the Tory MLAs elected along with Dr. Hamm are strong social liberals who are openly pro-abortion and-or pro-gay.

One of the campaign lowlights was provided by the Tory candidate for Yarmouth, Richard Hurlburt, who expressed his views on an open-line radioshow early in the campaign about what he does when confronted by “pro-life crap.” When questioned about this, Dr. Hamm said he respects the opinion of the candidate. One CLC supporter wrote to Dr. Hamm and expressed his disappointment with the attitude expressed by Hurlburt, and Hamm’s support of that attitude. An assistant sent the following reply: “While we have respect for traditional views, we cannot impose them on the general population.” Hurlburt is one of the Tory members-elect facing a recount.

Then there’s Jane Purves, former managing editor of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, who regained the south-end Halifax Citadel riding for the Tories. Under her editorship, the independent Herald became the most pro-homosexual daily newspaper east of the Globe and Mail, with rarely a day passing without one or more gay-advocacy pieces masquerading as news showing up somewhere in its pages. To her credit, Ms. Purves returned the CLC’s questionnaire, but her responses were mostly “pro-choice.”

A pro-life friend of mine who lives in Dartmouth told me of her encounter with Greg Frampton, the 32-year-old Tory candidate in her riding. Responding to her question about his position on support for the traditional definition of marriage, Mr. Frampton replied, “But homosexuals want to get married too; what’s wrong with that?” My friend answered that if she had to explain what is wrong with that, he would never understand anyway. She estimates that she persuaded at least 12 other people, including her lifelong Tory husband, not to vote for Mr. Frampton.

According to Herm Wills, president of CLC Nova Scotia, of those elected just three PCs and two Liberals can be considered somewhat sympathetic to the concerns of CLC members and supporters based on their survey responses: Ken MacAskill, Lib; Russell MacKinnon, Lib; Rodney MacDonald, PC; Neil LeBlanc, PC; and Angus MacIsaac, PC.

As Wills put it, “It would appear on the surface that we do not have one political leader that is votable by Christian standards.