Campaign Life Coalition has never endorsed a federal political party.  As a national pro-life organization it has steadfastly worked towards enshrining in law, the right to life of every human being, from conception onwards.  This has involved educating Canadians politically and campaigning for the election of a pro-life Parliament.

CLC has, from its very beginning, carefully and conscientiously researched every political candidate in Canada, regardless of his or her affiliation, relying on the candidate’s response to a very simple questionnaire, his or her established record including public and private statements and, in the case of incumbents, his or her voting record.  This information has always been made available to the public.

While many pro-lifers, acting in good faith, view the Reform Party as the one certain to rescue Canada’s future, Campaign Life Coalition cannot endorse the Reform Party due to its espousal of the referenda approach to moral issues such as the right to life.  It will never accept the premise that decisions on moral and human rights issues can be made based on popular opinion.

In order to provide a clear focus on the debate, we would like to share, with the permission of the correspondents, the following written discourse between the Christian Freedom Party’s Ken Campbell who encourages support for the Reform Party, and the Christian Heritage Party’s national leader Ed Vanwoudenberg, who sees the Reform Party as one which not only refuses to take an absolute moral stand but one which views as totally unacceptable, candidates who do.

May 16, 1991

To: Mr. Ed Vanwoudenberg and Mr. Elmer Knudson

Gentlemen:

Last night I attended a public meeting in Oakville of the Reform Party of Canada.  I compared notes with a long-time friend and fellow-founder of the Halton Renaissance Committee, (1974), who sat with me while awaiting the start of the evening’s program.  We agreed that the liberating spirit of the Reform Party’s response to the crisis in Canadian political life paralleled our response as parents to the crisis in Ontario public education which launched the Renaissance crusade for faith, family and freedom 17 years ago.

Then, the common cause which united us was the fundamental rights of parents to direct the schooling of their children, in the face of the unresponsiveness of the public school system to the parents served thereby, and taxpayers who pay for its services.

Now, the common cause uniting freedom-loving supporters of the Reform Party is the unresponsiveness of the three Federal parties to the Canadian voters, and the archaic Canadian political and judicial structures which no longer serve a free and sovereign Canadian democracy.

While there are many policy particulars in which there may be disagreement among the people uniting the liberating cause most effectively championed in Canada at this moment by the Reform Party, there is no doubt that the Reform Party is the most hopeful contemporary movement for national renewal.

For Canadian patriots seeking justice and liberty for all, within the structures of responsible democracy which is our democratic heritage, the Reform Party offers the best hope for providing a political climate within which all such objectives of justice and liberty may be realized.

It is for the above-noted reasons that our national executive has endorsed my call for the formation of a “Pro-freedom front,” a coalition of Parties and people sharing a commitment to the causes generally espoused by the Reform Party, the Christian Heritage Party, the Confederation of Regions Party, and the Christian Freedom (Social Credit) Party of Canada, in the development of a strategy which would avoid fragmenting that constituency of a majority of Canadians whose interests are championed by our parties.

It is now my conviction that the best hope for realizing the particular objectives to which our individual Parties are committed, is to rally our membership behind the Reform Party and seek by every honourable means its election to power, while maintaining our Party distinctives and seeking to influence the Reform Party to adopt the reform policies which we champion.

For example, as the national leader of the Christian Freedom (Social Credit) Party of Canada, since our founding in the 1930s, we have especially championed the cause of economic reform based on the reaffirmation by Parliament of the control by a sovereign people of the creation and distribution of the nation’s currency.

As well, as the founder-President of Choose Life Canada, we are fully committed to the objectives of the pro-life movement for “justice for the pre-born and for mothers with crisis pregnancies.”

In this issue, I know that Preston Manning’s personal preference is for a constitutional amendment protecting the inalienable rights of everyone from conception to natural death.  I’m confident that wee a referendum question phrased as follows be put to Canadians, the civilized and civilizing objectives of the pro-life movement would be realized to the lasting benefit of all:

“In your view, is it ever appropriate to violate the human rights of the innocent for the benefit of another?”

It is my sober judgment that Preston Manning could be elected Prime Minister of Canada at the federal election following the nest election.

It seems that wisdom dictates that Canadian patriots go with freedom’s flow in a strategy in which all Parties sharing freedom’s fundamental cause, maintain our individual integrity, while coalescing behind the leadership which provides the best hope for realizing the objectives of our common cause and he implementation of our particular Party policies.

My personal response to the consideration outlined above, was to sign up as a member of the Reform Party of Canada last night, determining to encourage all those with whom I share the commitments which unite us in the Christian Freedom (Social Credit) Party of Canada and the wider pro-freedom and pro-life movement, to do likewise.

Keep your present Party membership and your commitments to the distinctives for which your Party has taken its stand, while joining the Reform Party and seeking its election to power.

Get into the mainstream of freedom’s flow in Canadian political life at this moment of danger and opportunity for Canada, and let’s work together to wrest power from the secular elite now controlling the three old parties and whose domination of Canadian public life threatens to destroy the foundations of freedom, while working within the pro-freedom movement for the implementation of those policy distinctives for which our particular Party stands!

That’s where I stand as the National Leader and President of the Christian Freedom (Social Credit) Party of Canada, and as the founder-President of Choose Life Canada, and now as a member of the Reform Party of Canada and as a Canadian and a Christian.

Sincerely,

Ken Campbell.