On June 7, voters in Ontario will have the chance to replace Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne by electing a new NDP or Progressive Conservative government. Technically, this is not one election, but 124 simultaneous elections, one in each riding across the province. In Canada, voters do not directly elect a government or premier, but rather members of federal or provincial parliaments that [...]
Traditionally, Campaign Life Coalition reminds its supporters that they should vote for the local pro-life candidate for MPP regardless of party affiliation. If there is more than one pro-life candidate, voters could then look at other issues and choose among the pro-life candidates that best represents their overall views. Unfortunately, not many voters have that opportunity; there are few ridings in which [...]
First person arrested under Ontario’s bubble zone law dies Cy Winter, the first Ontarian charged under the province's new bubble zone law, passed away. Cyril Winter, 70, passed away March 9 at the Ottawa Heart Center following complications from stenting surgery to fix several coronary arteries. Hours before he passed away, Winter wrote on Facebook: “Stent day but no guarantee [...]
Talk Turkey Josie Luetke March 10 was quite the emotional roller coaster. The widely-anticipated release of the Ontario PC leadership election results was delayed. Rumours swirled that Tanya Granic Allen had placed in third, and Doug Ford and Christine Elliott were neck and neck and battling it out in the backrooms. Then, out of Saskatchewan: News that Brad Trost had [...]
Critics say Trudeau government is ideologically pushing women into workforce Finance Minister Bill Morneau focused on gender issues in his budget and a month later said he will begin looking at Canada's competitiveness. Despite facing economic uncertainty from the on-going threat of the United States withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement and competitive pressures from the U.S. after [...]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains steadfast in enforcing his ideological litmus test for recipients of summer student subsidies. The House of Commons defeated a Conservative Party motion to exempt certain groups from the government’s Summer Jobs program attestation which requires employers to attest that they support so-called Charter rights like abortion and same-sex “marriage.” Only one Liberal and NDP, Green [...]
Doug Ford wins Ontario PC Leadership. On March 10, following a whirlwind six-week leadership campaign during which frontrunner Doug Ford courted pro-life and pro-family voters after Tanya Granic Allen entered the race, Ford was crowned the new Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leader. Ford was declared the winner late on the Saturday evening after party officials kicked out more than [...]
The recent edict by the Fraser Health Authority in British Columbia ordering non-religious healthcare facilities, including hospices, to participate in euthanasia, is an infringement on the conscience rights of the medical staff. I believe that institutional conscience rights are about the rights of the workers within an institution to not participate in acts that they consider wrong. The edict by Fraser Health [...]
On Feb. 1, the first day that the Safe Access to Abortion law came into effect in Ontario, 40 pro-life supporters in Ottawa called for the bubble zone law to be repealed. Demonstrating outside the 50-meter bubble zone surrounding the Morgentaler abortuary on Bank Street in the nation’s capital, the pro-life advocates carried signs calling attention to the restricted free speech zone: [...]
Planned Parenthood goes on the offensive The Trump administration recommended defunding some abortion providers in its proposed budget for the coming year. In the Title X Family Planning program and Medicaid portion of President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2019 released Feb. 12, “certain abortion providers” would be barred from receiving federal funds in Title X Family Planning programs and [...]
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen (Yale University Press, $39, 225 pages) Works about the bankruptcy of current day liberal ideology are a fairly common subgenre in traditionalist or conservative writing. Nevertheless, Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed stands out in this field. Deneen, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, traces liberalism’s errors back to its founding thinkers, [...]
Henry VIII One of the differences between a free society and a repressive regime is the right to remain silent. In the 20th century – the darkest in human history – Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and other tyrants required citizens to display their support for the regime or its ideology. In contrast, a free country does not compel its citizens [...]
To the victor go the spoils; fortune favours the bold; who dares, wins. These are just a few of the idioms that convey the enduring connection between victory and audacity. Triumph is often a kind of retrospective blessing upon the prophets of action whose visionary deeds favourably shape the arenas in which they struggle. Those who would win must first have the [...]
Tanya Granic Allen While not part of the official Manning Networking Conference, the Blue Committee.org, a not-for-profit group that seeks to grow Canada’s conservative movement, hosted an event at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, examining how the Conservative Party could win in urban centers. Joseph Ben-Ami, founding director of BlueCommittee.org, asked how Conservatives can win ridings by appealing to socially [...]
Andrew Bennett, program director for Cardus Law, said culture is about our common life, which itself is bound in the common good, about which state institutions cannot be neutral. Despite some grumbling from social conservatives before the Manning Networking Conference Feb. 8-10, at least five panels examined issues of interest to Canadians on the right concerned with life, family, and [...]