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Monday May 8, 2000


     

Canadian Alliance Leadership Candidates Analysis

These three items on the Canadian Alliance leadership race are excerpted from the May CLC National News. They provide an excellent overview of the main candidates from the social conservative perspective.

CLC National News - May 2000

CANADIAN ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP CANDIDATES ONE MEMBER, ONE VOTE TOM LONG WIN WOULD BE ALLIANCE DISASTER

CANADIAN ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP CANDIDATES

Since the last newsletter, two other contenders have joined former Reform Party leader Preston Manning and former Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day in seeking the Canadian Alliance leadership. Toronto lawyer Joe Peschisolido has since announced he is dropping his leadership bid. As we reported last month, the first candidates to announce are pro-life to various degrees. The two new candidates are not as promising.

Dr. Keith Martin is a pro-abortion Canadian Alliance MP although there seems to be promise for cooperation on some moral issues in the future. He opposes China's one-child policy and coercive abortions program, and forced sterilization programs in the Third World. He Also objects to Canadian delegations at the UN circumventing Parliament when entering into international agreements.

Tom Long is an architect of Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution and although he was once considered pro-life, he has counselled the Ontario Tories to remain quiet on life and family issues. He believes it is unnecessary to take a strong position on abortion and family issues in order to appeal to most Canadians. Long indicated he would avoid the abortion issue when he said that he "lives in the real world" and would pursue an exclusively economic agenda (Note to Tom Long: Canada's version of the real world has killed over two million babies - get real Tom). Long entered the race only after Thornhill Tory MPP Frank Klees dropped out following his claim that his financial backers were pushing him to do things he didn't want. (For more on why the Long campaign is worrisome, read the next story.)

Stockwell Day is strongly pro-life and has not shied away from his Christian views or the fact that his faith determines his views on moral issues. Day has actively worked for abortion defunding in Alberta and strongly supports the use of the notwithstanding clause to override judge-made laws such as the Vriend decision reading sexual orientation protection into the Human Rights Act. In his April 28 speech on social conservatism he states "I believe that all human beings possess an inalienable right to life. I do not support abortion or euthanasia, and I would personally favour measures to protect human life in Canadian law." Unfortunately, he sometimes uses the standard "But I would not seek to impose my views on the Canadian people" in answers about his position on abortion and same-sex rights. He does state, however, that he wants these issues to be decided by citizen-initiated referendums or a free vote in the House of Commons.

Preston Manning is also a committed pro-lifer and has on a number of occasions spoken out in defence of the rights of the unborn (when he spoke out on the need for a law on abortion in BC last year, calls supporting his pro-life position outnumbered calls against 9-1). In his response to the throne speech last October, he said if the Liberals were serious about helping children they would begin by "defining the rights of the unborn." Yet, it was Manning who devised populist referenda as the way to decide so-called "contentious moral issues."

Although democratic process and respectful strategies should be given high priority, CLC believes right and wrong can never be decided by a majority vote.

For years, Mr. Manning has been offered the opportunity to meet with CLC leaders. Despite his comments that indicated his interest, his key people refused to arrange it. Unlike the Manning camp Stockwell Day has been more open and approachable and has shown his willingness to listen to the concerns of pro-life Canadians.

ONE MEMBER, ONE VOTE

Over the years, we have supported pro-life efforts in every political party. But the Canadian Alliance offers a unique opportunity to have a strong, mainstream pro-life, pro-family party at the national level. Pro-life leaders, including those not particularly conservative, are excited about the Canadian Alliance and the historic opportunity to also have a leader of the CA that is pro-life and pro-family. But that is not going to happen if pro-lifers are not quickly involved in large numbers. CA members who are pro-abortion or don't care about the issue could very well sign up enough new members to place their selection at the top. So please, if the Canadian Alliance at all appeals to you, sign up and vote for party leader. The procedure is simple: one member, one vote at a local polling station. It's a numbers game and a rare opportunity for the grassroots to have such a direct influence on a political party that it would be a tragedy if we didn't act on it. We encourage you to obtain Canadian Alliance membership forms and distribute them to your pro-life family and friends so they too can get involved in this historic opportunity.

Action Item: To vote for the party leader, you must have a valid party membership. If you need help with this or want more information about the leadership candidates, call us at (416) 204-9781 or 1-800-730-5358 or email clc@lifesite.net

TOM LONG WIN WOULD BE ALLIANCE DISASTER

We are very concerned that many people who treasure life and family will be fooled into thinking that they could live with a Tom Long government. Do not fall into this trap.

Long's campaign is based on the cynical and false notion that only an Ontario economic (not social) conservative can win in a general election. The May 5 Edmonton Journal reports that Tom "said the state shouldn't interfere with women who want abortions. 'We should mind our own business and keep our hands to ourselves', he said." He has begun using the "Common Sense" trademark theme of the Harris regime in his own campaign. That tells us where he wants to take the Canadian Alliance and Canada.

Under Mike Harris, Ontario has sadly and unexpectedly been no friendlier a place for unborn children or the natural family than it was under the NDP and Bob Rae. The Ontario Tory leadership has so far suppressed any attempts by even their own MPPs to make the slightest social conservative changes. Abortions have climbed since the Tories gained power, Linda Gibbons has been jailed for five years under the Tory maintained NDP injunction and the gay agenda has advanced far more under Mike Harris than it ever could under the other parties. Interestingly, the Ontario debt, government spending, gambling, and provincial government control of more aspects of Ontario life have all climbed during this "fiscal conservative", very top-down style.

No matter what Long says about being personally pro-life and pro-family the supporters and advisors that have flocked to his campaign tell a very different story. This leadership contest is shaping up into a clear battle between those who are conservative on all issues and those on the other side who are mostly tax cutters and central control advocates who do not appreciate or perhaps just don't understand the value of the social conservative foundation of Reform/Alliance where pro-lifers are welcome and numerous.

Ontario's Ernie Eves, second to Mike Harris in the Ontario government, and who has been cold to life and family advocates, has jumped on the Long bandwagon. He states '"At the end of the day, if Mr. Long doesn't win, I think that some of the people, perhaps myself included, who support Mr. Long will not be there for another candidate". In other words, it's our way or no way. A large contingent from the Ontario Tory machine has entered the Long camp along with many big money and influential types in high places.

Long's inner campaign circle includes media guru Jaime Watt who was one of the Harris whiz kids until he was forced to resign when it was discovered that he had been convicted of criminal fraud over $19,000. Watt, a self-proclaimed homosexual, is a prominent gay activist and no friend of pro-lifers. As co-chair of the Canadian Human Rights Committee in 1997 he travelled to Ottawa to lobby MPs for increased "equality" rights for homosexuals. The Harris government certainly appreciated Jaime when it arranged for him to be in the legislature gallery the evening it threw democracy out the window and suddenly shoved through its infamous gay rights omnibus bill before the public had an opportunity to even see the bill, let alone respond to it.

Stewart Braddick, another self-proclaimed homosexual in Long's inner circle, is Jaime's business partner. He was former senior consultant to Mike Harris at the time of the passage of the gay rights omnibus bill. Harris' campaign chairman, Leslie Noble, is steering the campaign. Noble is known to be hostile to social conservatives and is strongly pro-gay. In his May 4 Toronto Sun column, Michael Coren reports that she said of social conservatives "These people have no place in a modern conservative party." Former Reform MP and social liberal Stephen Harper and even strongly pro-abortion former Liberal cabinet minister Doug Young have also declared their support for Long. His campaign appears to be overwhelmingly attracting key supporters who have an agenda at serious odds with the unique social conservative policies of the Canadian Alliance as currently written. With this crowd, if Long wins, that precious part of CA will surely be allowed to wither away. There are Ontario conservatives who do care about restoring protection for life and family but they do not seem to be the ones who are in the forefront of the Long campaign.

As for Tom himself, we do not understand why he has surrounded himself with such a team and why he takes the position that in politics moral issues should be aggressively shoved to the back of the bus.

Last month's CLC National News report on the CA leadership candidates http://www.lifesite.net/clc/national_news/2000/news_0400.htm...

Stockwell Day's April 28 speech at Civitas http://www.stockwellday.com/issues/civitas.htm

Interim article on Manning's response to throne speech http://www.lifesite.net/interim/1999/nov/01manning.html

Jaime Watt's involvement with the gay CHRC http://www.chrc.org/newsletter.html

Michael Coren's article http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/may/000504a.html

Candidate's web sites: Stockwell Day http://www.stockwellday.com Tom Long http://www.tomlong.homepage.com Preston Manning pm4pm.com Keith Martin http://www.keithmartin.org

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