Politics
Wednesday January 2, 2002
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE STEPHEN HARPER ON ABORTION
CALGARY, January 2, 2002 (LSN.ca) - An interview with Alliance Leadership candidate Stephen Harper is published in the Jan. 7 edition of Report magazine. The following excerpts from the interview deal with Harper's stand on abortion.
Q. During the last election the party was thrown into turmoil by questions of social policy. How would you prevent this from happening again?
A. I was the founding policy officer of the Reform Party, and I thought we had some of the right formulae there. I think that very sensitive and clearly religious denominational moral issues should not be issues of party policy, and the leader should be careful not to make his views the central issue. I think those issues should be left to free vote in the Commons. I think they should come up at the initiation of private members, and I think we can look at the citizenry raising them in a democratic process. But I've been very clear in this campaign - I don't believe the party should have a position on abortion. I don't believe an Alliance government should sponsor legislation on abortion or a referendum on abortion. Even in a conservative party there are going to be wide differences of opinion on a question like that.
Q. When you are asked your personal opinion on the lack of an abortion law in Canada, what will you say?
A. Because I'm running for the leadership, I tend to not spend a lot of time discussing these issues, because of the danger that the leaders' views become the party's views. My own views on abortion, I'm not on either pole of that and neither of the interest groups on either end of this issue would probably be comfortable with my views. I just leave it there.
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Movie Reviewer for Catholic Bishops' Conference Praises Homosexualist Film - Again
- Vatican Attacked for Defending Natural Family
- Shock: Evangelical Leader Believes in Gay Civil Unions, Says OK to Vote for Obama
- U.K. Catholic Diocese will Continue to Collect Funds for Secularised Adoption Agency
- Too Much Television, Internet Linked to Long-Term Health Problems for Children
- Pro-Abortion Cherie Blair to Speak at Prominent Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome
- UK Bishops’ Document on Homosexuality Praised by Prominent Anti-Catholic Homosexualist
- Interview: "The Proposed Coalition Government is Very Very Scary" Says Canadian Pro-Life Leader
- Abortionist Pleads No Contest to Felonies, Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
Most Read this Week
- Behind the Scenes of Volition: Coincidences and Startling Circumstances
- Ad Showing Woman Seducing Santa Promotes Free Morning-After Pills and Condoms for Christmas
- Belgian Couple Sells Baby on EBay
- Just In Time for Christmas - Gift Cards for Abortions from Planned Parenthood
- A Painful, Disease-Ridden Death Isn’t So Bad if You’re Just a White, Heterosexual Male
- Abortion Now Number One Cause of Death in Spain
- UK Catholic Adoption Agencies Voluntarily Refuse Religious Opt-Out Clause for Homosexual Adoption
- Madrid Hospital under Investigation for Telling Truth about Abortion and Sodomy
- God is Pro-Choice Says Nun
- University of Calgary Pro-Life Students Victorious - Administration Backs Down from Arrest Threats
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.