The B.C. Catholic reached out to Christian political observers in British Columbia for their thoughts on the 2019 federal election results. Following are their responses.
Pro-lifers Can be Proud
In all my years of being involved in political campaigns in Canada, I have never seen such an unrelenting attack on the Catholic values I hold. Even before the official writ was dropped there were signs this campaign would be like no other.
As someone who has spent his adult life trying to have elected officials raise positive life issues during election campaigns, it surprised me how some of the party leaders and candidates attacked each other over who could be the most pro-abortion amount them.
I think this strategy has done a lot to focus how important and current this discussion is and how it needs to be raised to an even higher profile so all voices are heard. The abortion issue clearly is not settled.
I am discouraged with the overall Canadian results and what it means for Canada. A party openly pounding a pro-abortion message and plagued with scandal still managed to win the most seats.
Pro-life candidates and organizations can be proud of their involvement in this campaign. We are finally learning that standing on the sidelines simply will not have any impact on the policies and legislation needed to protect the most vulnerable of our citizens. Many of the winning candidates, especially in B.C., stood proudly for life.
These men and women are now elected and will sit in Parliament knowing and remembering who it was that got them across the finish line.
A random thought watching the post election numbers: there appears to be no call for leadership reviews for any of the losing political parties. The Liberals lost 20 seats, the NDP lost 15 seats, and the Conservatives gained 26 and won the popular vote, yet the media are suggesting a Conservative leadership review is in order. We live in strange times.
John Hof is former president of United for Life B.C. and a parishioner at St. Joseph's, Langley.
A Cacophony of Voices
Canadians who subscribe to the silly platitude that “diversity is our strength” might be the only ones truly celebrating the results of an election whose most notable feature was the way it left a great many voters feeling both frustrated and dissatisfied. It may be a diverse Parliament to some, but it’s a fractured and splintered one to me.
Catholic voters, especially, have precious little to cheer, as two poisonously pro-choice parties are likely to form a de-facto coalition to control the House of Commons.
Then again, no major party was directly challenging the status quo in this crucial area. And many ill-informed Canadians, propagandized by the mainstream media, seem to be content with the status quo. How sad.
On the bright side, one hopes that the party that won the most seats (the Liberals) and the party that won the most votes (the Conservatives) will be able to use their combined standing to exercise some moral authority over holier-than-thou enviro-radicals who see evil in every drop of oil. Or maybe that’s just a pipe dream.
Finally, in an age when authoritarianism is ascendant, one must also celebrate the resilience of our democratic institutions. The people have spoken, and though that speech was in a cacophony of voices, our democratic system has responded appropriately.
Terry O'Neill served for seven years on Coquitlam City Council and is a parishioner at St. Joseph's, Port Moody.
Calling Out the Best in Us
“I didn’t bring my son into the world only to leave him to a dying planet.”
The anguish expressed by my student Jess Martin Dueck, in her #lovefrommom video message to Canada’s political leadership, goes to the heart of the Parliament Canadians created on Oct. 21. Informed by the conclusion of the scientific community – as certain as the Copernican revolution – that our use of fossil fuels is changing the climate, her pain is echoed by the Holy Father’s prophetic outrage: “the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor” (Laudato Sí, §2).
The past 40 days have called out the best in us, with hundreds of thousands led by youth to take to the streets of Canada’s cities for climate justice. But they have also exposed us to an unCanadian, atavistic turn to partisan vitriol calculated to shut down our ability as a voting public to discern and advance the common good.
The minority Parliament Canadians have brought to Ottawa could well serve its four-year mandate. But it could be more than a mere echo chamber of slogans and invective.
The overwhelming majority of voters from coast to coast to coast have chosen parliamentarians who share my student’s determination that we do not consign our children to a dying planet.
The imperative of this House is to take up the urgent, life-giving work of caring for our common home.
Michael Marwick, Ph.D., teaches communication at Capilano University and is a parishioner at St. Anthony’s, West Vancouver.
Three Reasons for Hope
In almost any political circle, this week’s election results were disappointing. It’s easy, and perhaps even proper, to lament the division the post-election Parliament represents.
But rather than lament, let us examine the proverbial silver lining – or three – for all Canadians of faith.
First, this Parliament includes a crop of new MPs from a variety of faith backgrounds. Many of them are British Columbians. These are folks who would be familiar with the issues raised by the Canada Summer Jobs attestation controversy, the TWU Supreme Court decision, medical assistance in dying, and other questions of religious freedom and conscience rights. A thoughtful, well-informed, and deliberative approach to these types of questions is more than welcome.
Second, the Bloc’s resurgence and the West’s re-alienation, although a negative on the surface, could lead to a strengthening of provincial rights. Provincial strength vis-à-vis the federal government is a multi-faceted issue. One facet involves the Catholic concept of “subsidiarity,” whereby decision-making is made closer to the people affected by those decisions. Regionalism could lead to some good, insofar as we see subsidiarity strengthened in Canada.
And third, the fact that many victorious MPs who would call themselves “progressive” campaigned on moral arguments (for climate change action and other issues) opens the door for moral debate. This is an opportunity for all Canadians, including those who are part of faith communities, to engage charitably and hospitably with others and to bring a moral understanding to a range of issues.
Wherever we find ourselves today, and whatever the outcome we sought Oct. 21, let us resolve to “season with salt” the defence for the hope that is in us. Let us not retreat, but engage in inviting dialogue that (to borrow from Jonathan Chaplin) is committed to truth, winsome in tone, and hopeful in agreement – for the common good.
David Hunt is the B.C. Director at Cardus, a faith-based think tank and parent organization of the Cardus Religious Freedom Institute. He attends Horizon Church in Surrey.
On the sidelines too long
Quebec’s new law banning the wearing of religious symbols in the government workplace provides a suitable motif for the 2019 federal election. The Catholic-sounding “An Act respecting the laicity of the State” enshrined religious discrimination into law. If you wear a turban or a hijab in Quebec you’re not allowed to be, say, a public school teacher.
This at a time when the leader of the federal NDP wears a turban. And he didn’t even fight against it.
In a similar fashion, 2019 was the first national election where practising Catholics were essentially banned from running for office by three of the major political parties: the Liberals, NDP, and Green Party of Canada. Why? Because these parties demand their candidates be uncompromisingly pro-choice. So Catholics need not apply. And yet, more than half of Canadians voters cast their ballot in favour of these parties.
So numerous Catholics voted for parties … that actively discriminate against them.
Against this backdrop was a surprising result. Only two parties allowed pro-life candidates to run: the Conservatives and the new Peoples Party of Canada. The PPC didn’t succeed in electing any members, but of the 26 additional Conservatives elected, 15 of them were pro-life – 58 per cent of the newly elected Tories.
There is a lesson there. In a democracy, when large groups of people unite on a cause they win the vote.
In this connection, the most profound comment I read in the ocean of ink spilt on this election was Archbishop Miller’s words in his recent election letter: “The social doctrine of the Church affirms that politics is one of the highest forms of charity because it serves the common good.” [Emphasis mine.]
Get that? Politics is a form of charity. (I can hear the minds blowing from here.)
Christians have stood idly by as our society has moved further and further away from our worldview. To the detriment of our society, we’ve truly become sheep without a shepherd.
It’s time to change that by getting off the sidelines and getting involved.
I’ve founded the Christian Civic Affairs Committees of Canada to help people do just that. Join one in your parish. If there isn’t one yet, contact me and I’ll help you set one up. See www.civicaffairs.ca for more information.
Marc Vella is a parishioner at St. James, Abbotsford.
Canada Now More Pro-life
On Oct. 20, 2015, one day after the last federal election, I think it was safe to say, we were depressed. We had lost half of our pro-life Members of Parliament, some by less than 100 votes. And that was the start of RightNow.
One day after this federal election, we were not depressed. We weren’t thrilled at the outcome, but we knew Canada was more pro-life than it was the day before. Our goal was to replace 50 pro-abortion MPs with 50 pro-life ones in the top swing ridings across Canada. The results showed even though we didn’t completely achieve our goal, there were some very serious victories.
Of the 53 pro-life MPs running for re-election, 52 retained their seats. This is an increase from the 2015 general federal election, when 80 pro-life MPs ran for re-election and only 40 retained their seats.
Of the 22 newly elected Conservative candidates that won their seats, at least 15 of them are pro-life. This means at least two-thirds of all newly elected Conservative MPs are pro-life. Prior to the federal election, just over half of the Conservative Party of Canada caucus was pro-life.
The total number of pro-lifers in the House of Commons has increased from 53 to (at least) 68 MPs. While this is not the result that was being worked toward, the fact is that the Commons is now more pro-life than before, the Conservative Party of Canada caucus is more pro-life than before, and some of the staunchest pro-abortion Conservative female MPs have been replaced by younger, more diverse, pro-life Conservative female MPs.
B.C. candidates like Tamara Jansen and Nelly Shin who were attacked by the media for being socially conservative, and even had protests in front of their campaign offices, flipped their ridings in some of the most difficult seats in the country. Why? Because the mainstream media is having less of an influence and protests don't win votes. Volunteering does.
Because we won the nominations in those 50 swing ridings, we now have 35 candidates of record who will more than likely run in the next federal election, which means the pro-life movement can focus on key ridings in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to flip next time around.
A number of prominent pro-abortion Liberal Party and Conservative Party MPs lost their seats. Removing these pro-abortion MPs from the Commons (and their caucuses) has a magnified impact for the pro-life movement, due to their prominence on Parliament Hill.
Another interesting note is the make-up of the committees in the Commons and Senate reflect the make-up of the House and Senate themselves. Now the Liberals will have a minority of the seats on these committees.
Scott Hayward and Alissa Golob are co-founders of Right Now. Excerpted from the blogpost One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward.
Judgment of God Upon Our Nation
Four years ago, when Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, who professed to be an evangelical Christian, lost to Justin Trudeau and his Liberals, I mentioned that I believe God had removed Harper’s “candlestick” as prime minster because of his refusal to help the helpless – the unborn.
Harper had several terms in office yet worked against laws to help the child in the womb. It was clear to many that he did not want to open the abortion debate, yet some naive Christians thought that would change. It did not.
When we exterminate 95,000 children a year in the womb and refuse to repent as a nation, there is consequence. As 2 Chronicles 7:14 instructs us, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
I see what happened on Election Day as judgment upon our nation, our land.
We now have Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, professing to be a committed Roman Catholic and pro-life, repeating the Conservative mantra not to reopen the abortion debate, instead of doing what Scripture says: “If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ez 3:18).
For this there is consequence and, I believe, judgment in God’s eyes.
Some say abortion is just one issue among many, and they are right. But is there a more serious and immediate life-and-death issue that involves violating the commandment not to murder?
The very image of God is attacked when abortion happens. In the Old Testament, the reason capital punishment was allowed was because “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image” (Gen 9:6).
We have seen the destruction unleased by Prime Minister Trudeau, an ethics violator who refuses to allow pro-life politicians in his party; who refused summer jobs funding for those who support pro-life positions; who introduced legalized euthanasia, allowing the elderly (some of whom even voted for him) to die before their time. If that is not the judgment of God upon our nation, I don’t know what else is.
Compare this to the United States, which finally elected a pro-life leader. Despite his problems, he has a party with pro-life politicians, conservative Supreme Court judges have been appointed to defend the child in the womb, and state victories against abortion are being won all over the country. Who says you can’t be a pro life politician and get votes?
Meanwhile, we in Canada keep voting in politicians who Satan uses to destroy life. They call themselves “pro-choice,” but the result is the death of a child in the womb. They should heed Revelation 3:16: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.”
The Lord says in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.” Canada as a whole has chosen several more years of judgment through pro-death parties and weak-kneed politicians who refused to take a stand.
I thank God for the many godly men and woman who ran in this election and the helpers who assisted them. You will receive blessings for your labours!
Please pray the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14 I mentioned above, for our nation and those in authority. Pray that renewal and revival will come over our land and that we will be protected against the judgment of God during the next term of government.
Pastor John Kaptein, The King’s Way Church in Vancouver.