On Living With The Consequences Of Your Decisions

Today's CP story about pro-lifer Trifon Haitas's bid to represent the LPoC in Toronto-Danforth is particularly interesting for the connection it draws between Haitas and the Campaign Life Coalition, who have in fact endorsed him for the position.

WK thinks this means the Libs new "supporter" category is a bad idea.  In that light, CLC head Jim Hughes' recent remarks seem particularly note-worthy:

The centerpiece of these efforts was an opening of the party to permit a new classification of “supporter” which would allow Canadians to vote in riding nominations and leadership races but which would stop short of the privileges of membership including going to conventions as delegates or voting for riding and national executives.

Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, told The Interim that the creation of supporter-status might provide an opportunity for pro-lifers within the party. Noting that in the 1990s, Liberal leader Jean Chretien over-rode riding nomination elections and parachuted candidates to prevent individuals supported by Liberals for Life from standing as the candidate of record for the Liberals, he said the new rules might encourage grassroots democracy within the party and permit “genuine nomination fights where pro-lifers have a real chance.”

Pretty clearly the CLC has been poking around the LPoC lately, looking for a means of gaining entry.  Whether or not the Party wants that, and there is an argument to be made that it should, the decision must be made with eyes wide open.  And the question here is not so much Mr. Haitas and the situation in Toronto Danforth where the Libs have a fairly healthy presence, its in those "moribund" ridings where determined single-issue activists (like the folks at CLC) might be able to make inroads because there are so few Liberal bodies on the ground to stop them.

Campaign Life Approves

...of overly pro-Gay Tory minister Diane Ablonczy losing the Marquee Tourism Events Program to the "more experienced" Tony Clement:

Campaign Life Coalition's Mary Ellen Douglas said she is pleased with the government's decision in this case. 'I think it's good news that the Conservative government has taken a stand against funding the Montreal [Divers/Cité gay pride] festival,' she told LSN. 'These events always seem to have alternate funding, and it's not justified to spend taxpayer's money on these festivals.'

'It appears that the portfolio is now in more experienced hands,' she said.

Meanwhile, the Montreal Gazette's editors are, shall we say, unhappy.

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Lifesite

...can be found right here in Dennis Gruending's latest. Concentrating mostly on the "scandal" surrounding The Canadian Catholic aid agency Development and Peace (D&P), which I admit to not having followed closely, the piece has all kinds of interesting background on everyone's favorite militant Catholic website: the Campaign Life Coalition, as does Alphonse de Valk of the notorious Catholic Insight magazine.

Best one-line characterization of Lifesite I've read: One might describe such a mindset as that of a Catholic Taliban.

Campaign Life Coalition On The Election That Was

The Campaign Life Coalition has done a wrap-up on the Oct. 14th Election. Here are some of the highlights:

1) The Christian Heritage Party ran 59 candidates and received 26,722 votes in total – its lowest total vote yet.

2) Many alleged pro-life candidates were unwilling to say as much:

In many cases, we were assured by local pro-lifers that a particular candidate was pro-life even as the candidate refused to answer questions on the issue. This made it difficult to identify confirmed pro-life candidates and pass this information on to supporters.

3) Liberal Party President Doug Ferguson wrote CLC a letter in which he claimed:

On the issue of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, Ferguson said the Liberals recognize they are illegal and do not “plan to change the laws governing these issues” but would “continue to listen closely to the views of Canadians on these and other end-of-life issues.”

I have no deeply formed opinions on these issues. But...interesting.

4) The CLC is majorly pissed with Stephen Harper:

Stephen Harper is definitely not pro-life.

5) The CLC is still hawking its KLVU Research "massive poll" that found 56% of Canadians opposed Morgentaler's receiving the order of Canada. While I think KLRVU has done some decent polling work since, that one was a stinker.

6) Overall, the CLC claims pro-life candidates "held their ground" in the 2008 election. My own bad math seems to indicate that they are down 2 bodies. Tom Wappel was replaced by pro-choice Michelle Simson in Scarborough Southwest, and Paul Steckle was replaced by Ben Lobb (who refused to answer the CLC questionnaire) in Huron-Bruce. I am willing to be corrected on this, however.

Speechys Rise Up!

Thus far the CLC has endorsed a couple of candidates in Winnipeg, one of them being Rod Bruinoodge, who has on other occasions written that:

Hello Gary:

I appreciate you taking the forward your concerns to my office. I would like to express that I and the Conservative government strongly believe that individual rights and freedom of speech are paramount in a free and democratic society.

I am sure we will see a roaring denunciation out of Rod soon over the silencing of these slightly less than 100% pure pro-lifers. Out of Shaidle, and De Vere, and Boisson and all those folks...I'm sure we'll see it real soon.

Pro-Life Or Not Pro-Life: The Campaign Life Coaltion List

...is here.

Looks like the preliminary info I provided yesterday evening, which gave NDP MP Wayne Marston and Green Party candidate Amy Collard as Pro-Life, was incorrect.

Update: RB notes in the comments that Marston's responses to the CLC questionnaire are prototypically pro-life, but he is described as pro-choice in their notes. Color me confused.

A Few Candidates The Campaign Life Coalition Likes

Hmm! An NDPer on the list! And a Green!

Conservative

Aydin Cocelli - York South-Weston
Elie Salibi - Ottawa South
George Khouri - Pickering-Scarborough East
Stella Ambler - Bramalea-Gore-Malton
Stephen Woodworth - Kitchener Centre

Liberal
Albina Guarnieri - Mississauga East-Cooksville
Paul Szabo - Mississauga South

NDP
Wayne Marston - Hamilton East-Stoney Creek (despite party policy banning such candidates)

Green
Amy Collard - Halton

Anti-Morgentaler Poll Done By Tory Operative, or : What The Hippie Hath Found

On July 22nd, the headline appears on Lifesitenews: Massive New Poll: 56% of Canadians Oppose Morgentaler Order of Canada. The poll, commissioned by the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), gets very little play in the MSM, but JJ and the gang at Unrepentant Old Hippy become a little bit curious, as do some of the players at FreeDominion. Their big question: who the hell are KLRVU polling, the company that conducted the CLC poll? They appear to have neither a phone number or a website. However, their news release on the poll gives some interesting details.

For further information: on the results of this survey, call: Media
Contact: Mary Ellen Douglas, CLC National Organizer, (613) 389-4472;
Marie-Christine Houle, CLC Toronto, (cell) (519) 569-0369; KLRVU Research,
Winnipeg, (204) 999-7446

Run that phone number through a few search engines and you get these guys: LaserCut Designs... a Laser Shop for Unique and Special Gifts for Companies and All Occasions.

Now, pause for a moment: a Laser shop that polls for the CLC? A polling company that makes corporate gifts for all occasions? Those are the folks behind the Anti-Morgentaler poll.

But wait, there's more! Another website for LaserCut Designs is Laserengraving.ca, which mentions the names of artists involved: Allan and Katherine. Who are they? Well, this notice of a school fund-raiser identifies Katherine as Katherine Bruinooge. She is married to Allan Bruinooge, who ran for Winnipeg City Council in 2005. A Winnipeg Free Press story from that time period describes him thusly:

Also running in the race were teacher Robert Page who got 453 votes; part-time college instructor Catriona Younger got 397 votes; Tory party organizer Allan Bruinooge received 382 votes, Blue Bombers corporate sale manager Rick Lowey collected 355 votes and autobody shop co-owner Pam Hayward-Remple was given 127 votes.

Finally, if the name Bruinooge strikes you as familiar, its because Allan's brother is Rod Bruinooge, Tory MP from Winnipeg South and a staunch pro-lifer who has written that:

"Appointees to the Order of Canada should be seen by a clear majority of Canadians as being noble and beyond reproach. Since this is not the case with Dr. Morgentaler, he should not be considered for our highest civilian award."

"I find myself now questioning the Order of Canada and its very legitimacy as a voice for all Canadians. I recently nominated a deserving citizen in my community, but I no longer feel I can associate with the Order and have asked to have my name disassociated with the nomination process."

What I find myself questioning is whether Rod Bruinooge knew of the anti-Morgentaler "Laser Poll", and whether any CPoC or taxpayers money went into the funding of it. Hopefully, the MSM will start asking similar questions.

h/t JJ and gang, who did all the work.

Conservative Fringe Players: We Still Lose Under MMP

Cherniak gives what I think is a fairly common argument for rejecting MMP (mixed member proportional), which is that, while it may lead to an acknowledged good--the Green Party electing its first members to the Legislature, for example-- it might also lead to a less fortunate result:

Any party that gets at least 3% of the vote would elect an MPP. That means that a party like the Christian Heritage Party would have no goal other than to earn 3% of the total vote. If they were to succeed, they would have an MPP elected. They don't get that much right now, but with the knowledge that only 3% across the province earns a seat, I suspect that there would be more incentive to actually vote for them.

Personally, this is a trade I would be willing to make in the name of fairness: about 10 Green party politicians (Jason gives a range of 6 to 13) in exchange for four radical righties (three per cent of 129 seats). However, it is extremely telling I think that Canada's premier pro-life group, the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), has just come out in opposition to MMP. They give several interlinked reasons for their position. The first:

Some pro-lifers believe that proportional representation will result in the appointment of Family Coalition Party members at the provincial level and Christian Heritage Party candidates at the federal level. Sadly, neither party has reached the minimum 3% level of province-wide support that most proportional representation systems require to garner seats in parliament. Until there is a sea change in their support, the number of FCP/CHP elected officials would be negligible to effect change.

From the CLC's perspective, MMP's most likely result is the status quo: no suitable candidates elected. But even more interesting is their view as to what likely happens should the magic three percent threshold be exceeded and a FCP candidate make it into the Legislature:

There are very few examples of social conservative legislation being passed in countries with PR. This summer The Interim newspaper had a team of three people examine the records of other countries to track the progress of prolife and pro-family legislation in countries with PR. They found just one significant example. In the Netherlands, the Christian Union Party, as part of the coalition government there, has effected some positive change in closing down brothels, reducing the number of marijuana shops and introducing guidelines requiring cooling off wait times for abortions.

But, for the most part, the researchers at The Interim found the reverse to be true: many countries with PR have experienced an advance of anti-life and anti-family agendas in recent years as left-wing coalitions dance to the tune of the most extreme elements in parliament. We are concerned that the highly likely result of PR in Canada will be thirdplace NDP contingencies dictating social policy to minority governments.

To me this a comforting finding, and I would suggest the following explanation for it (but read the whole article, as the CLC's angle is quite different): MMP, and proportional representation more generally, enshrines the national/provincial consensus. Political outliers such as the Family Coalition will be unable to shift this consensus regardless of whether or not they send a warm body to Queen's Park. In fact, the most likely outcome in Ontario seems to be pretty close to the one the CLC envisions: a permanent Liberal minority forced to pass Progressive/Green policies to remain in power.

The Good Old Days, in other words, when Libs were slow-motion NDPers. And what's wrong with that?

Of course, the central argument against MMP concerns the potential of the "Party Machines" to appoint "list" MLAs in a manner which is undemocratic and non-accountable. This is a subject for another post, but to give a quick response: most Ontarians couldn't pick their own provincial representative out of a police line-up, and very few of them vote on the basis of their personal relationship (through constit work lets say) with a candidate. I doubt people would notice a difference under some form of proportional representation.