PM Harper Joins the NDP
In politics, we have learned to expect surprises. We’ve seen a one-time NDP Premier of Ontario become the leader of the federal Liberals (oops! just before they tanked...) We’ve seen a big-name female MP recruited by the Liberals (oops again!) to shift the balance of power and we’ve seen a big-business lumberman elected as a Liberal, only to sit—days after the election—as a Conservative cabinet minister. But when have we seen a sitting Prime Minister in a majority government use the power of his office to attack his own backbench MP, thus strengthening the efforts of the Official Opposition in their frantic attack on logic, science and the most basic of human rights—the right to life?
No, Mr. Harper didn’t cross the floor to sit with his NDP colleagues. He didn’t have to. He simply announced that a Private Member’s Motion put forward by one of his own Conservative caucus was “unfortunately deemed votable by an all-party parliamentary committee,” and said that “I will be voting against it.” If he had hoped to score any brownie points with Thomas Mulcair’s NDP caucus, Mr. Harper was, no doubt, disappointed. The “New Democrats” instead complained that Mr. Harper “could have prevented the motion from being put forward” and that he should have punished his MP for presenting it.
On Thursday, April 26, 2012, MP Stephen Woodworth of Kitchener Centre opened the first hour of parliamentary debate on his Motion 312, a motion calling upon Parliament to establish a parliamentary committee to examine Canada’s 400 year-old definition of a “human being”, a definition that excludes even a living, breathing infant until it has emerged from the body of its mother.
This latest skirmish within the Conservative caucus and the corresponding attacks from the Opposition mark only the most recent of a dozen or more times when PM Harper has declared his resolve “not to re-open” the issue of abortion. He has stated on more than one occasion that he will resist any attempt to introduce legislation regarding abortion and that if any such legislation does come to the floor of the House “as long as I am Prime Minister, it will be defeated.”
Of course, all of those brave and enduringly optimistic souls—who have laboured over the past forty years to shift the culture and to protect the unborn as well as pregnant women from the harm of abortion—know that the debate has never been closed. “Re-opening the debate” is just another bit of linguistic jingoism meant to blame serious protectors of life for upsetting the placid waters of a nation which has accepted the deliberate killing of the helpless. The fact that this gentle motion, calling only for a committee to examine the issues based on current science and medicine, has come under such scathing and relentless attack, simply shows how fearful the pro-abort MPs are of examining the facts. That includes their new comrade, PM Stephen Harper.
For years, going all the way back to the early days of the Reform Party, apologists and strategists of that party claimed that, in order to change the social order in Canada, to have a chance to restore morality, strengthen the family and reduce the number of abortions, prolifers and family advocates would have to accept compromise, “fly under the radar,” earn the respect of Canadian voters, work through subtle and incremental channels to achieve results, support loyally the broad-based coalition of social and fiscal conservatives and trust that over time, (a VERY LONG time,) Canadians would democratically choose—through referenda or other grass-roots mechanisms—to protect human life in the womb. Indeed, if Canadians did not choose to protect the unborn, no blame would rest on the politicians representing them in Ottawa. It would simply reflect the triumph of the democratic process and—presto!—the will of the people, supplanting the divine right of kings, would bear any and all moral consequences of social and legal failure to defend the innocent.
In the transition from Reform to Alliance and ultimately to the Conservative Party of Canada, social conservatives were repeatedly warned not to “rock the boat.” Protection for the unborn could not be party policy as that would only scare people away and the emerging Conservative Party could never help the prolife movement until they had stealthily achieved power. Once they tasted minority government, their socially-conservative supporters were humoured and cajoled with the obvious explanation that their hero, Mr. Harper could (of course) do nothing for the prolife cause until the CPC had a majority government. Voters could not afford to take any chances on voting for courageous prolife candidates or even a prolife party like the Christian Heritage Party. Mr. Harper needed a majority to tackle the thorny issue of abortion. This, in spite of Mr. Harper’s many clear and unequivocal statements that he would resist ANY legislation or discussion of the abortion question.
Well, Mr. Harper has his majority. There are still CPC loyalists pathetically claiming that Mr. Harper will act when he has a majority of prolife MPs. But honest citizens must face the facts: Mr. Harper opposed the unborn victims of Violence Bill of his own MP Ken Epp, Mr. Harper opposed Roxanne’s Law, the anti-coercion bill of his own MP Rod Bruinooge, last year Mr. Harper’s own Cabinet minister, Bev Oda, gave $6 million to Planned Parenthood (with his apparent blessing) and now, with a majority government, Mr. Harper has called the Personhood Motion of his own wonderful MP Stephen Woodworth “unfortunate” and pledged to vote against it.
When will prolife voters wake up and accept that this prime minister and his party are not prolife? Mr. Harper and those close to him have clearly distanced themselves from the prolife cause. Those brave and courageous individuals within his party who are working so hard to bring the issue of respect for human life to the floor of Parliament are doing so at their own peril. They deserve our strongest support and encouragement for they face the Official opposition, spiritual opposition, media opposition and opposition from within their own party.
Their cause is just. It is they, and not their detractors, who will receive the plaudits of history. May their courage and determination burn ever brighter. We salute them!
In the meantime, there is only one federal political party committed to the defence of innocent human life from conception to natural death and that is the Christian Heritage Party. Join CHP Canada and help us move the debate forward. For Better Solutions for Life, visit CHP.ca