News & Analysis

By: CLC Staff

The biennial Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) policy convention was held in Vancouver from May 26-28th, where numerous moral issues were debated. For pro-life and pro-family delegates, there were both wins and losses, but we’re pleased to report that overall, more battles were won than lost.

After final votes were counted, the federal Conservative Party’s platform was left significantly more pro-life, containing for the first time in the party’s history, an explicit condemnation of abortion.

This positive development makes the Conservatives the only mainstream political party which explicitly condemns abortion, in some form. Female gendercide abortions are now officially opposed as a matter of policy, passing by a vote of 657 Ayes to 550 Nays.

A pro-life statement affirming “A belief in the value and dignity of all human life” was also embedded into the party’s constitution, as a core principle.

Delegates also supported conscience rights for doctors, to acknowledge their right to not only refuse to participate in immoral procedures, but to also refuse to give referrals. This passed overwhelmingly with 67% of the vote (990 Aye to 496 Nay). The policy declaration now states:

“The Conservative Party supports conscience rights for doctors, nurses, and others to refuse to participate in or refer their patients for abortion, assisted suicide or euthanasia”.

Finally, delegates overwhelmingly defeated a proposal that would have turned the CPC into a pro-euthanasia party. Therefore the CPC remains the only mainstream federal party that opposes doctors being allowed to kill their patients.

These are all results that social conservative members of the party should feel very good about.

Anti-traditional marriage resolution passes

Elation over those pro-life victories was offset by a loss on the family values plank, which, traditionally, is a pillar of any true conservative platform. Sadly, a majority of delegates voted to delete from the policy book, the party’s long-time support for natural marriage as a man-woman institution that is oriented towards the procreation and education of children.

The setback on the marriage policy was admittedly an emotional loss for social conservatives. In spite of that, social conservatives must take heart in the fact that, overall, they had a very successful convention with more wins than losses.

We suffered just one policy loss – deleting the CPC’s existing support for natural marriage - which passed by a vote of 69% Yays to 31% Nays. This was a disturbing change in the policy book. However, it is important to correct the erroneous reports by some media outlets, which claim that CPC policy now supports homosexual “marriage”.

That is not true, although some left-leaning progressives within caucus, such as MP Kellie Leitch and MP Maxime Bernier, are certainly proclaiming themselves to be anti-traditional marriage. It was very disturbing to see even Jason Kenny, a prominent pro-life/pro-family MP come out in support of the anti-traditional marriage resolution.

We are grateful to other members of parliament who spoke strongly against the resolution from the mic, such as MP Brad Trost (Saskatoon-University), MP Ted Falk (Provencher), joined by former MPs Pierre Lemieux (Glengarry-Prescott-Russel), and Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener Centre).

The anti-traditional marriage resolution did not enshrine support for homosexual marriage within the policy book. Rather, it left this question neutral, neither taking a stand in favour of natural marriage, nor in favour of homosexual unions.

Beware the camel’s nose

There is an Arabian proverb that aptly describes the fear of many social conservative delegates, in regard to the potential influence of the LGBTory group over caucus:

"If the camel gets his nose under the tent, his whole body will soon follow."

Many pro-family delegates at convention expressed fears that LGBTory, the gay-activist, special interest group behind the anti-traditional marriage resolution, will continue dragging Conservatives towards the extreme sexual left of the political spectrum, until there is no difference between Conservatives, Liberals and NDP.

Some delegates predicted that this was only a tactical “first step” for the gay-activist group, and that it will seek to enshrine explicit support for homosexual “marriage” at the next policy convention in 2018.

We heard speculation that the LGBTorys, having successfully removed the natural definition of marriage, will now have a freer hand to lobby Conservative MPs to support Justin Trudeau’s transgender “Bathroom Bill”, which seeks to place biological males inside girl's washrooms, locker rooms and showers.

And they are almost certain to put pressure on leadership candidates to march in the raunchy homosexual pride parade. We have already witnessed the LGBTorys succeed in turning Ontario’s PC Leader, Patrick Brown, formerly an MP with a 100% pro-life/family voting record, into a gay pride marcher. The gay pride parade features buck naked men walking through the streets of Toronto, sexual bondage, simulated sex acts, and portrayals of sado-masochism.

Interestingly, support for socialism and communism also runs strong as a theme throughout the gay pride parade. Signs and banners with anti-capitalist messages are often seen there. All of this stuff is very un-conservative. Therefore, it would seem that Conservative politicians are fishing in a pond with no fish.

Another question begs to be asked. Who is actually more likely to have their view of conservatism transformed? Would it be the left-leaning gay pride community...or the Tory candidates who march in their midst? It's worth noting that subsequent to Patrick Brown marching in gay pride, and becoming a mascot for the LGBTories, he has came out in favour of a left-wing carbon tax, and now professes to believe in the fraudulent global warming theory so beloved by those on the left of the political spectrum.

Even the left-wing media noticed that Brown abandoned the traditional conservative position of lower taxes in his response to Kathleen Wynne’s recent budget. Those who consider themselves "small-c" conservatives should be vigilant against a take-over of the Conservative Party by the “progressive” left.

Resolution to bypass “filtering” of policies

Also disappointing, a constitutional amendment by pro-democracy party activists called FreeYourPolicy, narrowly failed by 53 votes. If successful, that amendment would have allowed delegates to bring any policy directly to convention, by gathering 100 delegate signatures from 100 different electoral district associations (EDAs).

This new mechanism would have allowed grass roots party members to bypass the disreputable National Policy Committee, which has been filtering out pro-life/family policies that passed with broad support during the voting stages that lead up to convention.

The FreeYourPolicy “wildcard” mechanism was not designed to help social conservatives per se. Rather, it was intended to simply to fix a broken policy development process that became corrupted by bureaucrats who ignored the votes of grassroots party members.

Dangerous power stripped from National Policy Committee

Delegates passed an amendment to Section 13.7 of the constitution. Very importantly, this amendment stripped the National Policy Committee (and caucus) of its power to arbitrarily delete policies it deemed to be “no longer at issue with Canadians”.

This power was dangerous to pro-life and pro-family policies, which we feel would have been the target of such deletions by the NPC and left-wing, progressive elements of caucus. The strategic importance of passing this amendment cannot be overstated.

Impressive show of strength

Campaign Life Coalition would like to point out that even though pro-family delegates were out hustled by LGBTory activists on the marriage vote, it is proper to acknowledge a smaller victory by social conservatives, despite this result.

That is, the massive resistance put up by social conservatives against removing the pro-traditional marriage policy was well-noticed by the Party’s progressive/socially liberal establishment.

The establishment can no longer deny that social conservatives are a huge portion of the party’s base, nor try to claim, as they have in the past, the so cons are only a small part of the conservative movement.

Thanks to hundreds of like-minded delegates, the CPC establishment, plus Leadership candidates, saw with their own eyes that social conservatives represent a powerful and sizeable force within the Party base.

The establishment heard loud and clear that the social conservatives demand an equal seat at the table. That is worth something, and deserves to be mentioned.

Making the NPC accountable

We know that the National Policy Committee was publicly excoriated throughout the convention for sabotaging policies that had been passed with broad support by the grassroots party members.

One delegate at policy plenary took to the mic and asked for a non-confidence vote in the NPC, although the request was ruled out of order.

Let us hope that the sting of humiliation causes them to think twice about doing it again.

Beyond 2016

There is a serious risk that the party’s betrayal of social conservatives on the marriage policy could result in huge numbers of CPC voters and activists ending their support of the Conservative Party. Indignant, they may prefer to stay home on Election Day than to send a vote to the Conservatives.

CLC understands the emotions behind such a reaction, but we strongly recommend against giving up on the political process. As demonstrated by the pro-life gains made in this convention, more good can be had by your continued involvement. The Christian Heritage Party is also a federal voting option that may exist in your riding, and certainly better than giving up on the political process altogether.

Pro-life conservatives need to begin planning right now, to have an even stronger presence at the 2018 convention.