OTTAWA, February 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper recently told his caucus that the party leadership will be backing a resolution at the upcoming policy convention that would institute an official policy of not taking any position on abortion, same-sex marriage or other social conservative issues.
LifeSiteNews.com was told by a party source that Harper conveyed this shocking news to his mostly social conservative caucus at a Feb. 15 caucus meeting. The informant is deeply concerned about the leader’s on-going efforts to take the party further to the left and well away from the distinct alternative given voters under the previous Alliance/Reform banners.
The leader explained the new policy as being necessary to ensure victory in the next election. However, it appears that caucus members may no longer buy this often dis-proved direction from the top that has cost them repeatedly in the past. Pro-life and pro-family leaders are also becoming weary of repeatedly pointing out to Reform/Alliance and now Conservative leaders that strong social conservative candidates have not only not been hurt at the polls for their stance but in most cases have attracted critical additional votes from Canadians who value principled candidates.
Campaign Life Coalition has emphasized that the Conservatives were polling much better when abortion was a prominent issue in the last election. Conversely, support for the party dropped dramatically when the focus changed to only economic and other non-social issues.
Jim Hughes of Campaign Life Coalition has made it widely known that the Conservatives lost the last election by foolishly avoiding the hot same-sex marriage issue, especially considering that a large majority of Canadians oppose marriage re-definition.
Canadians were looking for one party to stand up for marriage and family but, as usual, the Conservatives foolishly allowed social liberal inner circle strategists to convince them that taking any stand in favour of life or family would hurt them at the polls. Almost all evidence to date has been that just the opposite happens. Unapologetic, principled Conservative and Liberal Party candidates have generally fared far above average during elections and tend to have a high rate of re-election.
The Conservative Party’s first-ever and therefore most crucial policy Convention is scheduled to begin on March 17 in Montreal.