By Tony Gosgnach
See 2-page PDF version at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006_docs/Peterboroughreport.pdf
The Liberals captured it by more than 6,000 votes in the 2004 federal election, but history has shown that the Ontario riding of Peterborough has swung constantly between the Liberal and Conservative parties over the past half-century. So there may be yet another change in the air as voters go to the polls there on Jan. 23 to choose a successor to retiring MP Peter Adams.
Adams, who has represented the riding since 1993 when he unseated a Progressive Conservative, is being replaced under the Liberal banner by rookie Diane Lloyd. She is hoping she can maintain her party’s edge in the face of mounting scandals and a precarious minority position. Attempting to unseat her for the Conservatives will be newcomer Dean Del Mastro, who secured his party’s candidacy over James Jackson, the Conservative representative in Peterborough in 2004. Also running will be second-time candidates Linda Slavin for the NDP and Brent Wood of the Green Party, who finished third and fourth respectively in the riding in 2004.
The Peterborough riding includes the city of Peterborough and stretches from Rice Lake and Trent River in the south to Buckhorn Lake and Stony Lake in the north.
The Candidates and Life and Family Issues
Conservative Dean Del Mastro | Liberal Diane Lloyd | NDP Linda Slavin | Green Brent Wood |
Strongly pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. Has stated publicly he would like to see the same-sex “marriage” issue revisited. | Subscribes to her party’s pro-abortion position and opposes traditional definition of marriage. | Subscribes to her party’s pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia and pro-assisted suicide positions. Opposes traditional definition of marriage | Pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-assisted suicide. Opposes traditional definition of marriage |
Conservative – Dean Del Mastro
Del Mastro is married, the vice-president of Del Mastro Motors Ltd. and chairman to the Suzuki Canada Dealer Advisory Board. Dave Ross, writing for the independent website electionforecast.ca, says Del Mastro is “in touch with his community, runs a local business, (has) great people skills and is very hard working … the man reeks of integrity.”
Del Mastro is running as a strong pro-life and pro-traditional marriage candidate, without exceptions. His responses to a questionnaire on life and family issues sent to him regarding the upcoming election by Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the Canadian pro-life movement, were unanimously pro-life and pro-marriage on nine separate points.
In addition, he told the Peterborough This Week newspaper on December 7, 2005 that he would vote in favour of revisiting the same-sex “marriage” issue. His lack of support for the homosexual agenda in Canada has garnered him an “F” (failing) grade in a candidate assessment by Equality for Gays And Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE), a national homosexual lobby organization.
Liberal – Diane Lloyd
Lloyd is married, a mother of three children and a grandmother to three grandchildren. In recent years, she has been working as a real estate salesperson and has served as chair and budget chair for the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.
Lloyd has filed a statement with CLC asserting her solidarity with the Liberal Party’s position on life issues. This includes support for “a woman’s right to choose” whether to have an abortion and for easy access to the abortifacient “morning-after pill,” which the party claims “has a long history of safe and effective use.”
Lloyd told the Peterborough This Week newspaper on December 7, 2005 that it would be “foolish” to bring the same-sex “marriage” debate forward for discussion during this election campaign. “Ms Lloyd says she’s in favour of same-sex ‘marriage,’” the newspaper reported, while quoting her as saying: “I think it’s a human rights issue and individuals have the right to choose their own way.”
Her support for the homosexual agenda in Canada has won Lloyd a “B+” grade in a candidate assessment by EGALE.
NDP – Linda Slavin
Slavin is a school teacher who has also functioned as a manager, small business owner, cultural worker and “activist.” She has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and has been active in social justice and women’s issues in the Peterborough area. She finished third in the riding in 2004 with more than 10,000 votes.
A letter received by CLC advises that Slavin “will be following party position” on life and family issues. According to a signed statement being distributed by NDP leader Jack Layton during this election campaign on behalf of his candidates, that includes commitments to women’s “right to self-determination” with respect to “reproductive choices” (including abortion), physician-assisted death “in certain situations” and same-sex “marriage.”
Slavin told the Peterborough This Week newspaper on December 7, 2005 that her party is “definitely in favor of gay ‘marriage’… We are in support of equality under the law. It is a human rights issue. It’s a legal issue.”
Her support for the homosexual agenda in Canada has won Slavin a solid “A” grade in a candidate assessment by EGALE.
Green Party – Brent Wood
Wood has a “partner,” Kirsten Addis, and a 12-year-old daughter. He is an instructor in the English departments of the University of Toronto and Trent University and serves as vice-president of a local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. He received more than 3,000 votes while finishing fourth in Peterborough riding in the 2004 federal election.
In response to a CLC questionnaire on life and family issues for this election, he answered in a generally pro-abortion, pro-gay “marriage” manner, indicating his opposition to any legislation that would protect the unborn human being from conception or remove abortion as a publicly funded procedure. He said he would not oppose measures to permit euthanasia and assisted suicide and additionally criticized the pro-life movement for appropriating the term “pro-life” by calling it “unjustifiable, as well as inaccurate.”
He responded that he would not support measures to define marriage as exclusively the union of one man and one woman. His support for the homosexual agenda in Canada has won Wood a solid “A” grade in a candidate assessment by EGALE.