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Email: "Tom Wappel – A Parliamentarian Who Will be Greatly Missed"

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Editorial BY LifeSiteNews.com By Steve Jalsevac March 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It has been rumoured for some time that Scarborough Centre Liberal MP Tom Wappel would not be running in the next federal election. On Friday he confirmed his retirement. That’s understandable after six successful elections and almost 19 very active years as a Member of Parliament. Most of the public has no idea how difficult it is to be a Member of Parliament and the stresses it places on one’s personal life. Still, Tom will be greatly missed by pro-life, pro-family Canadians.  It can probably be safely argued that Tom Wappel was the most faithfully pro-life and pro-family Member of Canada’s parliament in recent decades. He has been one of Canada’s few politicians who always placed his Liberal Party affiliation a distant second to his personally understood higher obligation to defend life and family in parliament. On these issues he has boldly acted and spoken according to his conscience and often contrary to his party and party leaders’ stands. This unfortunately cost him advancement within the party but he accepted the price.   Wappel strongly identifies himself as a Liberal but he has also frequently encouraged Canadians to get involved in whatever political party of their choice in order to most effectively influence government to protect life and family.  He is a firm believer in the power of grassroots participatory democracy and has tried very hard to change the social radical direction of his party, going so far one time as to run for the leadership in 1990.   I have heard Tom speak at many pro-life and pro-family functions and cannot recall one in which he came across as an apologist or promoter of the Liberal Party and its policies. For him, the principles on various issues are what matter, rather than the current fashionable ideology of his or any other political party.   Social conservatives have not always agreed with Tom on all issues of concern to him. There was not always agreement on strategies on the life and family issues. Some have been greatly offended and condemned him because of a situation in his personal life or because he did not leave the Liberal Party over the marriage vote.   The critics need to be reminded, however, that Tom has been exceptionally faithful on the moral issues in his role as a Member of Parliament. He has always been easily accessible and willing to do whatever he could to help with pro-life, pro-family initiatives. If some inside information was needed, Tom would always do his best, within the rules, to provide whatever was needed.  Tom has always been active in the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, resurrected through the efforts of Campaign Life Coalition, and was a co-chair of that caucus for quite a few years. He gladly worked with Members of the other parties. While he was co-chair he acted to protect the unity of the Pro-Life Caucus and made sure that it never devolved into a partisan organization or one that distanced itself from Campaign Life Coalition and the general pro-life movement.    As one of the leading MPs on moral issues in Parliament Tom has expressed some bitter memories of being let down or even undermined time and time again by Canada’s religious, especially Catholic, leaders at crucial moments. Those moments presented real possibilities of advancement on life and family initiatives in parliament.   Tom had in the early years assumed he would have the full support of the religious leaders. He could not comprehend how they could be so weak, naive or at times even underhanded by undermining the carefully laid plans of life and family organizations and associated MPs and accepting empty assurances from the Prime Minister or other government ministers of the day. The poor leadership and lack of respect for the well-informed, hard working pro-life organizations and their allied MPs by the religious leaders confounded and dismayed him.  Tom has carried on and done what he could despite frequent disappointments and sometimes shocking behaviour of assumed allies.Canada would greatly benefit if there were far more MPs like Tom Wappel who accept the personal, higher obligation to defend life and family that, in the end of their days, will be seen as having vastly outweighed their fleeting political party ambitions.   Tom Wappel can have a clear conscience about his life as a Member of Parliament. He has been faithful and tried his best and, as Mother Teresa often reminded us, that is all that God expects of us. We must leave the rest up to Him.  We should wish him well in his future endeavors and thank him for his many years of courageous fidelity to life and family in parliament. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/tom-wappel-a-parliamentarian-who-will-be-greatly-missed/

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