MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As pundits and politicos predict that Justin Trudeau’s candidacy for leadership of the federal Liberal Party will result in a ‘coronation’ because of his overwhelming popularity, some pro-life leaders are warning that a renewed bout of Trudeaumania will damage the cause to protect Canada’s unborn.
The 40-year-old backbench MP showcased his extremism on abortion in February when he indicated he would support Quebec separatism should Canada make a move to give legal protection to children in the womb.
After months of speculation, the eldest son of Canada’s most polarizing Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, announced his candidacy Tuesday evening in his Montreal riding of Papineau. First elected to the House of Commons in 2008, Justin Trudeau’s rise to the Liberal leadership has been anticipated for over a decade. But many are now claiming that he brings more star power to the position than actual substance.
Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition, said Trudeau’s candidacy is a threat to the pro-life and pro-family causes because of his hard-line stances in favour of abortion-on-demand and same-sex “marriage”.
“Even though he has little experience, he’s a lightweight in terms of politics, it will not deter a lot of people who will get on his bandwagon because of charisma, cult of personality, and all these different things. He plays the game well,” Hughes explained.
Gwen Landolt, National Vice-President of REAL Women Canada, said Trudeau lacks the strong background and thought-out policy positions normally expected of party leaders. “All we know is that he’s sort of a knee-jerk left-wing liberal, on same-sex ‘marriage’, abortion-on-demand, but he doesn’t seem to have any in-depth analysis on any issue,” she explained.
“If the Liberals think that Justin Trudeau’s going to solve their problems, they’re very naïve,” she added. “Charisma isn’t going to solve the problem.”
Hughes thinks pro-lifers should not underestimate the power of his charisma on the next generation of voters. “He’ll be able to whip up a lot of enthusiasm among the young, who won’t know the issues at all and a lot of die-hard Liberals who will vote for him just because of the name,” said Hughes.
“I don’t think that the Conservative government has looked at this seriously. I think they sort of pooh-pooh the whole idea,” he added.
A Forum Research poll released last week suggested Trudeau’s Liberals would win an election with 39% compared to 32% for Harper’s Conservatives and 20% for Thomas Mulcair’s NDP.
Trudeau has been a popular speaker at schools, particularly Catholic schools, and charity events for over a decade, and has a Twitter following of 152,000 – second only among MPs to Prime Minister Harper’s 248,000. He is also much loved by the media, which was evidenced in the past week after the news that he planned to announce his leadership bid. The frenzy of coverage reached the point that one pundit urged the media and Trudeau to “get a room.”
Even though they acknowledge his lack of experience, Liberal insiders have been touting his star power, calling him the “American Idol” candidate, and noting that he’s the only person they have who could draw 200 supporters to any backwoods area of the country.
Trudeau’s late father holds the dubious honour of having been the architect of legal abortion in Canada – as Minister of Justice in 1967 he tabled the infamous Omnibus Bill that legalized abortion for the first time, and oversaw its passage as Prime Minister in 1969. He is also revered as the champion of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which has empowered the courts to impose unregulated abortion, same-sex “marriage”, legal brothels, and “safe” injection sites.
And the son appears to be picking up right where his father left off – pushing abortion and same-sex “marriage” while at the same time touting his Catholic faith.
He is a regular participant in Gay Pride parades and has been a guest speaker for the homosexual lobby group Egale. In June, he told an assembly of students at a high school event that the Catholic Church’s opposition to gay-straight alliances is “repulsive.”
In February, Justin Trudeau sparked controversy when he suggested he would support the separation of Quebec if Canada moved to restrict abortion or same-sex “marriage”.
“I always say, if at a certain point, I believe that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper – that we were going against abortion, and we were going against gay marriage, and we were going backwards in 10,000 different ways – maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country,” he told Radio-Canada.
The comments were seen as particularly egregious because of his father’s legacy as a champion of a united Canada.
In November 2011, Trudeau complained to media that he was “surprisingly upset” someone would accuse him of being a “bad Catholic” after Tory MP Dean Del Mastro questioned why he was so frequently invited to Catholic schools even though he openly opposes basic Catholic moral teachings.
“My own personal faith is an extremely important part of who I am and the values that I try to lead with,” Trudeau told the Canadian Press at the time. His prominence has been assisted by Catholic events such as the preparatory event for World Youth Day in Toronto in 2001 where he was asked to speak and giving the eulogy at his father’s funeral in 2000 at the Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.