TORONTO, May 28, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For the first time in its nearly 40 year history, Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s leading pro-life political activist organization, has advised “any person who has pro-life beliefs not to support any candidate seeking election under the Liberal Party banner.”
In a message released Tuesday, signed by CLC National President Jim Hughes, the organization added, “nor should you support the Party, financially or otherwise.”
At the same time, the organization told LifeSiteNews that they will continue to support those pro-life MPs who currently remain in the party, provided they are able to remain true to their pro-life principles.
Historically CLC has had a strict policy of remaining party neutral, and has held to supporting individual pro-life candidates from any party. In particular, the organization has worked closely with numerous pro-life Liberal MPs, including former MPs Tom Wappel and Pat O’Brien, who both currently serve CLC as political advisors.
The monumental shift comes as a result of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s recently announced ban on people who hold pro-life views from becoming new candidates for the party in the upcoming 2015 election.
Hughes, in his statement, noted that they were forced to take the same action regarding the NDP years ago. “When the New Democratic Party stated as official dogma that no one would be accepted as a candidate if they were pro-life (they stated, unless they were pro-choice) and that all MP’s would be required to vote ‘pro-choice’ under pain of expulsion from the caucus and not having their nomination papers signed by the Leader for the next election, we could no longer support that Party, in any way,” Hughes said.
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The new advice to pro-life Canadians was “given with a heavy heart,” he said, in light of CLC’s “long association with members of the Liberal Party, its pro-life candidates and its past pro-life MPs.”
LifeSiteNews asked Hughes what the new direction would mean for the few remaining pro-life MPs in the party such as John McKay. “Guys like John McKay, if they survive here and insist they’re not going to vote pro-abort, they’ll still get our support,” he replied. “But I suspect they going to be told to toe the line or quit.”
Hughes’ letter concluded, “We must work for the day when Canada returns to a time when a person’s fundamental moral beliefs do not disqualify them from seeking political office through a recognized political Party.”
The full statement is available here.