TORONTO, ON., March 31, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has responded to accusations that he is trying to muzzle pro-life and pro-family MPs within the Conservative Party. An interview with CTV’s Craig Oliver last month has caused a stir since reporting on the comments from the Sun chain spun the comments as indicating Harper would refuse to sign nomination papers for Conservative candidates who spoke out on abortion or same-sex ‘marriage’.
During the interview Oliver asked “Are you going to get tougher with members of your party who say things which embarrass you and the party and are often off base with what the party stands for? In other words, are you going to refuse to sign their nomination papers so they cannot run as a Conservative?”
Stephen Harper responded by saying, “I’ve already made it clear that if candidates are going to be detrimental to the party during an election campaign, if they don’t reflect our views, if they’re going to jeopardize the interests of our members, I wouldn’t sign nomination papers. But nothing’s a perfect world. Anybody can make a quote, whether it’s deliberately or accidentally and be spun, so one has to, obviously one has to keep some discipline. One has to use some temperate judgment in how one does that.”
Responding to the spin by the Sun, Harper sent a letter to the editor published in the Ottawa Sun saying: “Obviously, a candidate who says things which are extreme or damaging to the party’s interests will have to be disciplined, but this does not prevent candidates and MPs with differing views from engaging in open, respectful debate, whether that means candidates and MPs who support same-sex marriage, or candidates and MPs who maintain a pro-life position on abortion. As long as discussion is civil and respectful, there is room for different points of view on these issues in the Conservative big tent.”
Harper spokesman, Carolyn Stewart Olsen told LifeSiteNews.com that when referring to ‘extreme’ comments Harper was not referring to Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant who was chastised by the media for being ‘extreme’.“We had a look at what Cheryl put out, they were basically following along the line of the bishop in Calgary,” she said.“We’re fully fine with people to state their personally views, on an individual basis.” She added, “If someone goes over the top, but I can’t give you a specific example because so far we haven’t really seen that. It’s just saying to people be careful because we don’t want intemperate remarks.”