OTTAWA, March 4, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A survey on family issues by the Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) has demonstrated that Conservative Leadership contenders Stephen Harper and Tony Clement are virtually identical in their stands on family issues. Both Harper and Clement answered questions on issues ranging from gay ‘marriage’ to judicial appointments, but Belinda Stronach an admitted supporter of homosexual ‘marriage’, demonstrated her intolerance for social conservatives by refusing even to answer the questionnaire. Her campaign said she did not have time. In a conversation with LifeSiteNews.com today, CFAC President Pastor Charles McVety said, “I thought Belinda gave us what we thought she would – zero. And I thought both Harper and Clement were okay. Are they as strong on issues as we’d like, I don’t think either are.” While the leadership race continues in earnest, early numbers on membership sales indicate an easy win for Harper. With about 85,000 new memberships sold Harper has sold about half with his competitors at some 20,000 each, said McVety. Neither Harper nor Clement answered yes to the following question: As Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada will you call for the government to use all the powers of the Constitution to ensure parliamentary supremacy in defining marriage as “exclusively – one man and one woman”? But both spoke of their commitment to the traditional definition of marriage, saying that parliament and not the courts should decide the issue and that they would allow free votes on the issue.
Both Harper and Clement said yes to these proposed measures: Would you call for stronger child protection legislation, specifically implementing a full and retroactive public sex offender registry; raising the age of consent for sexual relations to at least 16 (with a less than 3 year clause); and tightening child pornography laws including the removal of ALL defenses for the possession of material depicting children engaging in sexual acts?
For the full survey and responses see CFAC’s website: https://www.commonsensevoters.com/articles/leadership-survey.htm