News

By Steve Jalsevac

See Part I at https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091512.html

  LifeSiteNews.com: If there is a pro-life leaning Liberal candidate and a pro-abortion, or at least, no response Conservative candidate – what does the voter do?

Jim Hughes: If it were me, I would vote for the pro-life Liberal.  I have voted for Liberals, Conservatives, Reformers, – even in my early days, I voted for the NDP.  I voted for the FCP candidate.  I don’t think I have ever had the opportunity to vote for a CHP candidate but I have cast my vote for candidates from different parties based on the candidate’s position.  And, although people will say, if your candidate does not stand a chance of winning, aren’t you wasting your vote.  Not at all. 

  I think you are wasting your vote when you vote for somebody who is pro-abortion in the hope that he will be part of a majority who is going to change things.  He is not going to change the things that matter most to you, that is, the crucial life and family issues, because the Prime Minister is going to give him a free-vote and he is going to vote according to his conscience, so to speak, and he is not going to vote with us.  So, it looks rather bleak but, by the same token, I believe you just keep battling. 

LifeSiteNews: What will eventually change things back?

Jim Hughes: I think there would have to be a spiritual revolution, myself.  I think there has to be a turning back to God.  There has to be an understanding that God is in charge and all the authority that is wielded by the courts and by the elected members of Parliament and provincial legislatures – it all comes from God. You know, it doesn’t matter what plans the government has or how an election turns out if Canadians are not trying to live God’s will in their personal lives and not praying for the nation. Nothing good can come from only relying on human efforts.

  If you are not doing what God wants you to do – at some point, society pays the price. 

  We saw a lot of that deliberate rejection of God’s will for Canada in the Chretien years, you also saw it in the Paul Martin years.  You have seen it too with Stephen Harper’s refusal to do battle on the marriage issue.  He turned turtle. And on the Human Rights Commission assaults on Freedom of religion and conscience, he has denied God there too. And, that is why you have people like Pat O’Brien, who was wanting to cross the floor to sit with the Conservatives during the time of the marriage debates but refused to do so.  He said he saw no point in crossing the floor since Harper had given plenty of evidence that he was not really interested in the marriage issue.

LifeSiteNews: Why have the Conservatives not done anything at all about the trashing of religious and conscience rights by the Human Rights Commissions?

Jim Hughes: They think that it is not a winning issue politically and would hurt their chances of winning a majority.  So the HRC victims were sacrificed to political pragmatism. The Conservative backroom strategists believe the party is better off trying to woo the people who are in the mushy middle and eventually when they get into power, perhaps then they will do something about the HRCs. 

  I think we know the politicians much more than they know themselves. Most of them have not experienced what we have experienced – again and again. We have been doing this work five, six and seven long days a week, year round, for almost 40 years. The names and faces of the politicians change, but the political realities and results from certain behaviors usually end up the same.

When you do get behind someone who is pro-life and pro-family, you have to stay behind them and you don’t bail out on them.  And that is what we have seen many times before.  In our opinion, it is a serious error of judgment and a real betrayal of a faithful servant of life, family and God. You have got to stick with these heroic people. 

  Pro-life people must become members of riding associations and be there for the good candidates all the time while avoiding becoming intimidated by the party people or seduced into becoming party first people. That is what they will try to do to you – and they often succeed and then we lose our people to the party machines. Do a Sarah Palin – stand up for what you know is true, be totally confident and unapologetic about it, but also be an attractive, charitable person in how you go about this.

  You have to educate the candidates on the issues of importance because they are incapable of doing all of that themselves.  They need people that they trust around them to keep them informed on the issues that are facing society – such as the whole debate on embryonic stem cells which persisted for a long time because of the efforts of pro-life parliamentarians and the pro-life movement.  But, the reality was, the parliamentarians didn’t know anything about the issue and it was in large part conference calls that CLC organized in the summer time with medical experts, etc… that attempted to teach them about what was coming down the pike.

LifeSiteNews: But they have to be open to listening to the information and that is perhaps one of the problems being cited about the Harper leadership. It is said that they do not even want these issues discussed.

Jim Hughes: I would say that the lack of spiritual leadership in Canada is a big factor – I am not talking about clergy telling you how to vote, but it is a lack of clergy telling you that you must inform your conscience on critical issues, teaching exactly how those consciences should be formed, and then emphasizing that you have a serious responsibility to act and vote accordingly. The absence of that for so many decades has created a widespread spiritual blindness about truth and also the candidates are closed minded because they have been swallowed up by political partisanship. We are seeing the evidence of that long term lack of spiritual leadership in the United States in the recent Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden controversies over their totally off base understanding of the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion.

LifeSiteNews: What will CLC have to offer the voters?

Jim Hughes: CLC is going to attempt to qualify the candidates on the life issues and we are going to direct as many people as possible to our election website in order to find where the candidates stand on major issues of importance. It is crucially important that dioceses, other churches and faith based groups direct their congregations to the website since it is the only source for such extensive information on the candidates’ voting records and statements on the life and family issues and where the parties and the leaders stand. It is also the only website that will have articles detailing the life and family election issues from a solid pro-life, pro-family perspective. As well, CLC will be acting as a resource to anyone who wants even more information.

  We bend over backwards, with the limited resources available to us, to be the best clearing house of information to help the voters make informed decisions. Trouble is, only a small percentage of pro-life Canadians are even aware of what we have to offer.

  The churches could be a huge help if they would promote the website to their flocks but sadly, for many years, that has not been happening much. In many cases they are afraid of being seen as politically partisan when in fact it would be perfectly legal and non-partisan for them to refer their congregations to the website. It is a non-partisan information resource on all the candidates and parties.

  Our website is the best election resource available in Canada on the life and family issues and yet, for whatever reasons, the people who would appreciate it the most and make by far the best use of it are not told about it in their churches.

I hope and pray, for the sake of our nation, that that changes this time around. The website is not available yet but look for it soon by checking out www.lifesitenews.com. LifeSiteNews will be covering it in its news reports.