CANADIAN PRO-LIFERS BEGIN LONG COMEBACK ROAD

By Paul Tuns

Although high hopes among Canadian pro-lifers were partially deflated by the mixed results from Canada's November 27 federal election, the entrance on stage of an unabashedly pro-life leader of a major party is cause for long-term optimism.

On the down side, the long-governing pro-abortion Liberal Party surged to its third consecutive electoral majority, ensuring another term for incumbent Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

On the up side, the newly formed, moderately pro-life Canadian Alliance Party (which had its seeds in the now defunct Reform Party) made modest gains. This is no small step forward, given the enormous obstacles.

Those hurtles included the cynical but effective Liberal Party tactic of calling an early election to catch the fledgling Canadian Alliance party off-guard. However, the Alliance scrambled about and fielded a full slate of candidates across Canada, leaving pro-lifers reason for optimism.

CANADIAN SYSTEM

To understand the election outcome, an American audience needs to know something about the status of abortion in Canada and Canada's political system.

Since 1988, when the Canadian Supreme Court threw out the existing abortion law as "inequitable," Canada has been without legislation governing abortion - - the only such country in the world! Canadian pro-lifers have had to wage an enormously difficult uphill battle.

While the United States is a democratic republic, Canada is a parliamentary democracy. Five major parties vie for majority control of the country's 301 electoral "seats," scattered across the 10 Canadian provinces. (One, the separatist Bloc Quebecois, only runs candidates in the French-Canadian province of Quebec.)

Much of Canada's population of 30 million is spread thinly in a band close to the northern U.S. border, but major urban concentrations in southern Ontario give that province a third of the country's 301 electoral seats. (From east to west, Ontario extends from Vermont to Minnesota.) Liberals have swept virtually all of Ontario's seats in the last three elections, ensuring their overall victory.

Each electoral seat in the House of Commons (analogous to the U.S. House of Representatives) represents one electoral district. Unlike the U.S. presidential electoral college system, the leader of the Canadian political party that wins the most seats automatically becomes the highest executive - - in the Canadian system the prime minister.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Liberal Party won re-election with 173 seats; the Canadian Alliance won 66, the Bloc Quebecois 37, the New Democratic Party (NDP) 13, and the Progressive Conservatives 12.

The good news for pro-life Canadians is there is finally a party unafraid to tackle the abortion issue, albeit at this time through a national referendum. The Canadian Alliance is led by a charismatic pro-life evangelical Stockwell Day.

Like its predecessor the Alliance's strength lies in western Canada. Hopes for a breakthrough required inroads into the vote- rich provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Unfortunately, the Alliance won only two seats in Ontario, none in Quebec.

As expected, the overwhelmingly pro-abortion Canadian media predicted/hoped that Stockwell Day's pro-life views would hurt his electibility. The media were, in fact, stoked by a shameless smear campaign by Chretien's political operatives, and by the Prime Minister himself, who warned Canadians, repeatedly, about Day's "hidden agenda."

During the campaign, Chretien made an international speech in which he implied his campaign was a battle against "evil" forces. Not to be outdone, one of his Ontario cabinet ministers labeled Alliance supporters "bigots" and "Holocaust deniers," even though her local Alliance opponent was Jewish!

Contrary to the media explanations, the failed breakthrough performance is most likely explained by the new party's vastly inferior organization compared to the battle-hardened incumbent Liberal Party, not Day's strong pro-life views.

For example, a closer look reveals that the Alliance actually improved on the performance of the Reform Party. It increased its share of the popular vote (by 6.2%) to fully one-quarter of the national vote, gained six seats, and saw its support increase in nine of the 10 provinces.

Including all party members, there was a modest increase in pro- life members of Parliament (MPs). Nine pro-life MPs defeated sitting anti-life MPs, while six pro-life MPs were defeated by pro-abortion challengers. More importantly, the multi-partisan Parliamentary Pro-life Caucus remains largely intact.

Also noteworthy is that the socialist NDP and the Progressive Conservatives (both with pro-abortion leaders) saw their support plummet across the country.

STOCKWELL DAY

The breath of fresh air in Canadian politics is the inaugural performance of Canadian Alliance Party leader Stockwell Day. Day is an experienced provincial politician, with 12 years as a member of Alberta's provincial legislature and cabinet (similar to state government). Day has long championed the pro-life cause, including a failed attempt to defund abortion, which is currently automatically funded by taxpayers under Canada's national health care scheme.

As leader of the Canadian Alliance, he defended the party platform that would allow citizen-initiated referenda, arguing that this was the best vehicle upon which to decide the abortion issue. Day's decision to limit his support for the unborn to a potential referendum wasa disappointment to activist Canadian pro-life groups, and may well be seen as a weak form of advocacy to U.S. pro-lifers who are more organizationally advanced. However, this strategy must be seen in the context of the highly liberal, almost suffocatingly pro-abortion Canadian political environment in which the Progressive Conservative [!] party is actually headed by pro-abortion Joe Clarke, whose wife is a leading Canadian pro-abortion feminist.

The reigning orthodoxy in Canada is that any attempt to question unlimited access to abortion is beyond discussion. For example, during a debate Day was castigated for wanting to "re-open the [abortion] issue." Jean Chretien, in a burst of illogic all too typical for him, took the paradoxical position that the abortion issue is both settled and divisive.

"Conservative" Joe Clarke, battling for his political life, did as much damage to Day as possible. His rhetoric attempted to split off fiscal conservatives from social conservatives, hoping to stem the tide of former Conservative supporters switching over to the Alliance. While in the end he retained his seat, and position as Conservative Party leader, Clarke's party won so few seats it barely retained official party status in order to gain federal funding. Ironically, one quarter of Clarke's caucus is pro-life, with a future even bleaker than pro-life politicians in the U.S. Democratic party.

SUPPORT FOR SOME
LEGISLATION

The dominant media constantly repeat the message that Canadians are "pro-choice," based on polls designed to elicit pro-abortion responses. Those include polls that show 78% support when the question is phrased as a variation of "Do you support a woman's right to control her own body and reproductive freedom?" However, more neutral and medically specific questions reveal that public support for abortion is, in reality, a mile wide and only a couple of inches deep.

During the election, polls showed 60%-40% support for legal limits to abortion in the third trimester, and 53%-46% support for legal limits during the second trimester. While the activist Canadian pro-life movement is generally opposed to the use of a referendum, they are heartened by the appearance on the national stage of Stockwell Day, a pro-life leader who is unafraid to discuss the issue in public. Unlike the recent past, Canadian politicians will not be able to ignore the controversy over abortion, and this, for the moment, represents a pro-life victory.