A Discouraging Victory

More Anti-Choice MPs Elected than Before
By Joyce Arthur (copyright © July 2004)

The so-called cliffhanger election in Canada is behind us, with the Conservative Party consoling itself with official Opposition status in a Liberal minority government. Social liberals, including pro-choicers, breathed a huge sigh of relief after having faced the jittery prospect of a Conservative minority—possibly even a majority—government. Although these fears proved to be overblown, so perhaps, is our feeling of relief.

There are more anti-choice MP's in Parliament now than before, the majority of them Conservatives, but more than a few Liberals as well. The majority of previous anti-choice incumbents were re-elected, some by wide margins.

Prior to the election, the Pro-Choice Action Network checked the voting records of all MP's who voted in favour of last October's private member's motion M-83, which was an attempt to define abortions as not medically necessary. We also reviewed anti-abortion websites to determine which MP's attended anti-choice rallies or conferences, publicly spoke out in favour of anti-abortion measures, or gave anti-choice answers to current and past election questionnaires put out by the anti-abortion movement.

83% of the Conservative caucus before the election was publicly anti-choice—59 out of 71 MPs. That's not counting three former anti-choice Conservative MPs who recently turned Independent (Chuck Cadman, Jim Pankiw, and Larry Spencer).

A review of the election results reveals that almost one-third of new or re-elected MP's are publicly anti-choice—that is, they have an anti-choice voting record, or have publicly spoken at or attended events organized by anti-choice groups, or have publicly stated they are "pro-life" or would support abortion only in limited circumstances[1].

Anti-Choice Federal MPs

* Note: Perhaps 5 to 10 Conservative MPs are pro-choice or likely pro-choice. The stance of the rest is uncertain or unknown, but at least some are anti-choice.

Conservative Party of Canada — Anti-choice Incumbents

An asterisk (*) indicates a previous incumbent; the rest are newly elected.

Liberal Party — Anti-choice Incumbents

An asterisk (*) indicates a previous incumbent; the rest are newly elected.

Other — * Chuck Cadman (Independent, formerly Conservative)

Conservative MP Rob Merrifield beat his closest competitor (a Liberal) by a wide margin—26,503 votes to 4,441. Merrifield had proposed independent counselling for women considering abortion. Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant won 10% more votes than all her competitors combined.  Gallant had compared abortion to the beheading of Nick Berg in Iraq. Conservative MP Randy White won by a landslide, receiving 62% of the vote vs. 20% for the next closest candidate (a Liberal).  White wanted to invoke the notwithstanding clause to stop abortion. 

Endnote

[1] According to these sources:
www.campaignlifecoalition.com/elections/federal/2004/index.html
www.theinterim.com/2000/election2000/
www.lifesite.net/election_97/quest/index.html
www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/Article179.htm

Our election-related press releases can be viewed at www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/media/media.shtml