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
| Before the Election | After the Election |
| 83 of 297 MPs (28%) | 90 of 308 MPs (29%) |
| 59 of 71 Conservatives (83%) | 69 of 99 Conservative MPs (70%)* |
| 20 of 168 Liberals (12%) | 20 of 135 Liberal MPs (15%) |
| 4 Independents (3 former Conservatives) | 1 Independent |
* 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.
| * Jim Abbott | * Gurmant Grewal | Pierre Poilievre |
| * Diane Ablonczy | Nina Grewal | * James Rajotte |
| Dean Allison | * Art Hanger | * Scott Reid |
| * Rob Anders | * Richard Harris | * John Reynolds |
| * David L. Anderson | * Loyola Hearn | * Gerry Ritz |
| * Leon Benoit | Russ Hiebert | Andrew Scheer |
| * Garry Breitkreuz | * Jay Hill | * Werner Schmidt |
| Gordon Brown | * Howard Hilstrom | * Carol Skelton |
| Colin Carrie | * Dale Johnston | Joy Smith |
| * Bill Casey | Guy Lauzon | * Monte Solberg |
| * Rick Casson | Tom Lukiwski | * Kevin Sorenson |
| * David Chatters | Randy Kamp | * Darrel Stinson |
| * Cheryl Gallant | * Jason Kenney | * Chuck Strahl |
| * John Cummins | Ed Komarnicki | * Greg Thompson |
| * Stockwell Day | * James Lunney | * Myron Thompson |
| * Norman Doyle | * Rob Merrifield | * Vic Toews |
| * John Duncan | * Bob Mills | Brad Trost |
| * Ken Epp | * James Moore | * Maurice Vellacott |
| * Brian Fitzpatrick | Rob Moore | Mark Warawa |
| * Paul Forseth | Rob Nicholson | Jeff Watson |
| * Peter Goldring | * Deepak Obhrai | * Randy White |
| Gary Goodyear | * Brian Pallister | * John Williams |
| * Jim Gouk | * Charlie Penson | * Lynne Yelich |
Liberal Party — Anti-choice Incumbents
An asterisk (*) indicates a previous incumbent; the rest are newly elected.
| * Raymond Bonin | * Joe McGuire | Alan Tonks |
| * Joe Comuzzi | * Dan McTeague | * Rose-Marie Ur |
| * Mark Eyking | * Shawn Murphy | Joe Volpe |
| Albina Guarnieri | * Pat O'Brien | * Tom Wappel |
| Jim Karygiannis | * Jerry Pickard | Borys Wrzesnewskyi |
| Judi Longfield | * Paul Steckle | Paul Zed |
| * Lawrence MacAulay | * Paul Szabo |
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