Posted by A.R. Walker on 4/13/2002, 11:29 am A.R. Walker, Parker Avenue Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 12:00:00 AM LETTERS TO EDITOR - I have discarded my Ontario Progressive Conservative membership card and would strongly encourage other social conservatives to follow suit.
Social conservatives should abandon Ontario PCs
Of course, social conservatives are individuals who primarily support pro-family values, hiring on merit, responsible immigration, a tough justice system, grass roots democracy, and values leaning to the pro-life position.
Although social conservatives have always been a major force within the PC Party, the membership also includes Red Tories who support a much more liberal platform.
A perfect example of a Red Tory is Joe Clark.
Clark supports employment equity legislation, the funding of feminist/lesbian groups with taxpayer money, top-down government and abortion on demand.
Clark even led a gay parade in Calgary last year.
The ideological lines in the recent Ontario PC Party leadership race were clearly drawn. Ernie Eves and Elizabeth Witmer were the Red Tories while Jim Flaherty and Tony Clement represented social conservative values.
The fact that Clement abandoned his social conservative supporters and walked across the floor to Eves, instead of to Flaherty, has probably destroyed his political career.
As a social conservative, I was obviously disappointed that Eves won the leadership bid.
However, to compound the problem for social conservatives, there is every indication that Eves will not select runner-up Jim Flaherty to be deputy premier.
Such a decision will be seen as a slap in the face to all social conservatives, both inside and outside of PC Party.
In all likelihood, Eves will select a politically correct Red Tory such as Witmer or Janet Ecker to fill the deputy position while at the same time claiming that there is room for social conservatives under the big tent.
Only an idiot would buy into such rhetoric.
The only reason there is an Alliance Party on the federal scene today is that Red Tories such as Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark abandoned social conservatives. The Federal PC Party is now reaping the benefits of their ideological move to the left.
It is now time for history to repeat itself at the provincial level.
Social conservatives should immediately abandon the Ontario PC Party and look for an alternative. If that means the Liberals will win the next several elections, so be it.
After all, with a social liberal like Eves at the helm, there will be no significant difference between the PC and Liberal parties in Ontario.
Fortunately, social conservatives in Ontario can turn to the Family Coalition Party to have their values represented (www.familyparty.on.ca). This party has been running candidates in southern Ontario for a number of years.
According to Giuseppe Gori, leader of the Family Coalition Party, they will be running David Davies against Ernie Eves in the Dufferin-Peel byelection. Davies received 30 per cent of the vote when he ran for the Reform Party in 1997.
I would be interested in communicating with other social conservatives who would like to see the Ontario Family Coalition Party field candidates in both the Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma ridings in the next election.
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