CLC Blog

Our team has just returned from an exhausting – but amazing – weekend in Quebec City at the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) National Convention.

Why was it so amazing?

We helped pass 13 policy resolutions which advance the cause of life, family, faith and freedom! They are now the official policy of the Conservative Party of Canada!

Opposition to Transgender Ideology = Official CPC Policy

The most striking win was the passage of two policies which set the party firmly in opposition to Gender Ideology.

One such policy commits the party to banning chemical and surgical sex changes for gender-confused children under the age of 18. That means the party is now officially opposed to puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and genital mutilation of kids!

This wonderful policy to stop an egregious form of child abuse passed with a whopping 69% majority, including a majority of provinces that supported the measure. Even Quebec delegates voted 58% in favor.

The party faithful passed a second offensive against Gender Ideology in the form of a policy to ban biological males having access to female intimate spaces (such as washrooms, showers and prisons) and female sports. It passed with an 87% majority!

In the next federal election, voters will certainly welcome this contrast to the radical pro-LGBT stance of the Trudeau Liberals.

At least on paper, there is now no question which of the two mainline parties stand on the side of parents, children and real women.

Poilievre and his caucus would be wise to follow the lead of the party faithful, and to likewise stand proudly against child abusive gender ideology and the violation of real women's rights by men who are suffering from mental illness.

As expected, the fake news corporate media has already attacked the CPC for these commonsense policies. But Poilievre must ignore the media. He and his caucus need to realize that Canadian parents and voters are ready for a principled, morally responsible government.

A triumvirate of winning, pro-family policies

Another successful policy (#1279) promised tough criminal legislation against human traffickers, pedophiles and groomers.

Prior to the vote, the sponsoring EDA from Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner urged delegates to support this commonsense proposal by reminding them that there is a coordinated effort by perverted elites to re-brand pedophiles as “Minor Attracted Persons”, thus normalizing pedophilia throughout society.

This policy, which passed with 84% support, is a nice complement to the above-mentioned anti-Gender Ideology policies, and together, they form a powerful, pro-family platform that can deliver electoral success in the current climate.

Stop Vaccine Mandates

For almost three years, pro-life Canadians were subjected to medical tyranny, such as being forced to choose between their job or taking an abortion tainted COVID vaccine.

CLC was delighted by the passage of two policies condemning vaccine mandates and pledging that the CPC would protect conscientious objectors who do not wish to take morally problematic injections, such as those produced using cell lines harvested from children who were murdered by abortion.

Pro-life policies

Although no policies dealing directly with abortion made it to the convention, several that would increase respect for the sanctity of life did pass, especially in respect to euthanasia.

A very strong anti-euthanasia policy was passed, with 71% voting YES. It explicitly opposes the expansion of Trudeau's death-on-demand regime to the depressed, the mentally ill, the poor and disabled, and to those who are not terminally ill.

Supplementing policy 908 were a Palliative Care policy and a National Senior Care policy, both of which, if implemented by a Conservative government, would reduce the demand for euthanasia.

Another notable policy which promotes respect for unborn children and motherhood, albeit indirectly, came from the Louis-Saint-Laurent EDA. It commits the CPC to eliminating GST on “essential maternity and newborn products”.

Finally, an environmental policy from the Burnaby North-Seymour EDA resulted in deleting an existing policy which had pushed the UN’s “climate change” language and replaced it instead with a commitment to promote federal initiatives that will achieve clean air, water, land and protect biodiversity.

For a thorough explanation of the nexus between climate alarmism and the global push for abortion, which we wrote in 2021, click here.

Waging war on woke DIE mandates

Most small “c” conservatives are fed up with the onslaught of Diversity, Inclusion & Equity (DIE) mandates being implemented in Human Resource Departments, corporations, schools and virtually every other institution.

This was felt at the CPC convention too, in which delegates passed two policies that would ban identity politics in government hiring and funding practices, along with mandatory ideological attestations for union and trade workers.

DIE mandates tend to serve as a cover for smuggling in the celebration of homosexuality and transgenderism, along with other favored left-wing causes. An infamous example of this was the Canada Summer Jobs “values test” in which employer applicants for federal funding to hire summer students had to sign an attestation pledging their loyalty to abortion and same-sex “marriage” as a pre-condition to receive funding.

Even Campaign Life Coalition was expected to sign this loyalty oath, and we lost funding for refusing to do so. CLC is pleased that these two have joined the official Conservative Policy Declaration.

Now, the bad part...

The most disappointing part of the convention for our hardworking CLC team was witnessing the many opportunities that were missed by not having more pro-life and pro-family Delegates in Quebec City.

For example, if just 37 more pro-lifers from Ontario had become Delegates, we would have elected one more pro-life National Councilor to the party's governing body.

If just five more pro-lifers from BC had become delegates, another pro-life National Council candidate would have been elected in that province.

If there had been 100 more pro-life Delegates at Convention, we would've passed constitutional amendments that prevented the Leader's Office from being able to disqualify socially conservative candidates just because of their religious beliefs on topics like abortion and LGBT ideology. Let me explain how that was defeated....

Stacking the room

The Friday morning constitution breakout workshop featured an amendment to give EDAs veto power over the Leader's or National Council’s decision to disqualify local nomination candidates, pending a majority vote by EDAs.

This amendment was designed to prevent abuses for spurious and undemocratic reasons, such as what happened to pro-lifer Gerrit Van Dorland in the Oxford nomination. Gerrit was a well-connected local resident and a shoo-in to win. Van Dorland was disqualified and instead, the Leader’s preferred candidate was parachuted in from outside the riding.

The amendment only narrowly failed after Pierre Poilievre’s top advisor, Ms. Jenni Byrne, the person who basically runs the Leader’s office, stacked the room.

According to credible party sources, Ms. Byrne allegedly sent out a message instructing Conservative MP’s and party staffers to attend the constitution voting workshop for the purpose of defeating that amendment (and several others like it which would give more power to the grassroots members). You can view a screenshot from those instructions by clicking here.

Ms. Byrne’s suppression tactic was highly effective.

She defeated every single one of the targeted amendments. To our chagrin, her goal of continuing to concentrate undemocratic powers in the hands of the Leader’s Office and National Council was achieved.

Charting the path to future victory

But here’s the point I’m trying to make… if just 100 more pro-life members of the CPC had become Delegates, all of the amendments Jenni Byrne targeted for defeat would have easily passed, despite the undue pressure from her office.

I think that’s very achievable. It works out to less than one pro-lifer for every three EDAs in the country. We can make that happen; don’t you agree?

Don’t get me wrong.

This was a very successful Convention for social conservatives because of the amazing policies that were enshrined in the party’s policy handbook. I’m not trying to pour any cold water on that stunning achievement.

However, I am asking every CLC supporter who is a Conservative Party member, to please make a commitment, right now, to attend the next Convention in 2025. Will you pledge to become one of the 100 needed to also give us victory on the constitution side in 2025?

The rumor is that the next National Convention will be held in either Edmonton or Toronto. We need you there, by our side, to score more wins. Interested supporters should contact us at [email protected]. When you do, please reply with your full name, residential address and, if you know it, the name of your federal riding.

One final thought....

Now is the time to put pressure on Conservative MPs to uphold these policies. It’s clear that the party base leans socially conservative, and we need to encourage CPC MPs and their leader to champion these policies! If you have a Conservative MP or candidate of record in your riding, reach out and let them know you support these policies, and want them to do likewise!