My friend, John Pacheco, surprised me the other day. He announced his campaign as the Family Coalition Party (FCP) candidate for Ottawa-South in the upcoming Ontario election. Like many other readers of Catholic Exchange, I appreciate John’s insight and zeal when it comes to defending the traditional Judeo-Christian family against the culture of death.
It's Time Families Had a Real Choice
[Editor's Note: To read John Pacheco's trenchant Catholic defense of marriage and the family click here.]
I also feel that within Ontario politics, the Family Coalition Party is an idea whose time has come.
Unlike the two-party system south of the border, Canada's is a multi-party system. In the province of Ontario, one finds three major parties. In theory, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) is conservative, the Liberal Party is Liberal, and the New Democratic Party (NDP) is socialist. These three parties supposedly cover the political spectrum and allow Ontario voters choice. The reality, unfortunately, often differs. With the exception of the socialist NDP, these major parties tend to play musical platforms rather than stick to the founding principles.
This is the problem with the upcoming provincial election in Ontario, where none of the three parties preserve sound moral teaching concerning family policy. In fact, the two parties of the left show openly hostility toward the culture of life, while the party of the right is more laissez-faire on social issues than on fiscal ones.
The flip-flop of Ernie Eves (incumbent Premier of Ontario and leader of the Progressive Conservative party) on the legalization of same-sex marriage in Ontario is notorious. He was in favor of it until Ontario’s more rural ridings began to revolt. Since the rural ridings tend to be more socially conservative, Premier Eves came back to the traditional interpretation of marriage after testing the waters. Nevertheless, the divorced Mr. Eves continues to co-habitate with a woman who is not his wife. Thus the current “conservative” premier is hardly a model of social conservatism. Moreover, he is too badly compromised in his personal life to effectively lead religious and social conservatives in the culture war.
The NDP leader is Howard Hampton. The NDP is Canada’s official socialist party. In terms of personality, Howie is very likeable. He is honest when taking a political stand and he sincerely seeks to serve others through the political process. He stands behind his party’s recent history, which (when the NDP last held power in Ontario) included some of the worst persecution of peaceful pro-life activity along with some of the greatest advances for the homosexual lobby. In short, one finds no political ambiguity with Howie — a vote for the NDP is a vote for the culture of death.
The Man to Beat
Finally, there is Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty, Jr. His father, Dalton McGuinty, Sr., was a rare politician of principle who remained faithful to his Catholic principles throughout his entire time in office. Many Canadians would compare the senior McGuinty to Bob Casey, the former pro-life Democrat Governor of Pennsylvania. McGuinty would die in office, still faithful to the Church of his baptism.
Nevertheless, almost from the moment he took over his father’s seat in the provincial legislature, Dalton McGuinty, Jr. jettisoned his father’s moral and political legacy. Canadian social conservatives are still divided over whether the junior McGuinty outright rejected his father’s moral leadership, in which case he lacked conviction, or whether he simply feared for his political future, in which case he lacked courage. Either way, while he may now lead the Liberal party, he has rejected that which made his father such a great leader. By opposing that for which his father stood, Dalton McGuinty, Jr. has, in essence, become Canada’s moral equivalent to such putatively Catholic American politicians as Governor Gray Davis.
Yet Canada’s electoral system differs from its American counterpart in one important respect. In Canada, members of the executive branch of the government must hold a seat in the legislative assembly. Sometime before each election, every political party will choose a leader who must then stand for election in the legislative assembly. Each leader will run in a riding, which is the equivalent of an American electoral district. In provincial politics, provided that he wins his own seat in the legislative assembly, the leader of the party that wins the most seats on election day will then assume the head of the executive branch. He becomes the Premier of the province — a position that loosely corresponds to that of State Governor.
In a provincial election, every riding (electoral district) within the provincial legislature is up for grabs. It is not unlike the election of state legislators, except that the leader of the party, instead of running directly for the Governor’s office, must represent a riding and run for a seat in the provincial legislature. While all the provincial ridings will be up for election, Ottawa-South is particularly important because its current incumbent is Dalton McGuinty, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.
According to most recent polls, McGuinty stands to become the next Premier of Ontario — provided he holds his seat in Ottawa-South. This is where John Pacheco hopes to mount a tough FCP challenge for Dalton McGuinty's seat in the Ontario provincial legislature.
If McGuinty is defeated in his re-election bid for the Ottawa-South riding, even if his party wins the most seats he cannot assume the executive head of the provincial government. Given McGuinty’s betrayal of his father’s Catholic legacy, as well as the fact Ontario is Canada’s most populous province, McGuinty’s defeat in the riding of Ottawa-South would present an important victory for pro-life and pro-family voters. It would stop him from carrying out his pro-abortion and pro-homosexualist agenda.
“Without Life, Any Other Right is Meaningless”
To give you a little bit of the FCP’s background, this party was founded after Ontario’s three major parties abdicated their responsibility to protect family values within society. Currently the FCP is Ontario’s only pro-life political party. “The family has an important and necessary role in protecting and nurturing life,” states the FCP’s party platform. “This role makes the family, rather than the individual, the basic building block of our society. When families are strong and prosperous, democracy and economic enterprise flourish. Strong families lessen problems in many areas of society; e.g.: marital separations, child abuse, teenage rebellion leading to alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, runaways, school drop-outs, vandalism, theft and violence.”
Less there still be any ambiguity over what the FCP believes concerning family values, John Pacheco is even more clear: “Each human being has innate worth, unique potential and inherent dignity from conception to natural death. All human beings need to be protected by other individuals and if necessary by government, from any threat to their life. Without life, any other right is meaningless; any other human activity or government activity is meaningless.”
Similarly, the FCP’s policy with regards to same-sex marriage is no less ambiguous. As previously mentioned, both the NDP and the Liberals favor same-sex marriage as a right. On the other hand, the PC Party has changed positions on the issue depending upon the political flavor of the day, while offering no means to engage the pro-homosexual judiciary over this issue. As an aside, it should be noted that one of the three federal judges who rendered the decision legalizing same-sex marriage was the former Ontario Attorney General for the provincial PC government.
In contrast, official FCP policy is clear concerning this issue of judicial activism and same-sex marriage. “Marriage is the union between a woman and a man to the exclusion of all others,” the FCP’s official website states. “The Family Coalition party would invoke the Notwithstanding Clause (section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms) to prevent any re-definition of marriage by the courts to take effect in Ontario.” In short, the FCP would invoke the provincial government’s constitutional power to circumvent an activist judiciary seeking to undermine family values.
In previous elections, the FCP has polled between 1 and 2 percent of the vote — which places it well at the forefront of fourth parties in Ontario. Yet with same-sex marriage still fresh in the minds of many voters, along with the unwillingness of elected politicians to defend the values of average Canadians against judicial activists and special interest groups, the FCP could break into major party status and win some seats in this election. One need only look at past provincial elections where the NDP has often garnered several seats with a mere 15% of the popular vote.
As a native of Canada’s capital, I pray that one of these seats the FCP take this election is Ottawa-South. For as John Pacheco remarks concerning the major parties, “We must wake up to the political realities of devastating social legislation. The political establishment in this province, and indeed in the country, has to realize that it will pay a steep political price for ignoring social conservatives…”
The FCP is a party whose time has come. The leadership of the three major parties in Ontario do not share our traditional family values in their personal lives, and it unfortunately shows in their public life. “We believe that personal integrity impacts how a politician conducts himself in public life,” John recently reminded his constituents, “and that each politician must not compromise his own personal integrity to get elected.”
For more information on the Family Coalition Party, please visit their official website at www.familyparty.on.ca or John Pacheco’s official FCP candidate website at www.pacheco.ca
© Copyright 2003 Catholic Exchange
Pete Vere, JCL, earned his ecclesiastical licentiate in canon law from Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. In his spare time, he volunteers as a Deputy Regional Director for the International Order of Alhambra — a Catholic family organization dedicated to serving the needs of the mentally and developmentally challenged.
Mary Kochan was raised as a third-generation Jehovah’s Witness. Before converting to Roman Catholicism, she worked in Evangelical Protestant ministry, speaking and teaching in many settings. She is a member of St. Theresa parish in Douglasville, GA. Her tapes are available from Saint Joseph Communications
