News

I was happy to read this morning that Pierre Poilievre, the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, had finally published his list of “shadow ministers”, that is, the members of parliament in the opposition Conservative party who will be criticizing the work of the Liberal ministers currently in power.

But what really delighted me was seeing that Leslyn Lewis, the fully pro-life and pro-family leadership candidate for the Conservative Party, who ultimately lost to Pierre Poilievre, had been picked as “shadow minister” for infrastructure and communities, which means that, beyond her work representing her constituents in her riding of Haldimand—Norfolk, she will be constructively criticizing the work of Liberal minister of infrastructure Dominic Leblanc.

Dr. Leslyn Lewis, MP

And Dr. Lewis isn’t the only pro-lifer to be named “shadow minister” by Poilievre—not by a long shot (see the document I prepared, here). These positions, which often translate into minister positions once a party comes into power, have been given by Poilievre to as many as 21 bona fide pro-lifers within the Conservative Party’s ranks. That’s a full 30% of the 71 shadow minister or associate shadow minister positions. Many of the remaining positions are filled by people who are rated by us as “unsure” since we lack info on them. Rounding out the total are 19 “pro-abortion” Conservatives, or 17% of the total. We must work to get these people to adopt pro-life views or get out.

This is good news for at least 2 reasons:

First, this shows that Pierre Poilievre is listening to his socially conservative base. He knows that we pro-faith, pro-family and pro-life voters wanted Leslyn and other pro-lifers in his inner circle. And he delivered, which is a refreshing contrast to the previous leader, Erin O’Toole, who instead chose to throw Leslyn to the backbenches and kick another strong pro-lifer, Derek Sloan, out of the party altogether!

Second, as I mentioned above, these positions are often testing grounds for a Member of Parliament’s ability to work at a high level. If and when the Conservatives come into power (thanks to the NDP-Liberal agreement, the next federal election is slated for 2025), these so-called “shadow ministers” may become real ministers, with real budgets.

And pro-life ministers can use their ministry’s budgets for good, rather than for promoting abortion, LGBT ideology, secularism and euthanasia.

In the coming days and weeks, we will be working to craft memoranda for each of the pro-life and even “unsure” shadow minister MPs, so that they can be guided to maximize the good they can do, first as “shadow ministers” (or critics of the pro-abortion Liberal ministers in power), and then, hopefully, as true ministers with a budget to do much good for faith, family and life in Canada and abroad.

Yours for Life,

Georges Buscemi, President
Quebec Life Coalition / Campagne Québec-Vie

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