Editorial

By Paul Schratz

Heading into the Oct. 14 federal election, the similarities with the U.S. election taking place three weeks later are striking.

In both elections a conservative-leaning government is seeking another term. In both cases a government that many people of faith hoped would reinvigorate family and other moral values has left a trail of frustration and a legacy of hopes unfulfilled.

While both governments provided a welcome relief from the anything-goes excesses of previous governments, citizens who had been praying for a return to sanity in the area that counts most, the culture of life, have been left profoundly disappointed.

The case in Canada is particularly sad. While the conservative government of Stephen Harper to some degree moved the moral pendulum further back from the unrestraint that brought us "same-sex marriage," embryonic stem cell research, and social policies that discouraged traditional families, it turned out to have feet of clay when it came to doing much to restore the country's moral health.

In the area of abortion, in particular, Harper has proved uninterested in putting the slightest restriction on a so-called medical procedure that claims more than 100,000 Canadian lives a year.

On his watch an Order of Canada was bestowed on abortionist Dr. Henry Morgentaler, human rights tribunals have spread their speech-suppressing tentacles like weeds, and there has been no serious effort to restore marriage to its natural state.

Much of what Canada has been handed is the result of the excesses of past governments, of lawmakers and legislation from five, 10, 20 or more years ago. The result, however, is that we are in some ways like the allegorical ship of fools, passengers embarked on a voyage without a captain and blissfully unaware of where they're headed.

Perhaps it was Dickens who put it best with his memorable opening to A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity...."

In the voters guide produced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, a document has been produced that attempts to help bring about an age of wisdom by calling on Catholics to put their conscience before them as they cast their ballot.

In the document, available at www.rcav.org, the bishops cite the environment, Afghanistan, and a preferential option for the poor as issues demanding consideration by Catholics, but they put life at the top of the list, as have the bishops of the United States in their guidelines for Catholic voters there.

Now it is up to us to determine the best party and candidates to act on those priorities.

As Dickens put it, "we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way...."

On Oct. 14, we get to decide which it will be.