Saying Canada’s ruling Conservative party has been unresponsive to concerns of evangelical Christians, a Dutch-born political activist is forming a distinctly Christian party.
Ed Vanwoudenberg, a former furniture manufacturer and house builder who has never held public office, said his Christian Heritage party (CHP) will back traditional family values and free enterprise, and oppose abortion. The CHP has already signed up 1,000 members, and has scheduled a founding convention in November.
Building A Base
Vanwoudenberg, who lives in Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific coast, is eager to build a national base for his party. Earlier this year he opened a CHP office in Halifax on the Atlantic coast. And the party plans to open offices in most, if not all, of Canada’s other provinces.
No well-known political figures have endorsed the CHP. But Vanwoudenberg says it is better to have capable candidates running in key legislative districts than to depend on a high-profile figure for influence. His party will try to field at least 50 candidates for Canada’s next national election, to be held at the call of the prime minister and expected as early as 1988. If the CHP signs up fewer than 50 candidates, it will fail to qualify for free radio and television time and for income-tax deductions for party contributions, among other benefits.
Before they can run on the CHP ticket, candidates will have to pass a background check. They will be checked for a criminal record; addiction to alcohol, drugs, or pornography; and level of business ethics. Each candidate will be required to adhere to the party’s fundamental statements, including a commitment to conservative theological and political positions.
Political Goals
Vanwoudenberg says the CHP can bring Christian ethics to bear on Canada’s national political scene, and he believes his timing is right. After 21 years of almost unbroken Liberal party rule, Canadians in 1984 gave Brian Mulroney’s Conservative party a landslide 211 seats out of 282 in the House of Commons. Many evangelical Christians supported the Conservatives, believing they would move the nation away from secularism and socialism. New legislative directions have been slow coming, however, and Mulroney’s cabinet has been marred by scandal.
Some observers say anti-Christian, prohumanist influences are too strong in both the Conservative and Liberal parties for Christians to have a significant impact. The country’s other major party, the socialist New Democrats, has muted the Christian influences that played a role in its founding.
The Conservative party has been the most effective in electing Christians to Parliament. But the CHP has little patience with that party’s attempts to foster a Christian influence within its ranks. Vanwoudenberg cites the Conservative government’s refusal, so far, to fund REALWomen, a profamily, antiabortion organization. The feminist National Action Committee of the Status of Women has received $12 million in federal funding. Vanwoudenberg cites this as evidence that Christians within the Conservative party cannot buck liberal lobbying efforts.
Facing Criticism
The CHP is drawing flak from some Christian politicians who say it is better to work within existing parties. Benno Friesen, a member of Parliament from British Columbia, says Christians should not expect political change to come too rapidly. He pointed out that it took 15 years for former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to build an infrastructure that reflected his own moral and ethical values.
The most prominent Christian cabinet minister in the Conservative government, Health and Welfare Minister Jake Epp, agrees with Friesen’s call for patience. He indicated, for example, that REALWomen would obtain federal support once it follows procedures established by the government. Epp added that Christians can be more effective working in established political parties rather than forming a separate party. They need to become “encompassing rather than exclusionary,” recognizing Canada as a pluralistic society, he said.
Fred King, a member of Parliament from British Columbia, points out that evangelical churches could do more to provide a support base for Christian office holders in the existing parties. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has made some gains in that area, King said. And he commended his own Canadian Baptist Federation for setting up a political action committee. Said King: “It is a small start, but it plants the seed.”
