September 20th, 2007
October 10 Election: More candidates than ever before!
On nomination closing day (September 18) the Family Coalition Party had 83 candidates across Ontario, out of 107 ridings, including some of the Northern ridings.
The number of candidates and the percentage of ridings covered is a new record for the FCP.
Five people, for different reasons, did not make the nomination deadline. Several others resigned, some before the election was called, others later. Most of the times this was due to lack of support in their riding. With a little more help we could have had a candidate in every riding.
Having more candidates is the best way to raise pro-life, pro-family issues and "fill the political vacuum" that other parties are creating by catering to the homosexual activists and the abortion-on-demand extremists.
The other parties on the campaign trail are not even mentioning moral issues. The FCP is committed to raise these issues, whenever we can, at every candidate meeting, in every press release, media article and free cable, TV and radio time allotted to our candidates.
With the current system, having an FCP candidate in a riding is the only way for pro-life, pro-family people to have an opportunity to vote in good conscience. It is also the only way to collect votes for the FCP.
With more candidates, our total number of votes will be higher. However, many people who agree with our policies know that votes cast for the FCP, still do not count to have FCP candidates elected (with the current system).
These people see a vote for the FCP as a wasted vote. They vote according to "strategy" instead of principle. Thus our party is in the odd position of having supporters who agree with our party policies, but do not vote for us and vote for pro-abortion parties. The end does not justify the means. This is an ethical principle they did not seem to have discovered yet.
All of the above would change with the MMP system proposed with the referendum.
Firstly we would not need to run a candidate in every riding to collect votes for the party.
Secondly, all votes for the party would count to elect an FCP representative, because the number of seats would be assigned according to the ballots results, in percentage, across Ontario.
Thirdly, when supporters know that their vote is not "wasted" they are more likely to choose the FCP as their party in the ballot.
Finally, "vote splitting" with the new system would not be a problem as coalitions among similar parties after the election would remain just as viable as coalitions (big-tent parties) before the election.
For the above reasons and taking into account the average percentage of votes received in ridings where we ran in previous elections, I predict that with the new MMP system the FCP would elect six people in 2011.
With this election campaign already one third of the way, and the first Leaders' debate under our belt, we cannot see ideological differences between the two main parties. They both avoid the "A" and the "F" words (abortion and family). They both agree on the current level of taxation and spending, on transportation, on health care and on education. They have to look very hard to find an issue (funding of faith-based schools) where they disagree.
Thus I suggest that the most important issue at this election is not political, but constitutional: the Referendum question on changing the way we vote.
The new MMP system will be better for Ontario, but also will level the playing field for our party to elect pro-life politicians who will represent us at Queen-s Park. For more information, please look at:
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