Did you miss the 2008 Federal Election...

... in Canada?

Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked that the former Canadian Parliament be dissolved, and a new election was scheduled for October 14th, which was last Tuesday. In this election, Harper was able to pick up 19 more seats in the Canadian House of Commons for his Conservative Party (up from 124 seats), but it was still shy of a full majority (155 out of 308 seats). Harper's Conservative Party was brought into power in 2006 after twelve years of government by the Liberal Party of Canada.

Prior to the election, the "top" federal party leaders got together in debates in both English and French. The party leaders include current Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party, Stéphane Dion of the Liberal Party, Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois, Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party, and Elizabeth May of the Green Party.

Here is a clip from the English-language debate. Sound familiar?



Here is a clip from the French-language debate. Can you tell who isn't a native speaker in the group?



Honestly, I followed the Canadian election more out of sheer curiosity, a welcome distraction from American politics. And about the debates - I prefer this debate format. Sit the party leaders around the table. Video cameras, no audience. Of course, they all went after Harper. But notice how real things were discussed. It makes our system of debates seem primitive by comparison.

Melissa Ohden, Abortion Survivor

Courtesy of Feminists for Life:



Melissa Ohden speaks about being aborted at five months gestation. Melissa survived a saline abortion and was placed in a neonatal unit, where her parents found her and adopted her. Today Melissa works in a social welfare agency in the Midwest.

This spring Melissa gave birth to a baby girl in the same hospital, the same maternity ward, where she had been aborted

Mike Wallace and Margaret Sanger

Carl Olson points us to this 1957 Mike Wallace interview with racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who founded the American Birth Control League, which, of course, was later renamed to Planned Parenthood. In the interview, she takes on a number of things, including the Catholic Church, who opposed her efforts for government legislation for birth control in a big way (and still does). Back then, she claimed that increased birth control would eliminate the need for abortion. Of course, because of the effect birth control had on the overall value of sex (and sex within marriage), and because people like Bernard Nathanson and Larry Lader managed to convince the feminist movement that abortion was an issue of women's rights, the opposite became true.

Sanger was a proponent of negative eugenics, outbreeding of ethnic minorities, the poor, and those with disabilities. I don't know if you've noticed, but most Planned Parenthood clinics are in the poorer areas of most communities, and it isn't because the real estate is better in those places.

Prayers for America and Her Leaders

Lay Dominican The Practicing Catholic takes the right approach.

I prayed this [prayer] especially on behalf of our civil leaders and those running for office:

Wisdom 9:1-6,9-11

God of my fathers, Lord of Mercy,
You who have made all things by Your word
and in Your wisdom have established man
to rule the creatures produced by You,
to govern the world in holiness and justice,
and to render judgment in integrity of heart:

Give me Wisdom, the attendant at Your throne,
and reject me not from among Your children;
for I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid,
a man weak and short-lived
and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws.

Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men,
if Wisdom, who comes from You, be not with him,
he shall be held in no esteem.

Now with You is Wisdom, who knows Your works
and was present when You made the world;
who understands what is pleasing in Your eyes
and what is conformable with Your commands.

Send her forth from Your holy heavens
and from Your glorious throne dispatch her
that she may be with me and work with me,
that I may know what is Your pleasure.

For she knows and understands all things,
and will guide me discreetly in my affairs
and safeguard me by her glory.

No matter who becomes president, he will need wisdom from above… I just hope he is open to receiving it.