(LifeSiteNews) — Joining me on this episode of The John Henry Westen Show is Jeff Gunnarson, national president of the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). We discussed the upcoming Canadian election, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) barring debate on abortion and Catholic pro-life candidates from running for office, Trump’s 51st state comments, Mark Carney’s globalism, and much more.
I began the episode by asking Gunnarson what to make of Trump’s remarks that Canada would become America’s 51st state, noting that these comments seemed to be a joke at first but have since become a point of tension between the two countries and a major issue heading into this month’s elections. I also asked him how these comments might impact the elections.
WATCH: Did Trump just spark a Canadian political crisis?
Gunnarson emphasized that Trump’s rhetoric has put off many pro-life Catholic Canadians who, while they might agree with the president’s policies more than those of our Canadian politicians, are loyal to this country.
“It’s not because we hate or dislike Trump. It’s because we actually, believe it or not, do have a Canadian loyalty, a sense of identity and purpose here, despite all the really, really ugly, bad political scene that we have here,” he said.
Gunnarson underscored that there are also many Catholic pro-lifers in Canada who didn’t like Trump to begin with, and his 51st state comments have only enhanced their hatred towards the U.S. president.
“[Trump’s rhetoric] gives those people who didn’t like Trump in the first place, who still consider themselves pro-life, but hate Trump … it gives them more fodder to say, ‘Oh, now he wants to annex Canada, so now we hate him more,’” he said.
A bit later I noted that while Trump has at least given Catholics a voice in his administration, but Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) have constantly barred faithful pro-life Catholics like Pierre Lemieux from running for office. Gunnarson said he wasn’t sure the exact reason but suspects it has to with Lemieux and others’ steadfast faith and strong support for the unborn.
READ: Poilievre’s Conservatives reject yet another pro-family, pro-life candidate
“[Lemieux] was the best candidate that they could possibly have. … He had a stellar record, the guy’s got a resume that outdoes just about any MP in Parliament, and the guy is loved by everybody,” he said. “He didn’t have any detractors, he didn’t have any haters, so I don’t understand it except [for] the fact that they know he’s a faithful Catholic and they know that he’s faithful to his pro-life views.”
Later in the episode, Gunnarson highlighted that given how the CPC has disregarded socially conservative issues, faithful Catholics urgently need to step up and run for office themselves.
“We can no longer just knock on doors or make phone calls or financially help a candidate. We, especially as Catholics, as Christians, we need to enter into the fray, we actually have to run ourselves,” he said.
Gunnarson stressed that Catholics should start with looking at their local offices where many Canadian towns have a majority Catholic population yet have secular mayors and city councilors.
“We’re a significant voting bloc of Catholics, why do we have a secular city council? Why do we have a secular mayor? It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “We’re allowing these people … they’re not lined up with our social, our faith and morals at all. What are we doing? Why are we voting these people in?”
“I think that’s where we start, we get people to focus on their own backyard,” he added. “We need good, faithful Catholics working on that kind of task because how can we trust anyone else with it? Good, informed, faithful Catholics make the best citizens.”
To hear more from Jeff Gunnarson, tune in to this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show.
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