John Ivison, a columnist with the National Post, has made no secret of the fact he believes only Red Tories can properly lead the Conservative Party of Canada. Social conservatives are distasteful to him.

He and other media consider it their responsibility to peel off social conservative candidates one-by-one by destroying their credibility.

Mr. Ivison, for example, began this strategy by relentlessly pursuing Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, pointing out his inadequacies, the most egregious of which was his Roman Catholic faith on which he based his views on marriage and abortion.

Next up to be undermined by the media was social conservative Quebec-based Richard Decarie. During a CBC interview, Mr. Decarie commented that homosexual behaviour is a choice.

The National Post quickly published several articles condemning Mr. Decarie and interviewed Red Tory rivals who all agreed, naturally, that Mr. Decarie was unfit to run for the office. The party’s Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) rejected Mr. Decarie’s application – with no reason given – even though he had submitted the required signatures and funds to be eligible to run in the race.

Another social conservative candidate targeted was lawyer Jim Karahalios, whose application was rejected with no reason given, although he had complied with all the party’s regulations. Oddly, the party’s Dispute-Resolution Appeals Committee (DRAC), which had no authority to dismiss him, but did so nonetheless, even though the LEOC, which did have the authority, had originally accepted his application. Mr. Karahalios has brought a legal challenge before the Superior Court of Ontario, which will hear arguments on May 15, 2020.

Another social conservative candidate, Leslyn Lewis, is a black female lawyer. Because it might be construed as racist and sexist to discredit her, Ms. Lewis’ candidacy has largely been left uncriticized.

The only remaining candidate in the race to disparage was MP Derek Sloan (Hastings-Lennox and Addignton), a lawyer with strong, well-formed conservative values and an articulate advocate for them. In an email dated April 21, 2020, Mr. Sloan suggested Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadian Chief Public Health Officer, should be fired for consistently parroting the position of the UN’s World Health Organization, WHO, formed a position on COVID-19 information which conformed to the propaganda issued by communist China. Mr. Sloan asked for whom Dr. Tam was working, WHO or Canada. Dr. Tam has strong ties with the WHO, as she is a member of the IOAC (Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee) of WHO. With this news, Mr. Ivison promptly wrote an article (National Post, April 24, 2020) condemning Mr. Sloan for his “racist” views. This baseless notion was immediately picked up by others in the media, notwithstanding that many others had condemned Dr. Tam for her failure to protect Canadians from the virus. For example, Jason Kenney, premier of Alberta, stated in a CBC interview on April 13 that Dr. Tam “was telling us that we shouldn’t close our boarders to countries with high levels of infection, and who in January was repeating talking points out of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) about no evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Many Chinese Canadians also endorsed Mr. Sloan’s statement.

If anyone in this situation is racist, it is Ivison and his media friends. It is their view that permission to criticize public officials depends on the colour of their skin. In a time of reason and common sense, it wouldn’t matter what Dr. Tam’s background was, whether Chinese or French. That is not the issue, the issue is her competence and actions, which are highly questionable.

The media had to bypass this obvious point in order to attack Mr. Sloan and claim he was inadequate to continue on in the Conservative leadership race.

The media is now well-pleased, apparently, with their efforts and have gloated that the leadership race is now between their two favourites, Red Tory Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole.

The Canadian Media

Unfortunately, one cannot have confidence in the Canadian liberal media today. Their members likely believe that they are the authentic voice of Canada and anyone who disagrees must promptly be put in their place, not by facts, but by way of the media’s interpretation of the facts. The opinion of Canada’s liberal media, however, is only one single thread, albeit an influential one, in the multi-coloured threads that make up the fabric of Canadian opinion. Social conservatives are not willing to be ignored when determining Canadian opinion.

Mr. Ivison and his friends in the media should know that social conservatives are not going to roll over and die because of their smug criticism. The social conservatives’ fact-based approaches are what Canadians require at this time.

Critical Role for Social Conservatives

It is now up to social conservatives to decide who will lead the Conservative Party. Will it be the media and the Conservative elites who are running the election or the actual grass-roots members of the Conservative Party?

The date of the leadership vote has been moved from June 27, 2020, to an undetermined date because of the pandemic. It is imperative that every social conservative become a member of the Conservative Party by MAY 15, 2020 in order to elect a suitable candidate. To become a member, one need only pay $15 and meet the following criteria: be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident; support the founding principles of the Conservative Party; be at least 14 years of age; not hold membership in another federal political party; and that membership fees be paid from one’s own funds without reimbursement from another individual or organization.

To become a member, apply online,  or phone the Conservative headquarters at 1-866-808-8407 or download the application form from the website and mail the membership application to:

Conservative Party of Canada
1720-130 Albert Street,
Ottawa, ON K1P 5G4

Please distribute this article to all your family, friends, members of organizations, church and on social media.

As social conservatives, we are all in this together and the erratic media must not tell us what to do. We are capable of making up our own minds.