Fringe Party Struggles to Gain Exposure

Note: I wrote this for journalism research prior to the last federal election.


Political conservatives in 59 Canadian ridings had at least one alternative to the Conservative Party on their ballots on Election Day, but limited party resources and low exposure left many voters unaware of the option.

The Christian Heritage Party (CHP), which bills itself as “the right conservatives”, is, according to their web-site, Canada’s only “pro-Life, pro-family federal political party, and the only federal party that endorses the principles of the Preamble to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Canadian Constitution”.

According to James Hnatiuk, Deputy Leader of the CHP and the party’s candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of Kings-Hants, the CHP began as a federal party in British Columbia in 1986 and now includes a membership of almost 6000, with its strongest support coming out of Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Yet even in areas where CHP support is strongest candidates face an uphill battle when it comes to getting their message out.

“I think I know who they are”, says Mark Charles, a voter from Halifax’s north end, “But I’m not sure what they stand for.”

The party’s visibility issues run deeper than the problems of recognition by the average Canadian voter. Trevor Ennis was CHP’s candidate for the recent election in the riding of Halifax West. Although he identifies as both a Christian and a social conservative, and was a member of the Canadian Alliance Party before transitioning to the Conservatives, he was unaware of the party with which he is now aligned.

“It was after the first Harper government when he more or less put the breaks on some of the social issues that were on our hearts, where more or less a block was put up and it was like no more discussion,” says Ennis. “There were some like myself that were offended by that and I myself terminated my relationship with the Conservative Party”.

Then, as luck would have it, a chance conversation pointed Ennis in the direction of the CHP, and he found another political option that spoke for his interests, and that of other small “c” conservatives.

“When I learned about the Christian Heritage Party, which I never heard about before, I realized that there was now a party that I could 100 percent support”, says Ennis, “ It (CHP) has the same conservative values that I align myself with, but on top of that it also has core Christian values, which is part of my life”

CHP is unique in the Canadian political landscape due to its combination of the conservative and the Christian; a combination that the party and its members believe is dictated in the preamble to the Canadian constitution, where it is written; “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Using this as their guiding principle, the CHP staunchly support the traditional definition of marriage as a voluntary union between “one man and one woman,” raising the age of consent to 18, and removing the artistic merit defense clause from the child pornography laws. Conversely, CHP opposes any form of legalized abortion, tax disadvantages to single-income families and social dependence upon institutionalized daycare.

“The purpose of civil government is to ensure freedom and justice for a nation's citizens by upholding law and order in accordance with Biblical principles”, wrote Hnatiuk in an email, adding, “Decision-making processes by civil government must not in any way contravene these Biblical [sic] ethics”.

While CHP’s controversial views on political and social issues may contribute to the difficulty the party has had making inroads into the realm of Canadian politics on a broader scale, they should not be discounted as a potential political force in the future.

“They’re a pretty stable, persistent feature of the Canadian electoral system”, says Louise Carbert, a PhD in the political science department at Dalhousie University. “The fact that they’re stable and persistent means that they can’t entirely be dismissed, and there is a segment of the Canadian population that is sympathetic to that point of view”.

Carbert points out that when the Reform Party appeared on the scene in the late 1980’s they appealed to many of the same people as the CHP, but as a stronger organization Reform was able to capture much of the social conservative vote. Today the Conservative government has managed to maintain the support of a large segment of the socially conservative population, while CHP only could only capture 26, 722 national votes, only 0.2% of the popular vote. Carbert imagines the make up of the Canadian Parliament could be quite different if seats were decided under a system of proportional representation.

“Part of the reason why the Conservative party is able to maintain those votes is because we’ve got a first past the post electoral system”, she says, “If we had proportional representation you would have a whole segment of the conservative party split off and form the Christian Heritage Party, and that Christian Heritage Party would become a minor coalition party to the conservative party.”