Letter to Stephen Harper... interesting thinking, do letters make a difference? i wonder... Anyway, you'll notice i borrowed some lines from myself (my other letter to Mel Knight...) but i guess, if a line is worth writing, it's usually worth repeating:)
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Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
cc Jason Kenney MP Calgary SE
Monday, April 10, 2006

Mr. Harper,
Today my husband and I received in the mail a thank you letter for our personal support of you and of the Conservative Party. It was our pleasure to be involved in this great accomplishment and I want to take this opportunity to express my congratulations for your victory on January 23rd.
The reason I am writing you a letter today is that you’ve asked for our continued support, and while I am confident that there is no alternative to the Conservative Party and that you have proven your leadership ability to us during the campaign, I have some reservations that I wanted to share with you at this time.
I am a young (29) house wife. I stay at home and care for and homeschool our 5 young children. Now before you marginalize me because of the obvious box that I’ve put myself in, I want to paint you a little picture of your election campaign. During the campaign, more times than I can count I found myself in debate with people older, smarter, and wiser than myself. Because of the way you were depicted by the media, sometimes these people said “it’ll never happen… The conservatives will never win and Stephen Harper doesn’t have a hope…” I disagreed vehemently, and although we don’t know each other, Mr. Harper, I stuck up for you. I told them how you carried yourself so intelligently in interviews, how I was sure that you would find a way to win votes in the east and how you would then create a government without corruption that would stick up for Canadians. Your platform was full of achievable, honest goals and it seemed to me, that most of the men and women running for you were people with vision and integrity.
I believe that the reason that you were elected was because of people like me. I may not be smart, or ripened with age and wisdom, but Mr. Harper, I’m passionate. I believe that it’s the people in this country who are passionate who elected you.
Warning bells began to go off for me when you were asked about abortion and I heard you say that this was an issue you weren’t even willing to address because there were so many more issues that were more important. By saying that, you did take a stand. Canada’s laws on abortion are outrageous (specifically that there is no legal protection for a baby up until the moment of it’s birth). Canadians, whether they are for or against abortion at the end of the day, have to live with the knowledge that their tax dollars fund this procedure ~ whether it’s in the first trimester or the third. In the case of minors, there is no law of notification for parents. Mr. Harper, I want to make sure it’s clear that for us, it's not an issue to have more dollars in our pockets at the end of the day, but we find it horrifying that the abortions that are taking place in this province and country *daily* are funded by my husband's tax dollars. We have worked hard to be able to live on one income so that i can stay home and care for our children. To have our tax dollars funding something that is morally abhorrent to us puts us in a painful position. We’re forced to go against our consciences by paying taxes to fund a procedure that destroys human life. Interestingly, most Albertans agree with me, (see http://www.lifecanada.org/). Mr. Harper, the information that i read stated that if non-medically necessary abortions were deinsured in Alberta alone that it would save the tax funded system a minimum of $8 million dollars a year. That's an awful lot of non-medically necessary abortions, don't you think? In a perfect world, parents would be willing to die to save their young. Instead, we live in a culture that kills it's young for convenience. God save us.
Mr. Harper, the people who elected you are a passionate bunch. Not just about the dollars and cents wasted and thieved from our pockets by a crooked liberal government, but even more so, we’re passionate about our faith, the sanctity of life and a government that will not sell out and accommodate for 4 years ~ forgetting the values that got them elected in the first place. I encourage you now as you have an incredible opportunity to leave your fingerprints on the history of this country. Be passionate, have faith and do what’s right.
Paige Beselt
Calgary SE (McKenzie Towne)
paige@sojourners.ca