"If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?"

-Rabbi Sha'ul of Tarsus

As I wrote last week, since the Harper minority government was elected a year-and-a-half ago, several people have said, "You shouldn't criticize the Conservatives. At least they're better than the Liberals!"

And I agree that in some respects, they are better. Last week, for example, I praised the Harper government for a positive and creative initiative on Aboriginal land claims.

But, as the Apostle Paul wrote, "If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?"

And the Harper government's trumpet-call-especially on the moral issues that are tearing our nation apart-is beyond indistinct: this government speaks out of both sides of its mouth.

On the campaign trail and in the ridings, Conservative candidates and MPs present themselves as 'pro-life' and 'pro-family'. But under the whip of their leadership and their policy advisors in Ottawa, there is not a dime's worth of difference between them and the Liberals on the moral issues.

Consider the critical issue of the right to life: since the days of the Trudeau government, both Parliament and the courts have acted on the assumption that a pre-born child is not a person. That idea has several unsavory precedents:

• In the 1850s, Justice Taney of the U.S. Supreme Court (himself a slave-owner) ruled that persons of African ancestry were "not persons"; it took a bloody civil war to change that ruling.
• In the 1920s, Canada's Supreme Court ruled that women were not persons; it took an appeal to the Privy Council by the "Famous Five" to reverse that error.
• In Nazi Germany, the government ruled that Jews, Gypsies and Slavs were not persons; it took a World War to correct that.

In Canada today, pre-born children are still "not persons" according to the courts and governments. So we kill 110,000 a year.

What is the response of the Harper government to this atrocity? The Prime Minister has promised, "I will use whatever influence I have to ensure that no legislation on abortion comes into Parliament."

And he's made good on that promise. When Conservative MP Léon Benoit brought a private member's bill into Parliament-The Unborn Victims of Violence Act-the Justice Committee, led by our Justice Minister of the day, ruled it "unvotable"-which guaranteed that it couldn't become law.

Similarly, it's clear to anyone who studies the science that homosexuality is dangerous, both to those who are snared by it, and to society in general: according to a study done in Vancouver and published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association (and later reproduced in the International Journal of Epidemiology), homosexual activity shortens the life of those who engage in it by up to 20 years. As a society, we expend a lot of time, effort and money to persuade children not to take up smoking, because statistics show that addiction will shorten their life expectancy by an average of seven years; yet we allow same-sex 'marriage' and 'pride' parades, and our schools teach children "It's OK to be gay"-even though we know that homosexuality is three times more life-threatening than smoking!

The Harper Conservatives' campaign promise to re-examine Bill C-38-the law that forced same-sex 'marriage' on an unwilling nation after a short series of sham "hearings"-was as hollow as their "pro-life" posturing. They ducked the issue. What's worse, they tried to ride both sides of the fence, promising that if C-38 were repealed, they would recognize the 'marriages' that had been enacted under it, and would pass legislation for same-sex 'civil unions'-giving 'gays' everything marriage represents, except for the name.

That's not responsible government. And that's not protecting future generations. It's either cowardice, or the sacrifice of principle for the sake of power… or both.

Those in Canada who believe in the sanctity of life and marriage-Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and others-cannot and must not continue to support such moral irresponsibility. They must steel their courage to discipline the party that behaves so irresponsibly… even if it means that for four years, a worse party may take over the reins of government.

Only if the pro-moral forces in Canada are willing to administer such discipline, can we ever hope to get a government that will govern by moral principles. As longs as social conservatives are willing to give their votes to "the lesser of two evils", these falsely-named "Conservatives" will continue to take the votes of moral conservatives for granted… and we will continue to be ruled by evil.

Only by standing up for the principles upon which Canada-indeed all of western civilization-was founded, can we hope to be governed by those principles, and to preserve them for our children's children.