CALGARY, Alberta — Conservatives’ win in Canada’s parliamentary elections gave people of faith hope for a shift away from the country’s slide into a culture of death.

By adding seats in vote-rich Ontario and Quebec to his party’s traditional electoral stronghold in Western Canada, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper won a mandate Jan. 23 to form Canada’s next federal government.

But given the lack of a majority mandate — the Conservatives won only 125 of the 308 seats in Canada’s House of Commons, compared to 103 for the outgoing Liberal party, 51 for the separatists Bloc Quebecois and 29 for the left-wing New Democratic Party — Catholics and other religiously oriented Canadians are wondering whether changes on key issues like same-sex “marriage” and abortion will flow from the results.

Some of the omens are heartening for faith-directed voters. A post-election analysis by Campaign Life Canada found a “modest gain” in the numbers of pro-life and pro-family members of the new Parliament.

Most of those Members of Parliament are Conservatives. Katherine McDonald, executive director of the pro-abortion lobby Action Canada for Population and Development, said that according to her group’s estimates at least 73 Conservative representatives are anti-abortion, compared to only seven who are known to support abortion.

But while the majority of Conservative Members of Parliament tilt towards social conservatism and openness to Christian perspectives, most representatives in other parties hold predominantly liberal viewpoints.

The first test of what’s in store may come on the issue of whether to repeal the 2005 legislation that enshrined homosexual “marriage” in Canadian law. During the campaign, Harper promised to hold a free vote in Parliament on the issue.

Homosexual activists predict that because of the Conservatives’ minority-government status, Harper will be forced to shelve his promise.

“Our feeling is that specifically on the issue of ‘equal marriage,’ the Conservative government does not have the mandate to reopen the issue,” said Gilles Marchildon, executive director of the lobby group Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere.

But at a Jan. 26 press conference, Harper repeated his pledge to allow a free vote on the definition of marriage.

“I would prefer to do it sooner rather than later — but not immediately,” he said, according to Canadian Press.

‘Close Vote’

Conservative Member of Parliament Jason Kenney, who is Catholic, said “the commitment to hold the free vote is an electoral commitment that we certainly intend to keep.” Kenney predicts “a close vote” on the issue, noting that 96 of the 99 Conservative representatives in the last Parliament voted against the bill that legalized same-sex “marriage.”

Overturning that legislation will require 154 votes in the 308-seat House of Commons (the parliamentary speaker does not vote). Kenney said that while a few more Conservatives may vote for homosexual “marriage” than in 2005, “a vast majority support the traditional definition of marriage and will vote accordingly.”

The decisive factor will be how many pro-family Liberal representatives break with their pro-homosexual-“marriage” party leadership to support the Conservatives. Last June, Catholic Liberal party member Joe Comuzzi resigned from the cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Paul Martin to vote against the same-sex “marriage” legislation (Martin, who is also Catholic, had required his cabinet ministers to support the bill).

“The success of the Conservative motion would depend on 30 to 32 of the Liberal MPs voting in favor,” said Comuzzi, who was re-elected in his northern Ontario constituency. “I haven’t gauged whether there would be 30 or 32 people on our side of the house that would support that measure.”

Kenney cited his party’s promise to introduce child-care grants that parents can use as they wish as another government initiative that should win broad support from Canadian Catholics. The plan, which can be utilized by families with stay-at-home moms to defray expenses, contrasted sharply with the Liberal promise to institute a national program of institutionalized daycare.

One area where the Conservatives are unlikely to make any significant changes is abortion. In the face of Liberal attack ads castigating him for not being “pro-choice,” Harper promised in the last week of campaigning that a Conservative government would not change Canada’s current abortion-on-demand legal framework.

According to freelance Christian journalist Lloyd Mackey, author of the book The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper, the new prime minister is a Protestant who attends Christian Missionary Alliance churches in his home city of Calgary and in Ottawa. The Christian Missionary Alliance church is similar to the Baptists in its doctrines, Mackey said. Mackey calls Harper a “customizing Christian,” one who takes his denomination’s doctrines “fairly seriously,” but is prepared to diverge from religious teachings that don’t accord with his intellectual judgements. This attitude allows Harper some latitude on issues like abortion and homosexuality.

Abortion activist McDonald agrees that there is little likelihood of new legislation restricting abortion, but she also noted the Conservatives could modify the country’s abortion-friendly climate by non-legislative moves such as the appointment of a strong pro-lifer as federal health minister.

Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary said that if Harper wants to frame coherent policies on reducing criminal violence — a major plank in the Conservative election platform, the new prime minister will not be able to duck the issue of abortion.

“You’re either going to recognize the child in the womb, as a person entitled to the protection of law, or you say the child doesn’t have such protection,” Bishop Henry said. “The law has to protect all innocent people from assault — whether it’s children from abuse, or women from rape or babies from slaughter.”

Tom McFeely is based

in Victoria, British Columbia.