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Research Note #6
Political Suicide? Where’s the proof?
When asked an opinion on
the public’s reception of a government move to abolish the public funding of
the Roman Catholic separate-school system, some have said that they thought
such a move would be political suicide for any government that tried it.
Their reason seemed to be "because there are enough Roman Catholics in the
province to throw out a govern-ment if one dared to do so." However, all
evidence I was able to come across leads to the opposite conclusion. Read
on.
1)
In 1984, then Premier Bill Davis was apparently told by Cardinal Carter that
if he didn’t extend full funding to the RC high schools, that the
re-election of the PC party would be opposed from every RC pulpit in the
province. After Bill Davis made separate school funding part of the
Progressive Conservative platform in 1984, the next election reduced his
party to a minority and the next election put the PCs in the political
basement until 1995. The Roman Catholic vote was no reward for
Davis.
2)
Such a threat of Roman Catholic voting power has even less credence today
because a recent newspaper article stated that: “...while more than one
billion people in the world are Roman Catholics, attendance at Sunday mass
is less than 5 per cent in North America.”
3)
Having a policy of supporting separate school funding did not get the
Liberals or the NDP elected when Bill Davis was premier. It was only when
Davis double-crossed his supporters, and all three parties supported the
full funding of RC schools, that it was possible to foist full-funding on
the citizens of Ontario.
4)
Going back further, despite intense lobbying by the Roman Catholic church,
Wilfrid Laurier, a Quebecer and a Roman Catholic, when in opposition, spoke
against a remedial bill in the federal Parliament to force Manitoba to
reinstate the Roman Catholic separate school system which the Manitoba
Legislature abolished in 1890. The next year Laurier was Prime Minister.
The Roman Catholic vote was no punishment for Laurier.
5)
Norman Sterling, a PC and the only MPP to speak against Bill 30, the Davis
full-funding move, was interviewed in August of 1996. Without hesitation or
thought, Norm Sterling’s opinion was that if Ontario had a referendum to
determine the mood for removing separate-school funding, the results would
be 80% for abolition and 20% for the status quo. PC government polls
presumably led to this conclusion.
6)
Despite an intense campaign by the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland to
defeat the proposed school reforms in a referendum, the vote in St. John's,
with a majority of Roman Catholics, was more in favour of the reforms than
the provincial average.
7)
Despite an intense lobbying campaign by the Roman Catholic Church of MPs,
and despite a Roman Catholic Prime Minister, and despite a free vote, the
constitutional changes for Newfoundland were passed by an overwhelming
vote of 171 to 41.
8)
With regard to Brian Tobin’s Newfoundland referendum which was 80% in favour
of abolishing church control of Newfoundland’s schools, Tobin was asked:
"Did you check with the RC church on this?" Tobin's reply went something
like this: “I am a Roman Catholic and so are my two colleagues, but we all
supported the reform of the Newfoundland school system.”
9)
Our own newspaper poll, completed in 1999, revealed that 79.6%, or 5,408 of
6,794 respondents, favoured “...a public school system where all children,
regardless of their religious affiliation, attend the same schools…”
10)
In Essex County statistics show that there are 1,200 students from homes of
separate school supporters who attend the public high schools. There are 700
students from public-support homes who attend separate high schools.
11)
A Vector Research poll found that 53% of respondents chose a school based on
the quality of the teaching staff, 18% on the proximity of the school to the
home, and 17 % on the range of courses and programs. Only 6% made a choice
on the availability of religious instruction.
12)
The vote and the resulting reform of the schools in Newfoundland to reduce
the control of the churches was openly feared by many of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, hence the intense lobbying. They knew that Newfoundland would
represent a clear precedent for change and that they couldn’t count on the
Roman Catholic vote without a good deal of help. They tried, but they
failed. .
13)
Through submissions to the Estates General in Quebec re abolition of the
denominational system, 67% of Quebecois agreed and 88% wanted community
schools notwithstanding the religion of the parents. The Association of
Quebec Bishops agreed it was time for change.
14)
Following other provinces which give more freedom to their citizens, and
acceding to a condemnation from the United Nations Human Rights Committee
cannot, under any stretch of the imagination, be considered to be "political
suicide".
If anyone out there has
evidence of the “Roman Catholic vote” affecting the results of a government
election where Roman Catholic interests are involved, I would be pleased to
be advised of same, because I have not come across any such evidence. The
exceptions might be local candidate elections where there is a lopsided
ethnic or religious make-up where voters just vote for their own kind, and
not for an issue in particular.
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