Why is Doug Ford allowing far right, anti-choice groups to select PC Party candidates?

ST. CATHARINES and TORONTO — The Campaign Life Coalition, an extreme anti-abortion lobby group, is fundraising and soliciting membership sign-ups for the PC Party of Ontario — and is planning to pick the party’s candidate in at least one riding.

The NDP is calling on Doug Ford to denounce anti-choice organizers in his caucus and party immediately.

“Doug Ford has allowed close ties to dangerous anti-choice, anti-women groups to grow in his party, and now we are seeing the extreme Campaign Life Coalition organize his local campaigns and select candidates in communities like ours,” said Jennie Stevens, NDP MPP for St. Catharines, who is also the critic for Veterans, Legions, and Military Affairs.

“Ontarians who believe in reproductive rights need to hear Doug Ford publicly denounce the Campaign Life Coalition and their mission. He needs to clearly and publicly instruct this hateful organization to stop collecting donations and memberships on his behalf.”

In St. Catharines, the Campaign Life Coalition sent a letter to anti-abortion activists with “a blank PCPO membership form enclosed” that says they’ve already selected a PC Party candidate who will “always vote” for their cause.

“What on earth makes Doug Ford believe he, his insiders or any candidates have the right to tell women or pregnant people what they’re allowed to do with their bodies?” said Jill Andrew, the Official Opposition critic for Women’s Issues. “People don’t need extreme anti-choice lobbyists interfering — not in their elections, and not certainly not in their reproductive rights.”

In March, Ford greenlit PC MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s attendance at an event hosted by organizers who compared a woman’s right to choose to the horrors of the Holocaust. Oosterhoff previously attended a rally where he swore to make “abortion unthinkable in our lifetime.” He did not face any repercussions from Ford for either event.