“The Church in English Canada sees itself much more as an expression of civil society,” Zucchi said. He noted that a Conservative majority augers well for the Church in terms of limiting government encroachment on religious freedom.

Richard Bastien, Catholic Civil Rights League National Capital Region representative and retired economist, cautioned that the statist views that may have aided the NDP in Quebec are also widespread in English-speaking Canada, since the Conservatives won only 40 per cent of the vote.

“That means 60 per cent of Canadians voted for statism, for big government, and that’s a matter of concern,” he said.

He noted that statist ideology erodes the role of the family and personal responsibility.

“The best illustration of that is in the care of young children,” Bastien said. “Both the NDP and the Liberal Party want a universal day care system modelled on Quebec’s system.”

REAL Women of Canada researcher Diane Watts said that, with a Conservative government, money for child care will go directly to families rather than to government-controlled institutions. The pro-life and pro-family women’s group is happy with the Tory’s tough-on-crime agenda, which will include better protections for children from sexual predators and stiffer sentences for serious crimes, she said.  

REAL Women also supports the Conservative promise of income splitting for couples with a stay-at-home parent. Watts said the Conservatives are also more likely to appoint sensible Supreme Court justices and appeal court decisions that go against Canadian values.  

But for Catholics concerned about poverty, the environment and international aid, and those advancing pro-life, pro-family agendas, the election results pose significant unknowns.

“The only party that refused to put a poverty reduction strategy on its platform now has a majority,” said Citizens for Public Justice executive director Joe Gunn, who noted the churches had made an interfaith declaration urging making poverty eradication a priority.

Of the 90 MPs who had signed onto the Dignity for All campaign Gunn co-chaired, only about 56 have been returned.

“We’ll have to start all new... trying to convince them that poverty reduction should be a priority,” Gunn said.

He said he hoped the Conservatives would reach out to the churches on this issue as well as on international development, especially through reinstating KAIROS’ funding.

“I think it would be quite a measure of magnanimity of a new majority government,” and “send a strong signal to the churches.”

The Conservatives also need to prepare an environmental strategy for the upcoming Durban climate change conference at the end of the year that will look at a replacement for the Kyoto Accord, Gunn said.

Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes said the political arm of the pro-life movement will also face a big job in identifying new supporters and educating new MPs about life issues. Though happy that most of the BQ was defeated, Hughes said he is “distressed” that so many NDP candidates follow the party’s “pro-abortion” platform.

Hughes was happy to see that many pro-abortion Catholics were defeated, but sad to lose pro-life Liberals such as Dan McTeague, Paul Szabo and Alan Tonks.

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