All of the incumbents identified on a list by Canada’s anti-abortion lobby, Campaign Life Coalition, were reelected during the campaign. A handful of new candidates also managed to take their ridings.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Source: MarchForLife
The final ballots are still being counted, but the results of Canada’s 2025 federal election are mostly in. Before the vote, we took a look at the candidates deemed supportable by Canada’s anti-abortion lobby, as well as a few unabashedly far-right candidates who took a run at federal politics.
Regardless of the Liberal Party's win, the anti-abortion lobby had a good night at the polls.
Canada’s anti-abortion crusaders, Campaign Life Coalition, identified 84 candidates ahead of the election they awarded a “green light” and deemed “supportable.” This designation is determined by candidates' public statements, voting records, and responses to a questionnaire distributed by the organization.
Previous responses to the survey are considered, some of which date back to 2011. Others are more recent.
The list includes 50 candidates from the Conservative Party of Canada, 24 from the People's Party of Canada (PPC), seven from the Christian Heritage Party, two from the United Party of Canada, and one from the Libertarian Party.
A total of 36 incumbent members of parliament were included on CLC’s list of candidates, all of whom belong to the Conservative Party and were rated "pro-life." All of these MPs were reelected. This includes nine who answered “no” to the question, “Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion?”
Some versions of the survey from previous years include in the question a caveat that “Medical treatments to save the life of a mother and which result in the UNINTENDED death of her unborn child, are NOT abortions. Eg. in case of tubal pregnancy or cervical cancer.”
Even with the clarification, this would mean that medical procedures that have the intention of terminating a pregnancy would not be protected, nor would abortions for people who were the victims of rape and incest.
Six other candidates on the anti-abortion list, also all members of the Conservative Party, were newly elected. This includes Aaron Gunn, a documentary filmmaker and content creator who won the North Island–Powell River riding.
The CPC chose to keep Gunn on the ticket despite calls for him to withdraw due to previous comments about residential schools and denying that the Indian Residential School system amounted to a form of genocide.
Gunn took this position despite the genocide of Indigenous peoples having been officially recognized by the Government of Canada by unanimous vote from members of all parties, and Pope Francis.
An independent filmmaker and content creator, Gunn wrote in a post on the social media platform X, that “There was no genocide. Stop lying to people and read a book. The Holocaust was a genocide. Get off Twitter and learn more about the world.”
A petition calling for Gunn’s removal has gained 10,000 signatures, and 11 current and former municipal politicians signed an open letter echoing the same call.
Despite the attention, the Conservatives chose to stick by Gunn. In the reporting of the controversy, Gunn says he had acknowledged “the truly horrific events that transpired in residential schools, and any attempt to suggest otherwise is simply false.”
Similarly, Andrew Lawton, now the MP for Elgin–St. Thomas–London South, faced protests during the campaign for his past remarks and writing that included "Islamophobic, antisemitic, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-Indigenous commentary,” Hikma Public Affairs Council, a London, Ontario Muslim advocacy group, said in a statement to CBC.
Lawton has been a right-wing commentator and pundit for over a decade and penned a biography of Pierre Poilievre. He previously hosted a streaming show on Rebel and took a leave of absence in 2024 from his job as managing editor for True North.
All of the four major parties—the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc Québécois—have standing policies to keep access to abortion freely available in the country. During the leadership debates, Pierre Poilievre reiterated the Conservative Party’s promise not to reopen the debate around abortion.
Despite this pledge, access to abortion remains an issue in many parts of Canada, including in New Brunswick, where only three hospitals reportedly offer abortive medical procedures.
Rob McKee, a pastor at a controversial Ottawa church, claimed that an officer with the city’s police force invited him to “numerous” protests.
The 33 people standing together outside the Toronto Exhibition Place, chanting slogans, claim to be made up of members of multiple groups from Southern Ontario.
While the parties accept the final results, baseless claims of a stolen election began to circulate before the polls even opened.