Remembering the Door to Door Salesman
By Jakki Jeffs

Just who is running the country anyway? I am beginning to think that all the kids from pro-life families should be directed into careers in media!

Election 2004 - Our country has just gone through one of those “Alice in Wonderland” moments – it was all so very disconnected from everyday life, and like the Mad Hatter’s tea party, Canadians have been dozing like the dormouse!

The media conducted this election. Like puppeteers, they created the stage, wrote the script, and pulled the strings. And Canadians just watched and then voted, believing the scene that was just played out in front of them as though it were real. Since when did we stop thinking for ourselves? Or is it just that we have developed a “talk show” mentality – as long as we have our say, that’s enough; it does not matter if we have the facts straight, as long as we have an opinion.

The topic of abortion appeared. Guess from where? The media! It entered the debate, but how clever! The topic was raised and used as a weapon, but the issue was never actually discussed. My door was not beaten down by media wanting to know my position precisely because they did not want it discussed. They just wanted to use the topic to set the fires burning. It was amazing to watch this propaganda develop. One suggestion that women be fully informed concerning abortion was turned into some sort of outrageous comment which possibly warranted heading toward the International Court at The Hague! Yet our commissioned polls show that Canadians on the whole are not comfortable with abortion on demand, they want some protection for the child in the womb and fully informed consent for women – when they are asked individually. Then why does this not translate when they vote? What happens?

An experience that a pro-life colleague of mine had during the election just might shed some light. Sylvia’s husband was standing as a candidate and between them they visited almost 5,000 homes, many of which were Christian or pro-life. They were dismayed at the level of ignorance on abortion – yes I know we have been educating them for 35 years, but somehow it just has not sunk in. People could not believe there are 300 abortions a day or that we have no law or that there is no cut off or that women really are not beating down the doors of abortion facilities to get abortions.

So what have we not done, or more importantly, what should we do now? We have been put on notice that in all likelihood there will be another election in this country within two years, and I believe that we must go back to basics during this time and make sure that when Sylvia goes knocking again, the response will be different.

Well, just how do we do it? We must reach people where they are and with media that gets our message right to them. Several provinces are currently running pro-life television ads and this is an amazing method of reaching Canadian homes. In Ontario, we can reach our 11.4 million citizens for about 90 cents each over a period of three months with our pro-life message. Working as a province, we take our message right inside Ontario homes. And we have many other methods we have not tried lately, but maybe we should.

What about a door to door campaign with an information card that brings our message home? Think about it, we will be delivering our pro-life message and be the fittest pro-life movement ever seen in Canada! Seriously though, we could ask teachers to let the students know they can gain their 40 hours community service by delivering our pro-life information. And we all have those retired members who go for long walks. Why not just drop a few pro-life cards in while you stay fit? Every area has radio talk shows – we need to get folks to listen in, we need to get on the air. If you need scripts, we will develop them. And what about letters to the editor? Together with the Sports page, this is the most widely read page, but are we there? In the early days of my pro-life work, we were asked regularly to speak in churches. We know today through polls that those who support our cause and will work for our little ones are church-going folks, but when did we last make presentations in our churches?

These are very basic but important efforts to undertake over the next two years, and I hope that we will develop the program together. We have the message and the commitment, but we have got to turn the computer off, close the office, and get out there and tell the people just what is happening.

Like the door to door salesmen of my childhood, we have a product to sell which will enhance this country: respect for all human life, especially our tiny brothers and sisters in the womb; abortion hurts women; and assistance for women in crisis pregnancy. This is our message and this is what we must take door to door across this country.

See you all in Winnipeg!