Is our movement politically neutral ?

During the last provincial elections in the Province of Quebec, our movement re-stated, through its publications Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, its position relative to candidates and their platforms. Our movement, as a group, takes no part in these election battles. We will, however, take very definite steps to denounce a candidate or a platform which is Socialistic; likewise we make our voice heard against those who cloak their political activity with the name of "Social Credit" in order to further their ambitions for power and gain.

Naturally, we do comment on the declarations and statements of principle of the various personages engaged in electioneering. But then we do this all year long with reference to parties, M.P.'s, political commentators, the cabinet, the government, etc., etc..

There are individuals, however, who, because of the importance they attach to the choice to be made between candidates, often little known to the public, or because of their attachment to a particular party, look with jaundiced eye upon our lack of enthusiasm for elections..

A certain member of the clergy here in Quebec, who looks favorably upon our movement and its work and is an assiduous reader of Vers Demain, took us to task for what he considered dereliction of duty. We had often marked the Liberal party for harboring Socialistic in its bosom; therefore, according to our friend, we should have taken up the cudgel on behalf of the National Union Party, the party in power at the time of the elections. Not to have done so, he inferred, was to be remiss in our duty as Christians, since every Christian has a duty to combat those influences which are detrimental to the best interests of man as is the Socialist program.

Our good friend is not the only one who has charged us with being "politically neutral". For this reason, and without any rancour, we are printing here the pertinent parts of a reply addressed by Mr. Louis Even, our director, to this member of the clergy.

Dear Reverend Father,

Thank you for the kind words which you have expressed for our movement. We try always to do that which we believe best without worrying ourselves too much as to whether it will meet with approval or disapproval.. Still, it is always heartening to find that we are understood by at least a certain number which is not always the case in our work, as with those of you who are engaged in the work of the church.

Now to come to the matter of your letter.

You are quite right in saying that it is not permitted to take a neutral stand in politics. And we are certainly not neutral. Very much to the contrary. We take a very definite stand on every question in politics which touches the common good, especially where there is question of guarding the liberty and dignity of the individual and the respect due to his rights. We are especially watchful where the protection of the family is concerned, for it is the milieu where the individual must find the climate most favorable to his full and complete development.

But the political action which we have chosen to exercise is the political education of the people, the formation of citizens who are informed and know how to assert their convictions, denounce injustices, condemn the dictatorship of money and the evils which flow from such a dictatorship, and make known the demands of the people which are most conducive to the welfare of the community. We follow, it could be said, a policy of education, surveillance, and the exercise of pressure.

In this program there is enough work to absorb more activity than we are capable of furnishing twelve months a year, especially since the number of citizens who have the courage, the perseverance and the virtue to devote themselves to such work is small indeed.

As for activity during those periods of electioneering, which consume several months of time every four years and spawn very considerable chicanery, conspiracy and double dealing, not to say downright criminal activity, we decided quite a few years ago that we would disassociate ourselves completely, as a group, from any participation in electoral campaigns. Each individual member of our movement has the responsibility to let his own judgment be his guide according to what he has learned in the school of our publications, Vers Demain and The Union of Electors.

We maintain most strenuously that what takes place between elections is vastly more important than that which takes place at election time. We are striving against what our movement calls - "the election virus", which virus causes large numbers of people to turn their minds to politics, only at election time, and then only to vote (often without knowing for what they are voting), while for the rest of the year they rest in blissful ignorance of what is being done or not done by those whom they have elected. This malicious virus is sufficiently widespread in our land without our contributing to its spread.

In certain countries, it is true, Christians have an obligation in conscience to vote against a certain party for moral reasons e.g. the Communists and even to group their forces in a coalition in order to hold such a party in check. For this reason, religious leaders in such countries will give directives to their followers as to how they should vote.

The decision taken by our movement to abstain, as a group, from any participation in the election fight, has been motivated as much by experience as by the political concepts of the authentic Social Credit school. An election is a struggle to gather power into the hands of a party by garnering the largest number of votes in the largest number of constituencies. Social Credit, on the other hand, seeks by its work, to concentrate the greatest power into the hands of the individual citizens, making the individual the true repository of political power and this fact is evident to anyone who has troubled to read our publications, Vers Demain and The Union of Electors.

Furthermore, our movement devotes itself above all to proclaiming and propagating the truth, in politics as well as in economics. Social Credit, like any other truth, does not depend upon a majority. Numbers make up a majority; the number of adherents can never be the true criterion of a truth.

In addition to this, the Social Credit community is not something which can be legislated into existence. It is something, the building of which must begin with individuals; legislation only crowns the work of individuals after the concept of the Social Credit community has been widely enough accepted and has "infused" the hearts and minds of the people.

To erect the Social Credit community, to win over minds, to direct and orient their way of thinking, it is necessary to enlighten, to persuade, to convince. It would be a sorry turn, if, through devotion to a political party, we began to make enemies and found doors closed in our faces. The care not to make enemies uselessly through pronouncing for one party in preference to another is one of the reasons why church leaders are so careful to abstain from any pronouncements which would indicate their taking sides during times of election campaigns. Our role as educators obliges us to adopt a like course, as long as an opposite course is not dictated by the overt acts of any party dedicated to the propogation of Socialist or Communist principles and policies...

LOUIS EVEN

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than are standing armies. Already they have raised up a money aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance.

Thomas Jefferson