For Catholics, the voting process is really just a variation of the process we should use in making all life decisions.  In voting, we should always:

1. Register! Elections BC registration resources can be found here;
2. Inform ourselves responsibly concerning (a) the teachings of the Church and (b) issues relevant to the election;
3. Reflect prayerfully;
4. Choose confidently;
5. Vote (BC polling places are listed here); and
6. Once the election is over, stay actively and respectfully engaged with those who have been elected – whether they are our own preferred candidates or not. This is important if we hope to improve our choices in the future.

Even when choices seem clear, we should neither ignore the process nor skip steps: we Catholics have both a civic duty to stay informed and a calling to seek God’s help in choosing. Nor can we responsibly abstain from voting, except in extreme and very clear-cut circumstances. If we don’t vote, and don’t stay engaged, how can we hope to improve things? And how, when our time comes and we face judgment, will we explain the fact that we failed to do what we could to help build a world pleasing to God?

Sometimes our choices can be very difficult.  For more information on a Catholic approach to voting, particularly when choices are difficult, look here.

“As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Section 1915

For more than 100 years the Catholic Church has offered detailed guidance on a full range of social issues, from the dignity of life and of our life’s work to the environment and proper roles of government, the economy, and educational institutions.

Specifically, we are called to consider each of the following principles, values, and virtues in choosing our votes:

• The life and dignity of the human person, including the sanctity of life and the dignity of work.  Catholics care about the sanctity of life because the entire purpose of this life is for each soul God endows with life to find its way back to God. Terminating a life voluntarily at any time after its conception necessarily defeats that purpose.  We care about work because it is through our life’s work that we apply the time, talent, and treasure that God has entrusted to us assist in His continuing act of creation, seeking truth and working to ensure that all those around us are enabled to apply their gifts as well.
• The Church defines the common good as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily… These demands concern above all the commitment to peace, the organization of the State’s powers, a sound juridical system, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all.”
• Subsidiarity is the principle that all things should be done, and decided, by individuals, or at the lowest responsibly possible social level.  Only by empowering individuals and smaller groups to make their own decisions can their freedom to seek God in their own ways be ensured. Each of us must be allowed to make our own way, and chart our own course.
• Solidarity, or the principle that what affects one of us affects us all, whether we are in the same town, province, or country, speak the same language, or have the same interests.
• The values of truth, freedom, justice, and love.
• The virtues of wisdom and humility.

Want more information?

• Our summary of the principles, values, virtues, and sins of Catholic social thinking, based on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the Catechism, and other Church teachings, is available here.
• The official and encyclopedic Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church can be found here.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church can be found here.
• Our thoughts on the proper civic roles of social institutions, including the people, government, schools, the media, and the Church are available here.
• Curious as to which level(s) of government are responsible for an issue?  A listing of federal, provincial, and municipal responsibilities in Canada can be found here.
• Thoughts on the Catholic duty of civic participation can be found here.
• Papal teachings, including encyclicals, exhortations, and other documents, are available at www.vatican.va.
• Materials published by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops concerning peace, justice, civics, and participation can be found here.

Political parties and candidates seldom express their policies in ways that are readily relatable to the teachings of the Church.  To help Catholics, and others who are interested in a more rightly-ordered society, we have mapped party policies into issues Catholics are called to consider, and related them both to each other and to the teachings of the Church.

• 2020 BC Provincial Party Comparisons

Catholic voters will have an enormous impact on the outcome of the 2020 BC provincial election. It’s important that Catholic voters discern their vote prayerfully and thoughtfully, with the best available information about Catholic social teaching and each of the party’s policy platforms.

It’s critical that we vote.  To that end, Catholic Conscience is excited that it’s second-ever Catholic Action campaign will be happening in Saskatchewan for the 2020 provincial election. The aim of this non-partisan, get-out-the-vote campaign is to educate Catholic voters in Catholic social teaching and how they relate to relevant federal political issues; and mobilize the Catholic community to go out and vote. This is the follow-up to our successful 2019 Catholic Action campaign for the federal election, where we helped mobilize thousands of Catholic voters in the Greater Toronto Area.

Materials and suggestions for parishes, dioceses, and other groups can be found here.

For those wishing to investigate party positions more deeply, and to check for recent party updates, here are links to the parties’ web pages.  These are for all parties registered with Elections BC, of September 24, 2020, that received more than one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of the vote in the last provincial election:

• Christian Heritage Party of BC
• Conservative Party of BC
• Green Party of BC
• Liberal Party of BC
• Libertarian Party of BC
• New Democrat Party of BC

Elections BC offers a variety of resources, including vote-by mail instructions:

• The very first step is to register as a voter with Elections BC.  Registration information can be found here.
• The next step is to reach out to those who seek to represent you.  Electoral district maps and lists of registered candidates can be found here.
• The next step is to make sure you know where to go to vote.   Elections BC’s polling place locator is available here.
• A list of registered parties is available here.

Information for applying to help with the election process can be found here.