CALGARY — Canada’s grassroots Conservatives have embraced a hard-core shift to the right — adopting new doctrines Saturday that attack unions and public service workers, condemn gender-selection abortions and euthanasia, and protect the rights of gun owners.

The move came as thousands of delegates at the party’s convention passed dozens of motions which now become official party policy.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not bound by the policies, but with his government lagging in the polls and facing a Senate expense scandal that continues to burn, he will come under pressure to adopt some of the contentious policies to satisfy his core base of supporters in the next election.

Among the new Conservative party policies:

— Canadians should not be forced to join unions and pay dues. This is the start of an effort by Conservatives to persuade Harper to introduce a contentious “right-to-work law,” similar to those in some U.S. states, that critics say are a thinly-veiled attempt to destroy unions.

— Federal public service unions and those in federally-regulated industries should tell their members how much of their dues go to political donations, media organizations and other political activism. Union members should be allowed to “opt out” of the portion of their dues that go to such activities.

— Federal public service pensions should be brought in line with those in the public sector, likely meaning they are either slashed now or the rate of future growth is cut. Treasury Board President Tony Clement spoke in favour of the motion and promised it will be an approach he soon takes to the bargaining table to seek concessions from federal unions.

“For too long, there has been this major gap in wages and benefits between the public and the private sector,” said Clement. “This is not sustainable, it’s not right, it’s not conservative, and it’s not in the public interest.”

— The Conservative Party will not support any legislation to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide. This was a motion that sparked strong debate on either side, with one delegate warning that legalized euthanasia would give doctors “the right to directly and intentionally cause your death.”

— The party “condemns discrimination against girls through gender selection” — which means it opposes abortion in cases where the parents don’t want to give birth to a baby girl. British Columbia MP Mark Warawa, who put forward the motion, was blocked by Harper’s team on Parliament Hill when he tried to discuss it in the Commons earlier this year. But Conservative delegates passed his motion easily.

“Right now in the world there are over 200 million missing girls because of the practice of using ultrasounds to find out if it’s a boy or girl,” Warawa told delegates. “Girls have equal value as boys, we should not be discriminating against them in any form.”

— The party pledges that a “Conservative government recognizes the legitimacy of private ownership of firearms and will rest any domestic or international pressure to the contrary.” After the last election, the government moved to kill the long-gun registry, and more recently, it drew sharp criticism in September when it failed to sign an international treaty to regulate the global arms trade.