Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Politics And Abortion Debate

Harper believes that voting against the bill to criminalize coerced abortions, is going to help him avoid the abortion debate.
A senior government official also says that while the prime minister will not "whip" or demand Conservative MPs vote as he votes, it will be "very strongly recommended" that Conservatives vote to defeat the bill.

Meanwhile, Mr. Harper's communications director, Dimitri Soudas, says that recommendation is consistent with Harper's position since 2002 on any bill dealing with abortion: He and his government will neither introduce nor support any such legislation.
Someone should tell him that sticking to his promise not to allow abortion debate, after reneging on so many other election promises (such as - not to run a deficit, or not to tax income trusts etc,) is not going to make him look like a promise-keeper. Not to mention that those who believe that coerced abortion should remain legal are not going to vote Conservative anyway.

Oh, well, at least Harper is not going to whip his cabinet into voting against the bill. Probably he realized that having a few high-profile resignations (or having to deal with a few high-profile dissenters) is the last thing he needs. Yet his efforts to avoid debating a subject that keeps being thrown at him, are at the very least, pathetic:
In most years, there are more members of pro-life groups in Canada than there are people enrolled in the political parties.

So what has changed? Why is there more attention to the issue now? I think there are a number of things going on:

1) Abortion became a political issue after Michael Ignatieff tried to make a big deal that the government’s maternal health initiative didn’t include baby-killing;

2) The media thinks it can score points against the Conservative government by highlighting the growing Religious Right in Canada (see saturation coverage of Marci MacDonald’s book);

3) The renewed student campus activism that is highlighted when student unions and school administrations clamp down on their free speech/free association rights;

4) Pro-lifers don’t need the legacy media to get out their message anymore — blogs and websites help deliver pro-life news and information in a way that was not possible before;

5) Young people know that the licentious culture in which their parents grew up is a raw deal and many are not going to accept the low expectations that today’s “adults” have for high school and university students; youth are rebelling against the Culture of Death in unexpected ways and won’t stand for the semi-official censorship that has been in place for the past two decades — see points 3&4 which are tied to point 5.
It's time for Harper to send his "Red Tory" advisers packing and start listening to what his electorate really wants. Unless he wants his party to be stuck in mid-30s for a couple more years - until the voters simply get fed up with him.

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