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Abortion Becomes Major Federal Campaign Issue

Day refuses all opportunities to challenge opponents' hard-line positions

TORONTO, Nov 7 (LSN.ca) - Last March 17 Jean Chretien escalated the Liberal abortion position to a strong pro-abortion one when he declared at the Party's national convention: "We Liberals believe in a woman's right to choose." He repeated this in a speech to the Liberal parliamentary caucus in Winnipeg on Aug. 29 and escalated his position even further by adding "he (Stockwell Day) wants a divisive national referendum on this right. To break the social peace we have had in Canada on this issue ever since the Supreme Court decision of 1988".

Chretien's stunning and insensitive statement that there has been a social peace while over one million pre-born children have been killed, presented a golden opportunity for political opponents to exploit. Chretien repeated the statement on Nov. 6 in comments to a Quebec Women's group and added . "Mr. Day is proposing to have a referendum on that. I think I don't agree. I [don't] think that the women will be very happy with that."

The PM went so far as to give an explicitly pro-abortion response to a question on Oct 30 at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Barrie, Ontario. Chretien said, "For me, I'm a Roman Catholic. Personally, I don't have to, you know, I'm not at the age anymore to have my wife have abortion, but the reality ... is that it is the choice of not the husband to decide in my judgment, it is the judgment of the woman according to the values that this person have." The PM arrogantly thumbed his nose at this core moral principle of his Catholic faith in front of impressionable Catholic students. Joe Clark has also been taking an increasingly clear, hard pro-abortion position and of course NDP leader Alexa MacDonough has been taking the same position.

Stockwell Day meanwhile has ignored the change in the Liberal position. He has not taken advantage of opportunities to challenge the Liberal and Tory leaders' pre-occupation with their new hard-line pro-abortion positions. Day has not commented on Chretien's ridiculous statement about a "social peace" and the false suggestion that there is a "right" to abortion in Canada. He ignored Chretien's comments at St. Joseph's School which were disrespectful of Catholic beliefs. Day currently seems to giving the impression that he agrees with Chretien and Clark that the abortion debate should not be re-opened.

Although he never promised to re-open the abortion debate, Alliance leadership candidate Day promised that he "would undertake measures that will allow Members of Parliament and private citizens to bring forward legislative measures protecting life through free votes and citizens' initiated referenda". He also promised to support pro-life initiatives brought forward through these processes. Now he even appears to be suggesting that he would prefer that others didn't bring these issues forward and might even make it difficult for them to do so.

Across Canada, social conservative Alliance supporters are asking, "What is going on in the Day camp?" and "Why is the CA leader doing everything he can to avoid any discussion of this issue?" Day has not presented any specifics or made any case to Canadians that there is good reason for openness to some change on the abortion status quo. In response to a flood of media calls, Jim Hughes, national President of Campaign Life Coalition, states that Day "wouldn't even be there if it weren't for the grassroots, pro-life, pro-family Canadians that voted for him". Hughes does not comprehend Day's strategy of so timidly representing his pro-life supporters. He states, "If he is hoping to shake the support from small-c conservative Liberal voters, he sure hasn't done a heck of a lot to win them over at this point".

In stark contrast to Day, the Prime Minister gives the impression of a man who is not afraid to say exactly where he stands and what should be done or not done on the abortion issue.

The Canadian media has been jumping all over the abortion issue the past few days and the few words that Stockwell Day has hurriedly muttered have been intensely scrutinized. Although it is being insinuated that he is "retreating" from his previous stance, the truth is probably that his unwillingness to engage in any meaningful discussion has left him wide open to damaging speculation and comments. Social conservatives are left only with Day's weak comment yesterday that "We've been very clear, all along that abortion isn't even on the platform of the party'" and his comment that "the public are very clear, people won't even be asking for that." (a referendum on abortion).

Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) leaders don't understand why the CA leader seems so tepid. He has been consistently targeted as an anti-abortion extremist even though he rarely brings up the topic. So why not at least present some well-thought-out and instructive comebacks? The label is fixed and Day's silence has not improved the situation and has actually made it worse. Abortion has finally again become a major election issue, but social conservatives are stunned that only an increasingly strident pro-abortion position is being heard so far and the more compelling pro-life arguments have been buried by their own spokesman. CLC also insists that there is zero evidence that any competent Canadian politician who has taken a respectful, open, pro-life stand has ever lost net votes because of that stand. Polls are mentioned to supposedly support the Day campaign's tactics. The most recent annual Gallup poll, showing a shift to the right on the abortion issue and a strong majority of Canadians believing that abortion access should be limited or prohibited, is not being given the credibility it deserves.

The upcoming leadership debates and other campaign developments will provide the strongest evidence yet as to whether the Canadian Alliance and especially Stockwell Day are truly significant, clear alternatives to the ruling establishment - on all issues.

For the Interim's report on the Gallup Poll see:
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/2000/aug/01pollsshow.html

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