January 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The extremism and stupidity of Canada’s top political leadership on the matter of abortion was on display again today with Liberal and NDP leaders reacting to Conservative Prime Minister Harper’s comments on the issue yesterday. The message from both of the opposition parties has remained the same: “ooooh, we’re scared Harper is secretly pro-life.”
In a CBC interview, Harper reiterated for the umpteenth time that, even if he attained a majority government, he would do nothing about the status quo on abortion in Canada. Canadian pro-life activists were quick to point out that this clearly means Harper would leave Canada in its current abhorrent state where killing children alive in their mother’s womb is available for any reason at all up to birth – funded 100% by the government.
And this “choice” to kill will continue to be aggressively promoted and protected by a myriad of government funded agencies – educational institutions, the courts, health agencies, Canadian International delegations and agencies, law enforcement, Status of Women and other women’s groups, etc.
Harper’s track record of stomping on any restrictions on abortion proposed by Conservative backbenchers, and his own votes in parliament to avoid any such regulation, are backed by the Conservative Party policy stating explicitly that “A Conservative Government will not support any legislation to regulate abortion.” Harper made sure that policy was rammed through a Conservative Party policy convention.
How much more pro-abortion can you get? Well, this is Canada after all and so I guess the answer is quite a bit. Like the devil in the old Cadbury chocolate commercial, the Liberals and the NDP today shrieked ‘Not Enough’.
Opposition parties, the Bloc included, have spent the last number of elections attempting to paint Harper as a closet pro-life activist ready to restrict abortion, or perhaps outlaw it altogether, as soon as a Conservative majority would enable it. (The power of the mainstream media is such that many pro-life Canadians actually believed it.) That game plan was successful with Harper’s predecessor Stockwell Day, who was in fact pro-life, and the strategy has never changed since then.
However, given Harper’s pro-abortion political moves, the strategy at this point seems loony to any objective observer. Nevertheless, Liberal House leader David McGuinty opined in response to Harper’s CBC interview, “I don’t think Mr. Harper can be trusted on significant issues like abortion.”
NDP leader Jack Layton also stoked the conspiracy theory fires saying of Harper: “He was very careful in the way he chose his words there. And I wouldn’t derive a lot of comfort if I were concerned about what he might do,” on abortion.
Now if you ask NDPs, Bloc Quebecois, or Liberals about this queer strategy they will immediately point to last year’s triumph for pro-life Conservatives as key evidence that Harper has a hidden agenda to banish abortion.
There was indeed a pro-life victory in Parliament last year. The Maternal and Child Health Initiative proposed by Prime Minister Harper for the G8 did not include promoting abortion worldwide. A Liberal motion attempted to force the government to include abortion in the initiative, but that motion was defeated with a few pro-life Liberals defecting and some not showing for the vote, and the Conservative Party whipping its Members to vote it down.
‘Aha!, you see, Harper is anti-choice,’ they will say in triumph.
However, that victory came in spite of Harper, rather than because of him. The background to the story of the win was that Harper was actually going to whip the Conservative caucus the other way – in favour of the Liberals’ pro-abortion motion. He was convinced not to do so by his caucus, many of whom are pro-life, but not for pro-life reasons.
Caucus members argued that the motion’s derogatory reference to President Bush and the Bush administration policy against funding abortions overseas justified the Conservative Party’s opposition to the Liberal motion on the basis that Parliament shouldn’t condemn the policies of another country and a close ally.
Despite all this however, it’s not likely that the ‘scary Harper is out to jail mothers needing abortions’ rhetoric will die down any time soon. As I’ve said before, Harper would likely have to personally kill an unborn baby to avoid the hidden agenda charge.