Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Majority Government and Abortion: Paul Copeland in Today's Globe

Sorry, we do fear a majority

PAUL COPELAND
September 23, 2008

Toronto -- Lysiane Gagnon's thesis that we should not fear a neo-con right-wing shift in Canadian politics if Stephen Harper achieves a majority government is significantly undermined by her claim that Brian Mulroney "easily defeated a push from the right wing of his caucus to recriminalize abortion" by relying "on the massive vote of his Quebec MPs." The Mulroney government sought to recriminalize abortion. That effort, led by then-justice minister Kim Campbell, passed in the House. It was only in the Senate that the recriminalization of abortion died as a result of a tie vote. Canadians should fear that Mr. Harper, with a majority, will return to his Reform roots and introduce many of the right-wing ideas he has espoused for so many years.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am beginning to think that a great many people do not know Harper the ways he is. and they vote for him. I imagine there are a few hard-core fanatics, that vote for him regardless, as well quite a few who think it is still he old PC party.

The Rat said...

Even if Harper were to reintroduce a bill similar to Mulroney's, where would be the problem with that? Did Mulroney's bill ban all abortion? Or are you being a tad dishonest when you compare Mulroney's compromise bill to the bogey-man-bill you imply Harper would introduce?

It's too bad we can't have a law in Canada regarding abortion just like all those civilized European countries Liberals like to emulate. It's too bad we can't debate the abortion issue without people like you insinuating all abortion laws are the same. Wouldn't it be nice to know that a nine month old "fetus" can't be aborted 2 seconds before natural birth as is perfectly legal in Canada today? It's really too bad that people like you are teaching law to our future generations when you are so obviously biased, overtly political, and intellectually lazy.

Anonymous said...

I truly hope that a Harper majority would criminalize abortion. This is an issue of fundamental human rights which Canada leaves utterly undefended.

However, every pro-lifer in Canada knows that this goal is several generations away. Even if Harper somehow managed it, any law criminalizing abortion would be overturned in short order.

James C Morton said...

I'm a bit more in the grey area than the comments suggest. I think of what Anna Quindlen said:

And that is where I find myself now, in the middle, hating the idea of abortions, hating the idea of having them outlawed.