Rod Bruinooge, Conservative MP for Winnipeg South
Stephen Harper is being dragged into the abortion issue again, but this time it’s because of friendly fire. The Conservative Leader’s hand has been forced to crack the whip on the upstart pro-life caucus on his own team, which attended a large rally on Parliament Hill last Thursday. Now the Prime Minister will encourage his party to vote against a pro-life private member’s bill tabled by fellow Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge.
Although the vote will not technically be whipped, Conservative MPs will be “very strongly recommended” to defeat it, which almost assures it won’t pass. The Liberals, Bloc, and NDP will almost certainly vote against it with or without the involvement of the Conservative Party.
Stephen Harper has been criticized by social conservatives since taking power in 2006 for not addressing the abortion issue, and it’s possible that the pro-life crowd are simply tired of waiting. But with a minority government, the last thing the Conservative Party needs right now is an issue that paints them on the wrong side of voters.
The bill by Mr.Bruinooge is a far cry from the one introduced, and defeated, earlier by Ken Epps, which would have protected pregnant women from injury to the fetus during criminal acts. But C-510, An Act to amend the Criminal Code for coercion of abortion, sounds like a precipitous slope.
Balancing the needs of the party with the needs of the social conservative base has been a tricky proposal. The 2008 Conservative policy convention adopted a resolution affirming the right of MP’s to adopt positions that might be adversarial to the party if they’re based on issues of “moral conscience”, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia.
But it’s fairly clear the Conservative Party doesn’t need to draw any more attention to the abortion spotlight than has already been shed by Canada’s G8 maternal health plan, a topic hijacked entirely by the fact that abortion was taken off the table as an option for mothers.
The opposition has shrewdly — or opportunistically — publicized the abortion issue as much as they possibly can, knowing that the topic makes some voters, who might otherwise consider voting Conservative, very squeamish. The party has always been very careful to avoid the issues of moral conscience, knowing they can easily kill mainstream support.
It may also scare away potential support to build toward a majority government [though the Conservatives are pulling away again as I write this], since people may believe that an unhindered Conservative government would loosen the reigns on the social conservative side of the party.
Private member bills from Mr.Bruinooge like C-510 may serve the conscience of the Honourable Member, but it won’t serve the future electoral success of the party, and that’s something he might want to think about.
ME too….this is not a battle worth fighting.
Having said that, I have tremendous respect for THIS aspect of the fight, there are woman that are regularly coerced, intimidated, shunned, threatened cut-offs of their resources and families….that is DEVASTATING.
Identifying and providing better resources is the answer because they will always be shunned, despite their decision, imo.
Anyone that would do that to a family member, initially, has an ingrained mentality to do it under ANY circumstance, regardless of the reason.
Speaking as a “social conservative”, I’m not impressed by Harper’s lack of moral decisiveness and his strategic shrewdness, which includes tricking people into voting for him. This may be enough for me to return to voting for my slightly socially conservative Liberal MP rather than for a party that seems to stand for nothing and takes its supporters for granted.
I don’t blame you for voting with your conscience. I don’t generally like Harper pricking expedience over principle, but I definitely think it’s the right thing to do on abortion, particularly since it’s a topic that is divided more along religious lines than ideological lines.
I lose more and more respect for Harper every time he doesn’t support Bruinooge’s bold, courageous, CONSERVATIVE stance.
Not protecting the unborn is a compromise not worth making. Harper needs to understand that social conservatives have had just about enough of his Liberal-lite governance. Not having a majority is only going to wash as an excuse for so long, eventually he’s going to have to start acting conservative or he’s going to lose power either way.
I’m pro-life, but the timing for this just isn’t right. Even if the CPC was to fully back this private member’s bill, the opposition parties would defeat it.
Wait until the 1st or 2nd year of a CPC majority for something like this. Then there’s some real chance of the bill actually succeeding, and the backlash against it may very well dissipate over the life of the majority government’s term.
I respect how many conservatives (fiscal and social) are growing impatient with Harper, but this is the sad reality of a minority government. An election can be called at any time, and so you can’t risk doing anything really controversial since it could easily come back to bite you in an election campaign happening not long after.
If you really want Canada to become more conservative, then you need to do everything you can to help the CPC achieve a majority government. Only then can Harper govern a bit more conservatively than he currently does.
I expect our MPs to always make laws ‘in good conscience’, no exceptions.
That said, it seems to me that this Bill doesn’t provide a law where there was none.
Assault and coersion are already in the criminal code,
and can be applied to cases where women were forced to BOTH ‘have’ and ‘not have’ an abortion.
This Bill is specific to only one situation.
The criminal code is about actions deemed criminal,
but this Bill, unless I’m missing something here, is based on ‘the reason’ behind a criminal act.
‘tricking people into voting for him’?
Harper has NEVER waivered from not supporting abortion legislation.
It’s wishfull thinking, and wrong assumptions that a majority will change that.
I think the PM has made a mistake on this, because it may hurt him internally. And, I find myself doubting him now as well. That being said, I think I know why he’s doing this. If MPs on the government side of the HOC voted in favour of this bill, it just adds more fuel to this fire over abortion funding in other countries, and gives the opposition more to hit the CPC with. Not reopening debate in Canada spares us, because we can say we aren’t dictating policy in Canada or elsewhere on abortions. We are staying away from the issue.
Politically, do I think this is a good move? For the government, yes! For Harper and ‘mainstream’ Canadians, yes! For Harper and his party members, I can’t say at this point.
Personally, I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is wrong. I also believe that forcing or coercing someone into having one should be a criminal matter, so I agree with the idea behind this bill.
I think in the end we’ll see both Conservative, Liberal and NDP members vote for this bill but I doubt it will come close to passing.
We non socially conservative voters think Harper is doing a grand job, thank you very much.
JJ…please enlighten me as to when Stephen Harper “tricked” you over the abortion issue…to my mind he has always been clear…it will not be reopened.
The push for some kind of law regarding abortion in Canada needs to come from the Liberal pro-life MPs. There are a few there who still have a conscience, and stand up to their leader on issues like this.
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Interestingly, this is the kind of thing that happens when a party leader doesn’t muzzle backbenchers and force them to speak only the latest talking points. People have different feelings on abortion, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that MP’s hold different feelings.
As such a private members bill should be the kind of thing that the “Harper’s a dictator” crowd should welcome even if they want it voted down. It’s clearly not a bill that’s in the interest of the Conservative party, and Mr. Harper use all sorts of coercive tactics to stop MP’s from bringing bills like this forward. But that’s exactly what we don’t want in a Prime Minister.
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You wrote back on the 16th that certain elements of the Conservative party were encouraging the belief that there’s some kind of “scary hidden social conservative agenda” lurking in the Conservative party. I’m sure some people will take a private members resolution like this as proof that a secret cabal of Conservatives will make all abortions illegal as soon as they have a majority, but it’s still bullocks and you can’t do much to convince conspiracy theorists that they’re off the rails.
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Having said that, at first glance I’d say that this is a terrible bill. Assuming that the goal of the law is good, exactly how would you enforce it? As Wilson already said, coercing someone into anything with tools like blackmail and threats is already illegal. So otherwise legal actions will be illegal if they’d encourage an abortion? Take a man (well a jerk), who says he doesn’t want a romantic relationship with a woman if she keeps a baby and their only arrangement thereafter would be the legally required financial one. This would be illegal? This seems like a badly written law regardless of how one feels about abortion.
You’re mistaken if you think this bill would pass in a majority Conservative parliament. It’s an ill-conceived law. Threats & blackmail are already illegal. What would this law accomplish beyond making something “double dose illegal”?
Absolutely nothing.
I’m with Issachar on this one.
As a social moderate, I want to see Harper allow the social conservative elements of the party to express their views through private members bills such as the above.
No silencing of viewpoints, no muzzling of legitimate difference of opinions. And then allow MP’s to vote freely. I don’t think this bill will pass, and I don’t think it should pass either.
I believe the Ken Epps bill was a much better proposal.
It’s a shame Harper has to get stuck with the actions of the pro-life minority in the CPC. It’s another wedge issue the Liberals can and will exploit,and just watch the CPC’s poll numbers start to drop as the Lib/Dips cry about women’s rights.
Harper’s been very clear from day one that he has no intention of reopening the abortion issue,and a majority government won’t make any difference.
The pro-lifers in the CPC can,however,make quite a difference,as they scare away the “undecided” votes or soft conservatives, and bring about another minority.
Harper is the PM, he has to compromise,it’s not a failing, it’s part of governing responsibly,and if he were to cater to the pro-life wing of the CPC and reopen the abortion issue, look for a Liberal majority in the near future.
That’s the reality of Canadian politics, and I wish the pro-lifers could see that.Chretien understood that very well.
I should have used clearer language. I meant that Harper gave us social conservatives some hope during the beginning that he would have some principles on moral issues. I knew he was against “re-opening” the abortion debate but never did he indicate that he would encourage Conservative MPs to vote against a pro-life bill. Ironically, its Ignatieff who has indicated that he’ll let his MPs vote their conscience. This is very disappointing.
Why? Because he’s such a great fiscal conservative?
I guess those of us who “scare away” voters should stop voting for you guys. It won’t hurt the CPC since we’re a “minority” right?
Who care if it’s a pro-life bill? It’s a bad bill full stop. Unless I’m missing something, (and do tell me if I am), the bill serves no purpose and pro-lifers and pro-choicers should all vote against it on the grounds of it being useless.
Assume that it passes, what would it do?
Would it make threatening & blackmailing someone illegal? Those things are already illegal!
Abortion will never be rendered illegal, nor should it be deemed so. The best the pro-lifers can hope for is legislation restricting and regulating abortions, Canadians are not going to turn back that clock-no way-no how.
If by “illegal” you mean “any abortion at all will be illegal”, then you’re right. That’s obviously never going to happen.
Most pro-lifers don’t want that anyway. Maternal health exceptions are almost universally assumed.
Ouch.
JJ, those whose support depends on one issue can be more of a burden to a political Party than the sum of their votes for that Party,for instance the “greens” who’ve invaded the Liberal and NDP Parties.
The Libs and Dips,I’m sure, breathe a sigh of relief whenever one of the green zealots gives up on THEM,and goes over to the Green Party where they’ll do NO harm to the Lib/Dips.
Many Conservative members and supporters feel the same way about the anti-abortion zealots that try to turn every election into a one-issue or you don’t get my vote affair, and manage to turn off the fence sitting voters in all the big cities,thus denying the Conservatives their majority.
You’re entitled to your views on abortion,but to hijack the agenda of a broad scope political Party serves no one,least of all,YOU. Pro-lifers are their own worst enemy.
Please, if abortion’s your main concern,join the Christian Heritage Party,where you’ll be welcomed,and at home among your fellows.
dmorris,
If you name the party Conservative, don’t acted shocked when their supporters insist on that party acting conservatively. If you really want another decade + of Liberal rule, just keep up this “shut up or leave” attitude. We did that before, remember how that worked out?
In what way is opposition to abortion “conservative”?
Answer: It isn’t. If it was, you wouldn’t have pro-life progressives.
Disagreements about abortion are based on a disagreement over when life begins. The belief about when life begins is not based on a “conservative” or “progressive” worldview.
The two sometimes correlate, but one does not derive from the other.
2/3 of Canadians are in favor of allowing abortions in the country, but 2/3 also view it as morally wrong. I’m of the opinion that a reasonable pro-life platform would gain seats for the CPC, leading to the desired majority gov’t. I don’t believe that a sensible, rational pro-life position would lose ANY votes for the CPC. The extremists on this issue were never voting for the CPC anyway, by nature the bigots who are ardent supporters of abortion on demand support parties of the extreme left.