Categories: Need to know

Harper won’t reopen abortion debate

It’s “not the priority of the Canadian people,” says Conservative leader

by macleans.ca on Thursday, April 21, 2011 4:05pm - 52 Comments

The abortion debate is “not the priority of the Canadian people,” says Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. Speaking at a hockey rink in Conception Bay South, NL, Harper made clear that a Conservative government would not reopen a national discussion on abortion. Harper did not mention Planned Parenthood, an organization that will reportedly lose its federal funding following pressure from anti-abortion supporters. On Saturday, Saskatchewan Conservative Brad Trost said that the federal government was influenced by opponents to abortion in its decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood.

CBC News

Tags: Election 2011

Thwim

Oddly enough, I believe him.
There's no way Mr. Harper would allow debate on this subject, he intends to kill it in secret if at all possible.

You'll note that defunding allows no room for debate — espcially with Oda *not* on the case.

Mummer2

Incrementalism.

Lawrence

But is it Harper's priority is what we need to know!!
Trudeau lover

Nothing spells desperation and nefarious, avaricious scheming like when the Liberals and their media trot out the old chestnut of "Abortion" during an election. The only time Canadians ever hear any discussion on "Abortion' is when the Liberals and their media are in trouble at the polls, and need the ultimate wedge issue. Divide and conquer, culture wars, brought to you by the ever polarizing media and the big Liberal tent of fear and intolerance. Sick desperate minds.

…

Pretty sure it was a Conservative candidate who was caught bragging about it. Can't bring it up, if there's nothing to bring up, so actually, it's your own teams fault, isn't it?
Sure you can call the Libs desperate for running with it, as you all do, but remember who brought it up first.

Holly Stick

It was Conservative Brad Trost who brought it up, And he has been both indiscreet and correct in the past:
http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2011/04/one-thing-…

DerekPearce

You should write for soap operas– oh wait, they're all getting cancelled. Whenever I see the word "nefarious" outside of a kids' fantasy novel, I chuckle.

Trudeau lover

You should work for the Liberal party… oh wait, you already do. Whenever I hear a Liberal party drone exposing their superficiality, shallowness, and supremacist nature, I chuckle.

john

You should work for the Harper party… oh wait, you already do. Whenever I hear a Harper party sheep exposing their superficiality, shallowness, and supremacist nature, I just shake my head………

Pugs

Grow up all of you.

DerekPearce

"Supremacist nature"? ???
DerekPearce

Oh BTW "nefarious" is still hilarious.

Trudeau lover

Oh BTW, you're superficiality, shallowness, and supremacist nature is still hilarious.
DerekPearce

weaksauce
Trudeau lover

Inertia.

ABHarperRegime

DOUBLE-TALK LEADER…Stephen Harper.

BOB & WEAVE LEADER…Stephen Harper.

FEAR LEADER…Stephen Harper.

AMERICAN LEADER…Stephen Harper.

How can any Canadian listen to this guy talk after five years & not feel sick just trying to believe ANYTHING that comes out of his mouth?, let alone listen to um?! LOL! C'MON PEOPLE!.

Pugs

You've just described 13 years of Liberal dictatorship perfectly. Bravo! Let's get them back in there. That's exactly what we need.

GrungyOldVan

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.ht…

Ms. Power, the self-described "genocide chick,"

Holly Stick

How is that relevant to the issue being discussed here?

Jacob

Don't you get it ? Harper is unfortunately pro-abortion. In this last parliment, a bill was voted down thatwould have charged a criminal with manslaughter when they attack a pregnant lady and the baby is killed. This so-called radical law(which exists in 36 U.S. states) was voted down by Harper and half the Conservative Party MPs. The sad fact is that Harper and the COnservatives are not real social conservatives. They won't vote to limit or end abortion. They won't vote for or hold a referendum on reinstating capital punishment. The Conservatives have just accepted the social agenda of the Canadian left. The party would be center or center left in American circles.

Proud Canadian

Harper is willing to be ANYTHING to get a majority. His job is to gain control for his masters at whatever price it takes. Canada is the richest country in the world in natural resources. The currency of the future, water, tar sands, minerals of every type, you name it, Canada has it. Hundreds of trillions of dollars worth! That is Harpers number one objective, gain control for his masters. They only need four years to rewrite the laws. Just wach them!!!

Proud Canadian

Harpers new minister of public safety if he gets a majority… http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/s…
modster99

This is a really silly comment.
Pugs

Paranoid much? Get Mulder and Scully on the case to find out who "The Masters" are. oooooh scarey kids!!

Proud Canadian

Pretend all you want pugs. If you dont think our so called leaders are not told what to do by the mega rich then I got a country to sell you. I'm just going by the facts! Something Cons dont believe in, you go on the "keep it short, say it often, people will believe it" method of propaganda. That was the style of another famous person in history and it didn't work out too good.

Peterb

AG Fraser lambastes Liberals for blowing budget by a billion dollars on registry‏

AG Fraser lambastes Liberals for blowing budget by a billion dollars on registry. When Canada's auditor general tabled her December 2002 report, she set her sights on Ottawa's controversial gun registry program.
Sheila Fraser blasted the federal government, run by the Liberals at the time, for exceeding its estimated budget, saying that by the time the smoke cleared and all gun owners and their guns were registered, the program would have cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. Opposition critics were quick to point out that figure is 500 times more than the original $2-million estimate. A look at internal audits conducted by the Canadian Firearms Program suggests the cost of the program has been an issue from the beginning.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/10/06/f-…

Thwim

Compare that to the costing on the F35s… oh wait.. we can't. The Chicken Party of Canada won't provide the details of it.

Jenahlin

If you want to discuss the military, you better add costs of cancelling the helicopter deal and what did the Grits replace them with, and you might also tell us how well those used subs the Grits bought are working out.

Holly Stick

So it's ok for Conservatives to waste more taxpayers' money because some Liberals wasted some decades ago?

Pugs

So it's okay for you to whine about what one party is thinking about doing and not okay for you to whine about what the other party has already done? You can't suck and blow at the same time.
Pugs

So it's okay whine about what somebody is thinking of doing and not okay to whine about what someone has already done? Make up your mind. These are the guys you want back in power whom you absolutely KNOW are going to rob you blind.
Proud Canadian

biggest deficits, biggest dept, higher unemployment than before the recession, oh forget it, you're an idiot!

Peterb

Did Ignatieff give these MP's the boot from the Liberal Party
Given that Igantieff told Toronto voters "If you vote for the Liberal Party you are voting for a women's right to choose" and the media's effort to search for the truth and all the facts in questioning all leaders of controversial matters, who will be the first in the media, to ask Igantieff if Jim Karygiannis , Alan Tonks, Dan McTeague, and Paul Szabo are still running as members of the Liberal party, given their positive stand on pro life?
Alex

There's no reason for the abortion debate to be opened up right now. Abortion is a very sensitive issue, and like the PM is saying, isn't a priority in this election. The only thing I'd say about abortion is this: It is legal and available, and is a woman's choice whether or not she wants to have one.

Proud Canadian

When a man asks canadians to give him a majority, EVERYTHING should be on the table!

Jenahlin

"Harper made clear that a Conservative government would not reopen a national discussion on abortion."
Sounds like an answer to me. Dont you understand English?

Holly Stick

The thing is – Harper lies.

Pugs

The thing is – Harper tells it like it is. Everyone pretends not to hear cause it's not what they want to hear. Two different things. Wake up people!

Mike T.

Income trusts? Elected senators? The list goes on.

ABHarperRegime

Seriously? regardless of stripes, have you ever seen someone so blatantly lie day in & day out straight to your face the way Stephen Harper does?.

I helped vote this thing into power & am completely blown away ever time I see a clip of his fear mongering campaign each & every day of this campaign, its unbelievable, literally!.

I've voted Conservative, PC, NDP & Liberal over my years so please don't assume I'm just an ABC person, I'm not. but this guy is by far the lowest of the low I've ever seen, straight out of the American playbook of say anything to scare people into following you, regardless of TRUTH & HONOR.

I find it just sickening as a proud Canadian.

Pugs

You sir are either right off the turnip truck or have been living under a rock for the last 30 years. You had 13 years of the most corrupt and unethical bunch of politicians in J Chretien and his ilk running this country and robbing you blind and blatantly lying to your face about it and you're comdemning a person who has at least spoke his mind and has tried to do what he has said he was going to do. Never mind your fantasy conspiracy theories. Your ignorance is underwhelming to say the least. And never mind the American comparisons. It just shows grasping at straws. If you;ve been paying attention the Americans do not give a hoot what happens up here and are content to ignore us completely until they want something. Why would you try to emulate that?

Proud Canadian

If you;ve been paying attention the Americans do not give a hoot what happens up here and are content to ignore us completely until they want something. Why would you try to emulate that?
Well said and you tell me why. Why does Harper hire Republican strategists? Why does Harper copy Republican style ads? Why does harper copy Republican policy? Why? I' d say that's a question for you cons to answer, not the rst of us or may i remind you 70% of Canadians!

ABHarperRegime

Layton Mania !

Jack won the debates for me, no other leader can touch Jack as an average Joe Canadian you can TRUST.

I was considering voting Liberal(ABHarperRegime), but when Jack mentioned the Liberal leaders lack of attendance it really hit a nerve for me, as I've always thought to myself that I just cant picture Iggy sitting their in opposition if he looses the leadership?, I think he'll be long gone back to his American home.

The hardest working MP in Parliament, bar none.

Pugs

Here here! Just remember it's easy to look good against the other two jokers and when you have no chance of ever governing, it's easy to say all the right things.

Dan

McTeague and Szabo have compromised their pro-life beliefs. No serious pro-life mp would in their right mind belong to a pro-abortion party like the Liberals. They are as phony as the NDP members who supposedly supported gun owner rights but voted for the registry when Layton ordered them too. This action shows that the NDP mps are really pro-gun control types who put on an anti-registry face at election time. Likewise, a Liberal MP is effectively a pro-abortion poitician who pretends in certain socially conservative ridings to be pro-life at election time.
Jacob

Beware of an evil secret agenda! Please I wish! You mean an evil agenda that supports reinstating capital punishment and executing murderers or rapists. Or an evil agenda that believes that unborn children whose only crime is to be born at an inconvenient time should have some rights(like most countries in the developed world. Canada's abortion policies are more extreme pro-abortion then Europe's. Canada and Communist Cuba are the only countries in the western hemisphere that place no restrictions on abortion).
That is some logic from the Canadian left!
Canadian left logic: 1.) It is wrong to execute a cold blooded killer or rapist. 2.) It is okay to execute an unborn child who has committed no crime, 3.)It is okay to impose to implement further gun control measures to make it harder for law abiding Canadians to own guns(even though criminals are unlikely to follow gun laws. Why would gun control laws be the one law they follow?

Proud Canadian

Hey Jacob, just wondering
1. how many children you have adopted? you know, since you have such a strong stand on abortion.
2. how many women are killed through domestic violence in Canada each year?
I know that in my community alone this year there have been 3 police stand offs involving 'long guns' and no murders.
And let me ask you this, who needs a gun anyway? Hunting is for sport these days and not necessary. Is it farmers that need them? There are other ways to protect livestock. Or is your argument 'just because'. Just because we always had them? It's the 21st century!

ThirdWay

harper knows that keeping the abortion issue on the back burner, but never stating he will NEVER deal with the issue keeps hope alive for the true believers. What the true believers don't realize is harper will never allow that issue to be dealt with because the true believers are cash machines – and he wants to keep it that way.
Greg in Cambridge

If he wants to get real votes this time, he should “reopen” the “marriage” issue. There are probably enough
people that would ban g*# maiirage if he had a majority. I’d be one.
Jackie in Alberta

The Conservative's published stand against allowing access to abortion is one of the main reasons I can't vote Tory. That and their stand on gay marriage. Even though I think they've done well during our economic problems lately, it's because of their "moral stands" that I will never support them.

Thwim

Jackie, just a quick note: They haven't done well. They set up conditions in Canada to mirror the worst of what happened to the US. Then, even when the US crashed right in front of them, it *still* took the threat of losing power to a coalition to make the CPC deliver a fiscal update that acknowledged the recession — the recession they said we wouldn't have — and created the Economic Action! Plan, which they then ran around with their CPC emblazoned novelty cheques as if it was the party itself giving out the money, not that it was coming from people like you and I, the taxpayers.

JenniferMack

I wish he *would* re-open the abortion debate – it's time for some rational and intelligent conversation from both sides. There are millions of Canadians who support a woman's right to choose, but who also believe mid- and late-term fetuses deserve some legal recognition and protection, too. The case of the pregnant MB woman who was addicted to solvents (and had already given birth to one child with severe defects) comes to mind – her right to determine how she used her body trumped the right of the unborn child, whose sufferings from her addiction will be far greater and more permanent than hers. There are a lot of Canadians of all political stripes who see the issue as being more complex than the cut-and-dried "right to choose" line, and it would be nice if it wasn't automatic political suicide to open up the issue for debate.

Approximately 100,000 potential Canadians are aborted every year… many of them might have been liberal voters, given the chance…