Abortion got mentioned on the campaign trail with Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying he has “no intention of opening up” issues such as abortion if the Conservatives win a majority. While in the Welland riding in southwest Ontario, Harper said: “Our agenda is the same agenda with a majority government or a minority government.” See the full story in the National Post, Globe and Mail, or LifeSiteNews. The Post reports that abortion supporters don’t believe Harper, noting that private member’s bills — even when not supported by the government — are trial balloons. We at The Interim have had trouble explaining to pro-lifers that Harper is not himself pro-life even if many MPs are and that it is wrong to hold out much hope that things will change dramatically, even if we wait until the Conservatives win that (thus far) elusive majority. Harper has said he would not re-open the abortion issue so often that we wonder how this amounts to news.
National Post columnist Charles Lewis has a piece in which he interviews a Queen’s PoliSci professor, James Farney, who says many social conservatives have become Conservative team players who have largely abandoned any hope of addressing pro-life issues or gay marriage. That seems accurate. But Lewis interviews Link Byfield who seems to have given up on federal politics (how many time is that, Link?) and combined with Farney’s observations Lewis concludes social conservatives are on the political sidelines. That would be news to Campaign Life Coalition, whose team of staff and volunteers are busy reaching candidates in all parties and all ridings to ascertain where they stand on life issues to better inform CLC’s supporters (CLC has a mailing list of 125,000 families).
