The Globe and Mail reports that Justin Trudeau, Liberal MP and son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau (the father of abortion in Canada) and possible future leader for the beleagured party, told Radio Canada in Quebec that he could support la belle province separating from the rest of Canada. That is big news and it should be. What is bigger news but largely ignored, is his rationale for willing to breakup Canada and what it might say about his priorities. The Globe quotes Trudeau:
“I always say, if at a certain point, I believe that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper – that we were going against abortion, and we were going against gay marriage and we were going backwards in 10,000 different ways – maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country.”
The fact is, Canada is nowhere near “going against” abortion or same-sex marriage. But Trudeau’s suggestion that we are are near that possibility and that he would be willing to tear Canada apart in order to protect abortion and SSM (presumably for Quebecers only), is very, very revealing. A person who might have ambitions to lead this country says it is worth breaking up because he imagines politically or socially we are “going against abortion” (whatever that means) is a person who has surrendered any chance to be prime minister. At least one hopes so.
It is notable that media coverage (for example this National Post story) is acknowledging but generally downplaying the extreme pro-abortion position. It is certainly a sensational story that a federal politician in a supposedly federalist party would flirt with separatism; the bigger story, however, are the conditions — defending abortion and same-sex marriage” — he sets out for accepting separatism.
If Justin Trudeau cannot unambiguously repudiate himself from these views,* he has morallydisqualifed from the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Has the Liberal Party, however, moved so far left that they would likewise endorse the breakup of Canada in support of abortion and SSM? I hope not.
* Justin Trudeau has attempted a limp clarification that Quebec provides balance to the rest of Canada, which is presumably too right wing without Quebec.
