Liberal MP and staunch abortion supporter Keith Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca) will not run in the next federal election. During the debate over maternal health this past Spring, he has one of the leading voices that the government’s initiative should include abortion, and he proposed a phony compromise that would ensure abortion was a central component of the G8’s maternal health initiative (thankfully it wasn’t accepted). Considering his interest in environmental issues and animal conservation, we have questioned his priorites here before: plants and creatures before people. He has always been clear that he supports abortion; when he ran for the Canadian Alliance leadership in 2000, The Interim noted that he was unabashedly pro-abortion.
That said, he has been critic of human rights commissions and wanted to do something about them. Alas, nothing came of it.
Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes, who attended the same Toronto Catholic high school as Martin (Neil McNeil, although about a decade apart), said it is “good news that Martin is retiring because of his long history of supporting abortion.” However, Hughes worried that “Martin could use his credential as a medical doctor and cool persona to promote abortion in other endeavours.” Martin has an interest in international development as well as domestic health care, so he could still be a dangerous and effective advocate of abortion in any new job he might take (he’s only 50 years old). Furthermore, Martin has also been touted as a potential leader of the Liberal Party of British Columbia and thus premier of that province.
For now, it is good riddance to Martin, but we wait to see in what field the erstwhile doctor decides to go.
