Ignatieff, Abortion and Big Boy Politics

“Everyone knows that many Liberal supporters are pro-life" as are "a number of Liberal MPs, including myself,” Mississauga MP Albina Guarnieri said. She abstained.

“The motion did not specifically talk about abortion, but there was sufficient inference that some people stayed away and a few actually voted against it,” she said. - March 24, 2010 G&M

The mistake the Liberals made, as others have pointed out in one form or another, is attempting to use abortion as a wedge issue in the first place. To use an American term, abortion is the third-rail of Canadian politics and it always will be.

Abortion is one of a handful of issues that cuts across all ideological lines. Hence you have Conservative MPs that are Pro-Choice and Liberals that are Pro-Life. It's also why votes on abortion are almost never whipped; MPs are allowed to vote their conscience and are not forced to toe party line.The Liberal Whip did not make a mistake on the motion vote, he followed SOP on issues of conscience.

It was a daring ploy, and it was interesting watching Iggy and the Liberals play Big Boy Politics with Harper.

For the first time, Ignatieff kicked some serious sand in Hippo's face while their teams skirmished in the parliamentary sand box. That most of the sand ended up back in Iggy's lap only shows that abortion was not the wedge issue Iggy thought it was. The whole episode showed just how far Iggy's come since usurping the Liberal leadership from Stephan Dion. It demonstrated that Ignatieff may have the political cojones to play serious politics. Unfortunately, it also shows just how far he has to go, too.

Harper's response to this issue has also been very interesting. Within a day of Lawrence "Loose" Cannon and Bev Oda telling Parliament that contraception would not be part of Canada's G8 proposal, the prime minister was overriding his ministers and telling Canadians that yes contraception was part of the plan afterall. (We don't really know anything about this deal as it's been an ad hoc, stumble-block affair from the moment Harper announced African Moms really did need his help.) But Harper was also very clear about one thing, abortion was not on the table.

Harper wants to avoid the abortion question at all costs. He's said from the beginning that his government has no interest in re-opening the debate on abortion (which is a no brainer because there is no option open to any government, regardless of its political stripe, that would satisfy the Charter and the Supreme Court). The most obvious reason is that there similar divisions among Conservatives as there are among Liberals, divisions that Harper does not want to fracture on a controversial question that has no answer. It's a lose-lose proposition. Thus despite allowing the collection of wing nuts and morons known as the Conservative cabinet much more freedom to communicate with the press, there was no way that Harper was going to let anyone pry open the abortion issue.

Say what you wish about Harper, but he's nothing if not viciously pragmatic, willing to jettison any core principle if it gets him closer to a majority government. But on abortion he's been loud and clear - the status quo is the status quo so shut about it already.