We hope you had a happy Thanksgiving that included good conversations with friends and family! The Liberal Party hopes some of those conversations were about them. Apparently feeling the pressure of a newly elected Conservative Party leader, they released “Turkey Talk 2022” as a guide to countering the Conservative Party’s main talking points.
Amidst the standard partisan talking points, one line popped out at us. The conversation guide answers a question about the possible good ideas of the new Conservative leaders with a claim that Pierre Poilievre’s promotion of freedom means he would allow “his caucus to bring forward anti-abortion legislation.” While the Liberal Party currently uses this in a negative sense, thinking it will scare wishy-washy Liberals away from switching party allegiances, we think this is actually a great thing. We hope to see this be a reality!
The Conservative Party has long presented itself as a big tent party. It’s a place for conservatives to debate ideas, advocate for different policies, and still be united. As an organization that works to pass restrictions on abortion, this is an aspect of the Conservative Party that We Need a Law has a keen interest in. We are non-partisan and would work with any party, but some of the other parties have taken a hard line, rejecting our proposed policies altogether. Even in the Conservative party, pro-life MPs often run up against obstacles that have caused many in the pro-life movement to question their place. Yet, it has been from the Conservative party that we have seen hard working pro-life MPs introduce private members’ bills regarding abortion and pre-born children. Wherever pro-life politicians are working, we will do our part to encourage public support of pro-life legislation.
We don’t endorse anyone in leadership races, but we’ve asked every Conservative leader to participate in the ongoing debate about abortion. Past Conservative Party leaders have trotted out a tired line about not re-opening the abortion debate, but they need to understand that the pro-life movement is not waiting for someone to open this debate. The debate is happening, whether in response to what is happening south of the border or through private members’ bills like Bill C-233: the Sex Selective Abortion Act.
Whatever Poilievre’s personal views, we hope this Liberal talking point is accurate. We want to move this conversation from platitudes about personal beliefs to the discussion of real policies like banning sex selective or late-term abortions, or by recognizing that a pre-born child can be a victim of crime. That is best done by allowing the introduction of anti-abortion legislation and freely debating it.