Bob Rae won't defend abortion rights
There is a Tory private members bill about to be voted on thatwould define a fetus as a human being.
Every single NDP MP will vote against this bill. Its not even necessary to whip the vote since every single NDP MP is pro-choice.
The Liberals are a different story. They are total hypocrits. Bob Rae says he will allow a "free vote" so that all those anti-abortion religious freak Liberal MPs can vote with the Tories and help pass the bill. At the same time the Liberals are sending out fundraising letters trying to get people to write cheques to the liberal party - to defend abortion rights and oppose the very bill that Rae is planning to help Harper pass.
"Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said this vote would be open as are all private member's votes. He has no idea whether any caucus members will support the motion,"
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Motion+backdoor+Tories+into+abortion+debate/6521702/story.html#ixzz1t9gRvLzD
Stock, I think this is a very fair comment. I am going to be watching how my MP, Kevin Lamoureux, a Liberal votes on this. He supported Rod Bruinoodge's motion to "protect women from coercion when they are pregnanat", motion. I agree this is hypocracy with a capital H. This just galls me about Libs. The keep saying they are the true "progressives" (I hate that word, I think the Libs are trying to use it to co-opt leftism in the eyes of the public), yet on an issue that is clearly a left versus right issue, they can't be counted on to back up their own words. I hate those guys.
From what i have seen in the blogosphere and the "twittersphere" this is stirring up a lot of trouble for Rae with the Liberal activists who are horrified by what he's doing. Bob Rae FLOPS again...his greatest legacy in Canadian politics will that he was a total failure at everything he ever touched.
A clear and progressive issue, yes. But not one that easily fits the left v. right spectrum.
Just look at Joe Borowski. Not everyone who gets bent out of shape about recognizing women's choice, and especially the even more difficult wedge question they are trying to push here, is on the political right.
Yes, Rae's weakness didn't pass unnoticed.
Mulcair and Niki Ashton in particular were outstanding with their unequivocal condemnation. Also, coming on the heels of Hyer's departure, a good case for the virtue of whipped votes.
Are the tories going to abstain from their own private members bill or are they going to whip it, or are they going to whip against it, or are they going to send it into committee limbo to be forgotten?
Joe Borowski was briefly an NDP MLA in Manitoba over 40 years ago...in an era when abortion was still largely illegal and the consensus we now have in the NDP in favour of choice had not yet been established. Nowadays, it is official NDP policy to be pro-choice.
What i find nauseating about the Liberals is that they have the nerve to send out fundraising e-mails around defending a woman's right to choose - while having a caucus that is infiltrated by anti-choice religious crackpots. if you donate one red cent to the Liberal party - some of that money will go to help re-elect anti-abotion nutbars in the federal Liberal caucus.
Seems to me the women of Canada don't deserve to be under the whip of a man's Duty to Protect anymore than citizens in Libya and Syria. Some progressives seem to think they know what is best for others. At least most of the NDP is on the right side of this D2P issue.
That is a fair comment, and very true about Borowski. My mother never forgave Joe for his stance, and she had known Joe for years before that occured. I am not sure though how much room there is for that kind of view in the party now. Notwithstanding, if my MP votes as I think he will, it'll give me a chance to hammer him for it!
Yes, I was also in Manitoba when that all went down.
Rae should know better than this, regardless of what his members' personal beliefs are. This is an issue on which the supreme court has clearly pointed out the overriding principle.
Boy, did you ever nail it. That is the point. Very well said!
My guess is that Harper and Cabinet will oppose, and enough Tories will either oppose or come to some other kind of arrangement alowing this bill to die.
I can't imagine Rob Nicholson opposing this bill without a threat from Harper himself.
talking to mom about this over coffee. she said she doesn't believe for 1 min the NDP will be united against the vote if it's the 1st reading. 'cause it's a private members bill and Peter Stoffer always votes 'for' on the 1st reading.
is it the 1st reading?
Abortion Canada: Stephen Harper Says He'll Vote Against Private Member's Bill On Human Definition
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/26/abortion-canada-stephen-harper-s...
Even the article heading has it wrong. This is not a private members bill, but only a motion. Which is still very problematic. I suspect Harper's cabinet will vote against it, or abstain. That should be enough to ensure it's defeat, given that there aren't that many anti-choice Liberal MPs.
This reminds me of a video.
They'll either send it into limbo if possible or else arrange for not enough of their MPs to show up to pass the motion. Unless the Tories really do want to go down this road in which case it was nice knowing them.
Wow this bill has given Harper a chance to say he's really a woman's rights kind of guy. As well he is just standing up for the democratic right of MP's to debate issues. Nice job back bencher. The NDP better tread carefully in their statements about what MP's should be able to bring to the parliament for debate. Too strident a response to the raising of an issue could give this police state government a nice talking point about how the opposition, if in power, would be dictatorial and limit the rights of MP's.
He might try, but after his treatment of Bill Casey, Chuck Cadman and a few others, I don't think he has too much cause to throw stones.
And I think his record on cuts to women's groups, and to women's reproductive health services internationally, speak loud enough. I don't think anyone on any side of this issue is fooled by his attempt to keep his hands clean on this.
Harper could care less about the abortion issue. MPs denounce motion to study when life beginshttp://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/26/pol-abortion-debate.html
when life begins has sfa to do with a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body.
I'm surprised. First of all, I thought the new Liberal approach was to pull a "Lib Dems vs. New Labour" and outflank the NDP on the left on social issues and civil liberties. I also recall Bob Rae saying that one of his biggest regrets as premier was allowing a "free vote" on same-sex benefits when he was Premier of Ontario.
So...are the Liberals trying to appeal to voters who support the legalization of pot and are "pro-life"?
Jeff Jedras: Liberals play the hypocrite card on Woodworth abortion debatehttp://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/26/jeff-jedras-liberals-play...
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that's funny..but at the end of the laugh i'll excuse you for the religious right framing and just say anti-choice or anti-human rights is the right word use.
The pot legalization vote wasn't a strategic decision by the Party brass, nor was it determinitive of the policy the Liberals will take into the next election. Rae said he opposed the legalization proposal before it passed and the next Liberal leader (i.e. the current Liberal leader) won't be bound to accept it, and will almost certainly fall back to at best a decriminalization position. Way too many people here are reading too much into it.
Abortion motion threatens to expose rifts in Tory, Liberal ranks
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/26/abortion-motion-threatens-to-exp...
Catholic teacher brings anti-abortion petition to school
Ontario's tax dollars hard at work.
ah that is so very sad
http://archive.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=24&t=001356