I was at the Manning Networking Convention for the past few days. As such, I sat in on a session about how the Conservatives are polling. (Not good, is the short answer.)
Anyway, a moment of more than passing interest occurred when the pollster identified that abortion falls into the quadrant of issues that the Conservatives don’t care about and Canadians don’t care about. Ie. It’s not an issue the Government should be raising.
I was sitting next to a pro-life friend and she asked, “do you think that’s true?”
I do. And I think it’s important for pro-life Canadians to be aware of this. We need a major cultural shift before this is going to be a politically saleable issue.
That said, politics, I believe, or what might be termed “political activity” in a certain capacity, can also be a way of changing the culture. Politics, including the distasteful shenanigans that happen on the Hill, is part of our culture, I think.
Mark Warawa’s failed motion on sex selection abortion, for example, at least raised up the issue for Canadians. It needs to be raised up a couple hundred more times by people of all stripes, political and not, and then, slowly, slowly, politics will choose to deal with it.
Unfortunately, change is slow. Cultural change is slow and political change, I am starting to see, might be yet slower.
As Linda Gibbons, in and out of jail for the pro-life cause says, “The battle isn’t lonely, but it is long.”
She’s right. It’s not lonely. I look around me and see I am surrounded by some of the best, brightest, most convicted pro-life people there are.
But the battle is long, indeed. I need to remind myself of that. Long distance race, people, not a sprint. This is not a reason to be lackadaisical, but it is a reason to be strategic.
I am thinking this through as I type. A thought for the day. Now it’s off to hit a different hill, not Parliament Hill, but rather the Hill(s) of Gatineau. Hurray!
by 
It seems to me that while I think there is something to the idea that ‘abortion falls into the quadrant of issues that .. Canadians don’t care about .. ‘ I suggest the more accurate thought might be that Canadians deeply ‘care’ about abortion but think there is nothing to do about it.
I totally agree about the ‘cultural shift’ idea. Canada has become a land pf personal peace and affluence and dulled in thinking. This mindset of, ‘as long as no one bothers me and I have ‘enough’ is a damper to thinking. When it comes to ‘abortion’ Canadians are moribund in thinking; there are deeply entrenched ‘sides’, ‘abortion’ is a right’, ‘choice’ is sacred, ‘beginning of life’ is an impossible discussion and Canada, the Medical professionals and Canadians are ‘nice’/ incapable’ of doing harm. This all leads to a ‘mind’ that there is nothing to do about this, so, ignore the issue.
Changing the culture is the issue. After all, it is in a culture that things, good or bad, come into being. Wilberforce saw this. Culture fostered the slave trade and culture would see its’ end.