Can’t say Chris Selley isn’t absolutely right on this one. Though it might have been reasonable for pro-life social conservatives to hope the Conservatives wouldn’t bungle the issue so thoroughly.
What, just by the by, was the communications strategy here? We shall take the heat when it is really hard to do so, and when the issue has died down and all but disappeared, we shall raise it again in such manner so as to infuriate our supporters?
Lying politicians!
Well, well, well. As the Ottawa Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne reports, Canada’s Minister for International Co-operation now has no problem with funding abortion infrastructure in Third World countries where abortion is legal. But … but … what about all that vote-courting “no Canadian money for abortions” bluster back in April? Aren’t we now risking a terrible “divide [in] the Canadian population,” as Stephen Harper warned? Well, no. Of course not. It was just a ruse. Attention, social conservatives: You’ve been had. Again. And to borrow a line, it’s not going to stop until you wise up.
Please excuse me while I go bang my head against the wall. Not just because politicians lie, no. I’m at least somewhat used to that. But because of all the misinformation flying around about what it means to be pro-life and the wanton disregard we have for human life, while couching it in terms of sympathy and compassion for women.
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Update: Should Minister Bev Oda be fired?
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My take is that the HarpoCon gang wants to eat at the grown-ups table, internationally speaking. So, they realized they had to go along with all that sciencey-facty stuff about abortion and family planning being integral to maternal and child health. And did. But played their home so-conned base for fools. As usual.
http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.com/2010/09/yo-fetus-fetishists-con-government-does.html
“Sciencey-facty stuff”–now which grown ups would those be?
I was surprised and suspicious about the original “policy”, as the one certainty in my life is that Stephen Harper will do nothing that will jeopardize his hold on the position of PM. Now, life can go back to normal.
Except that he has now put the final nail in the coffin for his social conservative voters. He has completely and fully betrayed us and may be surprised by how large a voting block he has dismissed. I will now vote for my dog before I vote for a “Conservative.”