At a Liberal dinner in Toronto last night, Michael Ignatieff called out the Conservatives on their position on abortion, starting the “culture war” that the Liberals supposedly want to engage in, and for taking credit for the strength of our banking system when it was the Liberal legacy. Oh, and that bit about freezing corporate taxes, while the Conservatives keep insisting he’s going to raise them. Nice to see that someone has caught onto the fact that the culture war’s been waging for a while now. Meanwhile, Liberal MP (and pro-lifer) Paul Szabo says that a vote on abortions in this country is inevitable – though it may take a generation or two. That doesn’t seem to have slowed down the pro-life, religious-right crowd, which seems to be getting cockier, if some of their behaviour in recent weeks has been any indication.
On the subject of abortion, the Conservatives – and Josée Verner in particular – have condemned a statement by Quebec City Cardinal Marc Ouellet that abortion is never acceptable, even after rape. But if you take their outrage and extend the logic, it’s unacceptable to deny abortions to Canadian women who get raped, but not women in places like the Congo, where rape is used as a weapon of war? Explain that one to me, please.
Prime Minister Harper held a Q&A with “youth delegates” to the G8 and G20, and there was a lot of partisan banter between him and Senator Mike Duffy. Turns out some of those students ended up complaining that none of the tough questions – on abortion for developing countries or the environment – didn’t get asked. But hey, they totally didn’t “rewrite” those questions. But you can bet they were screened, seeing as they were sent to Global Vision beforehand, who forwarded them to the PMO. It’s so great that our Prime Minister can have such “spontaneous” events like these to show he’s really a down-to-earth kinda guy.
It seems the “open and transparent” government narrowly avoided another document showdown, this time with the Auditor General. She was ready to go to press with stinging condemnations of their refusal to turn over some of their books when they relented at the very last minute. But hey – open and transparent, everybody!
And the Liberals now support giving more seats for Quebec as part of the new legislation on seat redistribution, calling it a small adjustment to help get other under-represented provinces’ seats. And also, I’m sure, they’d like to win back a few seats in said province as well, so this is political convenience.
Up today – After meeting with the Pakistani community in Toronto on Sunday and the Markham Chinese community yesterday, Michael Ignatieff’s ethnocultural outreach tour continues with the Korean community in Markham and Toronto today.
Why you can trust Xtra
