O’Toole is pleasing no one with his comments on abortion

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole greets children in Ottawa on Thursday on his way to promising Canadians more affordable housing if his party wins the election. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

You can always tell when there’s an election on; it’s about the only time that abortion is discussed in public by serious people.

It’s often an issue that’s used to marginalize and digress, but, nevertheless, the basic human right of a woman to control her own body took years of struggle and sacrifice, and it’s entirely understandable for the electorate to demand absolutes from the women and men asking to lead it.

As always, the Liberals are trying to paint the Conservatives as anti-choice, and while Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has stated that’s he’s pro-choice — and there’s no reason to doubt him — the challenge for him and his party is a little more complex.

On a personal level, it seems like a subject that simply doesn’t concern him much, and one he’d like to just go away. Since he was raised a Roman Catholic, O’Toole may feel a residue of discomfort about women’s reproductive rights, but it’s his politics, not his faith, that informs him.

O’Toole wants a modern Conservative party more like those in Western Europe and Britain, where the anchor of social conservatism has been largely destroyed. Instead, he leads an organization that frequently looks south to American Republicanism. While the Red Tory tradition is moribund at best, and has little, if any, influence on the party, the division between the libertarian, fiscal conservative, and hardline, traditional, social-conservative factions is broad and obvious.

Stephen Harper was controlling and determined enough to keep the anti-abortion lobby on a very tight leash, but Andrew Scheer was actually one of them. He squirmed his way through interviews where he tried to disguise his hardline Catholic conservatism and appear as a politician of accepting, Canadian pragmatism. It never worked, and neither did he.

O’Toole has neither Harper’s toughness nor Scheer’s ideology, so instead he tries to placate both sides, and it’s just not succeeding.

Remember, the anti-abortion movement in this country has become increasingly extreme and intolerant, and many of its leaders reject abortion even in cases of incest, rape, and danger to the mother. They routinely refer to women’s choice as “murder,” compare it to the Holocaust, and deliver pictures of abortions — some of them probably fake — to people’s homes. These zealots won’t be satisfied with tokens.

But tokenism is what O’Toole offers. He’s a leader constantly looking behind him, performing a balancing act to placate his base, while appealing to news media and the electorate. But beyond even the numerous ridings in Alberta and rural Ontario where abortion is still a major issue, there are MPs and activists who are watching his every move.

Also, there’s the new darling of the social-conservative right, Leslyn Lewis. She’ll be an MP for the first time after the election, because, as the candidate in Haldimand—Norfolk, she can’t lose. Diane Finley long held the riding with a comfortable majority, and Lewis will likely become the fulcrum for the more conservative alternative to O’ Toole, who may be under enormous pressure, depending on how he performs in this election.

Lewis did extremely well in the leadership race, surprising party insiders as well as informed commentators with her ability to raise funds, and with the depth and energy of her support. She almost won. O’Toole was obliged to give her a safe seat, but he knows exactly how great a threat she’ll be.

That’s because her views clearly outflank those of her leader. When it comes to so-called conversion therapy, Lewis opposes government bans, even though the World Health Organization describes the grotesque procedure as a “serious threat to the health and well-being” of its victims. While O’Toole and the party leadership supported government legislation to outlaw this homophobic nonsense, the majority of the caucus disagreed. That matters.

Lewis also describes her position as ”pro-life, no hidden agenda,” in harsh opposition to her leader. As Peter MacKay once said, “When you open the door to a crack of daylight on these social issues, it becomes very, very difficult to win the country, to present the party as modern (and) inclusive, as a party that is committed to focusing more on the economy than debating the past.”

O’Toole knows this only too well, and when he was pushed last week to explain his position on abortion and doctors’ conscience rights, he echoed the party platform by saying, “We will protect the conscience rights of health-care professionals.”

One open hand, one very closed. It’s also somewhat disingenuous, because those rights are already largely protected. But it’s about perception. Social conservatives see it as a wedge, i.e., something that could be extended later, but they regard it as nowhere close to being sufficient. Supporters of choice fear it’s a sign of things to come.

O’Toole can’t jettison his party’s right-wing root, and he needs its branches. The Liberals will exploit the obvious discomfort, and O’Toole’s supporters in the news media will claim it’s all irrelevant and a Liberal-attack campaign. But, in the final analysis, it will be the voters who decide. It seems it’s this that so worries O’Toole and the party leadership.

MORE COREN: Catholic Church has an abdication-of-responsibility problem

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

Praise and condemnation for Michael Coren’s ordination to the Anglican Church

My oath ‘to serve all people,’ Coren, Oct. 25

Congratulations to Michael Coren on his recent ordination to the Anglican Church. He has been searching his soul for years and openly shared the joys and pains of that search through his columns, which I find very enlightening.

The path forward toward “showing Christ by not getting in the way” will not always be easy, but Coren is determined to lead by love and not the old fire and brimstone many of us grew up with, where Christ was a fearful and punitive character.

Coren has an open heart, an intelligent mind and a deep love of Christ. He will make an excellent priest.

Michael Coren, days after his ordination as an Anglican priest, writes: “So one of my reasons for deciding on this journey, and one I fully intend to combine with my media work, is that I want to do all that I can to dissolve the indifference or even hostility that so many good and reasonable people have toward organized Christianity.”

This is the height of hypocrisy. Review his articles over the past six months. They are laden with anti-Catholicism. He essentially repeated over and over in the Star and elsewhere that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer cannot be trusted because he is a devout Catholic.

I wonder how much those articles contributed to “hostility … toward organized religion.” Unless Coren thinks that Catholicism is neither organized nor Christian.