Last week, Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau made headlines by saying that anyone who is antiabortion is not welcome to run for the Liberal Party in the next election as Trudeau wishes to form a government that is “resolutely pro-choice.”
Trudeau attempted to justify this stance by saying, “It’s not for any government to legislate what happens – what a women chooses to do with her body and that is the bottom line.”
Well, Trudeau is right on that point at least.
No government has any right to dictate what a woman can do to her body when it comes to pregnancy.
Kind of like how Justin Trudeau has no right to dictate what Liberal Party candidates can believe.
Last month, Trudeau denounced the so-called Fair Elections Act (and rightly so) as “Bad for democracy and bad for Canada.”
Strange then, how Trudeau’s dictatorship regarding what Liberal candidates are allowed to believe is just as undemocratic.
Even more unfair is the fact that Trudeau’s edict does not apply to everyone.
Incumbents who are veteran MPs from before the Liberal Party adopted its official abortion stance will be given exceptions.
While new candidates are expected to be, as Trudeau says, “resolutely pro-choice,” those who are already members are not expected to change their beliefs along with the party’s.
In one breath Trudeau is saying both that the government has no right to make any kind of legislation regarding abortion, which it doesn’t, but that his party does have the right to decide what its members can think.
Are we wrong in thinking such a statement is, in itself, just a little hypocritical?
Trudeau has said his party has no plans to reopen the abortion debate.
He also said his party plans to weed out any antiabortion candidates during the green-light screening process, where potential party candidates must be approved by a committee before they can run for the Liberal party.
Some have said that this is a purely political move that will earn Trudeau support from those opposed to the current government (which also does not wish to re-open the abortion debate).
However, we cannot help but think that the move has also lost Trudeau the support of those who previously preferred his open-mindedness to Harper’s bullying tactics.
If Trudeau truly has no plans to re-open the abortion debate and there are already going to be antiabortion members of the party grandfathered in anyway, why does he need to screen out candidates based on their opinions regarding abortion?
Should the Liberals form government in the next election, Trudeau will get to decide, to an extent, what policies the government brings forward and how they vote on them.
Why not let the people decide who it is who will represent them?