Yesterday Michael Ignatieff threw down a pretty clear marker to Stephen Harper. He put forward that Harper "should support safe-abortion programs abroad if he's serious about improving the lives of women."
Now, Ignatieff's proposal is a perfectly defensible one. Sure, it's contentious and maybe even a wee bit wedgy in its intent. Good for Ignatieff. Fresh air, meet deep breath. There's nothing about Ignatieff's proposal that is any way beyond the reach of legitimate political debate and it happens to be (I would argue) the smartest use of policy for political gain by the Liberal Party in, oh, six years? I know the notion of using policy for political gains hurts certain people's virginal eyes and ears but get over it.
How did Harper respond? Through his spokesperson Dmitri Soudas he, uh, didn't:
"This has nothing to do with abortion. This has nothing to do with gay marriage. This has nothing to do with capital punishment...this is about saving lives of vulnerable children and mothers in the developing world."
Soudas would not say, however, whether access to safe abortions was included in the maternal-health problems Harper wants to address. Nor did he rule it out.
To sum: the debate is not about any of the red herrings I just raised but I certainly won't give a response to a pretty clear question.
There are really three actual positions Harper can take to this issue:
1. Yes, we will fund abortions in developping countries to help protect women (and watch my caucus combust).
2. No, we won't fund abortions in developing countries for the following reasons (and there are lots of defensible reasons, regardless of my personal views and those of many Canadians).
3. Oh, that whole thing about protecting women's health in developing countries, you didn't really take that seriously, did you? That was one of my silly staffers ideas, like poroguing and Peter Van Loan - not to be taken seriously. Hey, how about that unicorn over there!?!
(Photo: The Prime Ministers arrives for a cabinet meeting at Meech Lake today. Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press)
