Faith Organizing, Party Politics, and the exceptionalism of abortion in the Harper Era1,2 Paul Thomas PhD Candidate, University of Toronto
[email protected] Jerald Sabin PhD Candidate, University of Toronto
[email protected] Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, University of Victoria, June 4 – 6, 2013 1 Working paper. Please do not cite without authors’ permission. 2 The authors would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 1.0 Introduction Can the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) maintain the support of its social conservative base while firmly resisting their policy demands with regard to abortion? Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated emphatically during the 2011 federal election that his government would not revisit its stance on abortion, announcing that: “as long as I am prime minister, we will not reopen the debate on abortion. We will leave the law as it stands” (CBC 2011). Yet instead of settling the issue, the Prime Minister’s comments have encouraged anti- abortion activists both inside and outside the CPC to escalate their activities. In the past year, Canada’s abortion laws have become a site of open conflict within the CPC, leading to such incidents as MP Mark Warawa’s private member’s motion on sex-selective abortion (M-408) and the distribution of graphic postcards in the prime minister’s riding by anti-abortion activists. Despite its recent formation, the CPC operates as a traditional Canadian brokerage party, with both fiscal and social conservative wings (Haussman and Rankin 2009).