Organizers of the first-ever Conservative Party of Canada policy convention have flip-flopped on a controversial proposal that would have had the effect of shutting down debate at the convention on so-called “issues of conscience”, preventing the party from taking a position on such hot-button issues as abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage.
But now, after a storm of criticism from grassroots members of the party, convention organizers will change some rules that would have the effect of allowing debate at the convention on those issues.
The convention begins in Montreal on March 19.
The party’s national caucus — all those who are Conservative members of the House of Commons or Senate of Canada — are backing a motion that would, in essence, leave all “issues of conscience” out of any party policy document and instead mandate that such issues would put to a free vote in the Commons.
“Those issues will be debated,” said Monte Solberg, the party’s finance critic and MP for Medicine Hat. “They'll be debated hotly in the country. They may not be debated at the convention. But the point of this is to ensure that if you are a member of Parliament in a riding where people have a different point-of-view than a position that you would have selected or that your party would have selected, then you have a chance to represent your constituents.”
The motion at hand is known as P-90 and reads:
“A Conservative government will restore democratic accountability in the House of Commons by allowing free votes. A Conservative government will make all votes free, except for budget and main estimates. On issues of moral conscience, such as abortion, the definition of marriage and euthanasia, the party acknowledges the diversity of deeply helf personal convictions among individual party members and the right of Members of Parliament to adopt positions in consultation with their constituents and to vote freely.”
The motion also contains this important note:
“If resolution P-90 is passed at the plenary, the plenary will not consider resolutions P-91 through P-95”
Resolutions 91 through 95 deal with the definition of marriage, abortion, and euthanasia. Several party members complained that they wanted the chance to debate these social issues regardless of the fate of P-90.
Gary Lunn, the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and a lead convention organizer, said that the national caucus decided at its weekly meeting today to ask for a rule change, the effect of which would be to let debates on abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage proceed at the Montreal convention regardless of the fate of P-90.
It's no wonder that they won't debate these issues. When the media nearly uniformly put social conservatives on the fringe, and call the left “moderate,” it's no wonder the Conservatives act this way. Even so, I agree with Andrew Coyne's argument that the “moderate” Canadian position on abortion, one of the so-cons key issues, is actually quite extreme.