Tim Hudak would rather not talk about abortion; the Liberals would rather he did
Heading into October’s election, what the ailing Ontario Liberals really need is an issue they can use to drive a wedge between voters frustrated with the last eight years and the Tories. And if that issue should also happen to remind people that Stephen Harper now has a majority in Ottawa and that there’s not much to constrain a right-leaning government in Queen’s Park, that would be even better for the Grits. So it was probably inevitable that we’d start hearing about abortion sometime this summer.
According to the Toronto Star:
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak admits he “may have” signed a petition calling for the end to abortion funding in the past but promises not to reopen the debate if elected premier.
Hudak was responding to questions from the Star Monday regarding the Association for Reformed Political Action group listing him as someone who has “made it clear that he is pro-life and has signed petitions calling for abortion defunding and conscience legislation.”
Hudak said he will follow Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s lead and not revisit the abortion issue if he becomes premier Oct. 6.
Hudak signed the petition in question during the 2009 PC leadership race, so his statement now that he’s not going to reopen the debate really amounts to him telling social conservatives, “Hey, what did you expect? I wanted your votes.” Not that disillusioned social conservatives in Ontario are going to flock to the Liberal banner anytime soon. If last year’s sex-ed fiasco hadn’t turned them off, the government’s promise that Catholic schools will be forced to allow gay students to organize something like gay-straight-alliances probably did. So we doubt Hudak has much to worry about among social conservatives. We’ll have to see if the Liberals manage to pick up some nervous votes in the middle.
• Hudak admits to once supporting anti-abortion petition [Toronto Star]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/tim-hudak-abortion/&title=Tim Hudak would rather not talk about abortion; the Liberals would rather he did&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/hudak.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_80569" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Tim Hudak has pledged to follow Stephen Harper’s lead and not reopen the abortion file (Image: Ontario Chamber of Commerce)"][/caption]
Heading into October’s election, what the ailing Ontario Liberals really need is an issue they can use to drive a wedge between voters frustrated with the last eight years and the Tories. And if that issue should also happen to remind people that Stephen Harper now has a majority in Ottawa and that there’s not much to constrain a right-leaning government in Queen’s Park, that would be even better for the Grits. So it was probably inevitable that we’d start hearing about abortion sometime this summer.
According to the Toronto Star:
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak admits he “may have” signed a petition calling for the end to abortion funding in the past but promises not to reopen the debate if elected premier.
Hudak was responding to questions from the Star Monday regarding the Association for Reformed Political Action group listing him as someone who has “made it clear that he is pro-life and has signed petitions calling for abortion defunding and conscience legislation.”
Hudak said he will follow Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s lead and not revisit the abortion issue if he becomes premier Oct. 6.
Hudak signed the petition in question during the 2009 PC leadership race, so his statement now that he’s not going to reopen the debate really amounts to him telling social conservatives, “Hey, what did you expect? I wanted your votes.” Not that disillusioned social conservatives in Ontario are going to flock to the Liberal banner anytime soon. If last year’s sex-ed fiasco hadn’t turned them off, the government’s promise that Catholic schools will be forced to allow gay students to organize something like gay-straight-alliances probably did. So we doubt Hudak has much to worry about among social conservatives. We’ll have to see if the Liberals manage to pick up some nervous votes in the middle.
• Hudak admits to once supporting anti-abortion petition [Toronto Star]){kind=link}
When it comes to ignoring empirical research, the Ontario Conservatives are no different than their federal counterparts. Is this really the type of Premier we want in Ontario?
Tim Hudak’s intends to put gps devices on everyone on the sex offender registry and publish information about them online. Here are some of the things that Mr. Hudak is NOT telling you:
1. Mr. Hudak says the legislation is necessary to protect society from ‘those predators’. Mr. Hudak likely already knows, or SHOULD know, that former sex offenders have a lower recidivism rate that any other group of offender. Most will never reoffend. http://ontarioregistryandgps.webs.com/supplementalresources.htm
2.The Canadians sex offender registries, utilizing funds and police resources now for over a decade, have never assisted in solving even one crime.
http://www.priv.gc.ca/parl/2010/parl_20100415_e.cfm
3. Mr. Hudak estimated the cost to be c. $50 million. Solicitor General Jim Bradley said in order to use effective technology the price tag would actually be “quadruple” that. So, we’re now looking at approximately $200 million dollars per year.
4. Minnesota Department of Corrections stated of gps usage “It does not prevent offenders from committing crimes.”
5. Preventing former offenders from reintegrating into society INCREASES RECIDIVISM.http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/historia/sivut/english/nam/material/SexlawsEconomist060809.pdf
HERE ARE MORE *FACTS*:
http://ontarioregistryandgps.webs.com
this is a plan to have an open data base .. with no reason to NOT do something it WILL become a problem..
then of course there are all those like myself who have spent 10 years dealing with harassment and abuse for what they didn’t do..
15 years in extreme depression then losing your family can make you go to strange and dark places AND yet I was not guilty of possession of anything it was just so the OPP could put another feather in their cap and why not not like a severely depressed person could fight back especially when it was tried in public long before my actual trial.
i am glad i will suicide before this creature known as Tim Hudak gets in and make ontario a truly unsafe place to live.
i for one would love to find a news paper and/or a real journalist to look into the number of offenders who ended up on the “sex registry” because we had a PC party a new law and over zealous police .. now add that there was a kid who died because he fell out of a tree and yet the police were not looking because they were busy canvassing the sex offenders registry..
this country is a joke