Doug Ford raises abortion issue in effort to woo social conservatives: expert
TORONTO — One of the four candidates competing to lead Ontario’s Opposition raised questions about access to abortion this week, resurrecting a political hot potato while stopping short of promising to reopen debate on the issue.
Doug Ford’s statements that he would not personally revive the abortion debate but would allow those in his caucus to bring forward legislation on any matter important to them appears to be a “Hail Mary” move aimed at wooing the party’s socially conservative members as the leadership race comes to a close this weekend, a political analyst said.
“This is a top-down leader and for him, on this issue, to be signalling that, hey, it’s ok by him for any of his caucus members to be where they want to be on the map on this one tells me that this is a retail politics vote-getting move, pure and simple,” said Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
“If he really believed it, he would say this is what he’s going to deliver, and the fact that he’s not prepared to say that says to me it’s about appealing to a base and portion of the (Progressive) Conservative party that nobody else has, on this issue, spoken to.”