If you’ve been wondering how Rachel Notley’s NDP is going to try cling to power and fend off the steamrolling Jason Kenney, here’s your answer, posted to the Alberta’s NDP Facebook page on March 28:
One year later, as the UCP prepares for its policy convention, where does Jason Kenney stand? Here are some of the questions he has not yet answered:
– Does he stand by his comments that parents should be notified if their children join a GSA?
– Why did he say GSAs taught curriculum when they are, in fact, clubs?
– What did he mean when he said teachers do not support GSAs? Has he met with the ATA?
– Kenney has repeatedly stated he wants to repeal all NDP legislation if he had the chance to govern Alberta. After whipping his caucus to vote against Bill 24, would he repeal Bill 24?
I’ve explained before how unbelievably offensive this actually is: Rachel Notley is in effect claiming that the state is better-equipped to care for children than parents are, and as such it is her duty to put legislation in place that protects children from their parents. If you vote for Jason Kenney, Notley warns Albertans darkly, he will support the right of parents to know what their children are up to at school.
This is always the final tactic of flailing progressive politicians: The “Hidden Agenda” card. Justin Trudeau is still shocked that in the case of the Canada Summer Jobs Program’s new “abortion attestation,” he went after the pro-lifers (something that men like him have been doing with impunity for over a decade), and instead of getting the usual praise, he got a bloody nose—and the issue still won’t go away. And now Notley has been musing that Albertan abortion clinics need bubble zones.
I was at first tempted to think that Notley was simply doing exactly what Kathleen Wynne was doing when she ramrodded the Ontario bubble zone legislation through—using a false premise (it is pro-lifers who face violence in Canada, not abortion activists) in order to divide the opposing party. But then, I was alerted to a very interesting fact: The NDP’s third largest corporate donor and largest business corporate donor in the year they won government was the Anne Marie Long Professional Corporation.
Why is that significant? Because Anne Marie Long is one of the three directors at the Women’s Health Options Clinic, an Edmonton abortion facility. The Anne Marie Long Professional Corporation is a shareholder in this abortion clinic—and a very quick survey of the news coverage of Notley’s suggestion that abortion clinic bubble zones should be legislated in Alberta shows that the organization lobbying for this legislation is—you guessed it—the Women’s Health Options abortion clinic.
So what is going on here? Is Rachel Notley just trying to desperately smear Jason Kenney and demonize socially conservative Albertans, as per usual? Or has she perhaps seen the writing on the wall, and is suggesting this legislation now as a kickback to an important NDP donor? Albertan abortion activists, in all probability, suspect that Notley’s time as leader is probably up—and that this may be their last chance to get the legislation that they want. Perhaps they are telling Notley that it’s time she returned their favors?
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For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
