They call it the third rail. Touch it and you die.
It refers to the rail running down the middle of an electrically powered track. Touch it and you’re electrocuted. It means the same in politics. Some topics are so divisive that any politician who starts talking about them is asking for an end to their political life.
Enter Kevin Arsenault.
He’s one of the five people running for the leadership of the province’s Progressive Conservative party. And in a radio debate a few days ago he grabbed one of the third rails of Canadian politics with both hands.
Arsenault dislikes P.E.I.’s abortion policy, which he describes as letting women make the decision on their own “without even seeing a doctor, that eliminated the assessment that those abortions were medically required. It simply made it abortion on demand.”
He has a solution, presumably one he’d implement if elected premier.
“Take the money from the public purse that’s going to abortions that are not medically required and put it into programs that address those difficult circumstances for women who really don’t want to have abortions.”
And he has the research to back up his idea because he has “spoken with and listened to a lot of women who’ve had abortions and they tell me it’s not a decision they really wanted to make.”
I urge my journalism students to respond one way when they hear a public figure make an “a lot of” claim. Ask WTF – where’s that from. (If you thought I meant anything else, get your mind out of the gutter.)
But let’s set “a lot of” aside for the moment. Instead, let’s look at his idea from a looming-election point of view.
A poll by the firm Ipsos released about two years ago found abortion on demand is a winner when it comes to public policy in Canada. The poll suggested 77 per cent of those who responded said abortion should be allowed.
Just over half said it should be abortion on demand. About one in four said it’s OK with some limits, a pregnancy caused by rape, for instance, would be an acceptable reason.
True, we’re not Sweden, Belgium or France, which all hover in the 86-87 per cent range. But if you’re looking for a policy with strong backing in this country, access to abortion is a winner.
Now, maybe P.E.I. is a different story.
Certainly, the province dragged its feet for years compared to the rest of the country, forcing women to travel out of the province to get the procedure done.
But since abortions became available two years ago this week, hundreds of women have used the service and the government which opened the doors to it hasn’t suffered politically as a result.
Besides, if the Conservatives hope to end their years in P.E.I.’s political wilderness come election time, they don’t have much margin for error.
A just-released MQO Research poll suggests the party is an encouraging third in a tight race. The Greens lead with 34 per cent of decided voters, the Liberals have 33 and the Tories 28. Granted another poll put the Tories at 20, but let’s be optimistic.
Still, those numbers suggest this is not the time to risk pushing forward an almost certainly unpopular policy that few say needs to broached.
- Rick MacLean is an instructor in the journalism program at Holland College in Charlottetown.
