Since both the NDP and the Liberals will not allow anti-abortion candidates to run for their respective parties, I suggest we need a new progressive party that will. We need a party that stands for the right of all people to vote their conscience.  Why can’t a progressive party  commit to Edmund Burke’s:

” To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men; that of constituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative ought always to rejoice to hear; and which he ought always most seriously to consider. But authoritative instructions; mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience,–these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution.”

Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms clearly guarantees freedom of conscience. Both Mulcair and Trudeau, in not allowing anti-abortion candidates to run for their respective parties, are overriding this right. Neither the leader nor the party should be allowed to do this.

The right to life is also an important right which needs calm discussion. I believe all women have the right to control their own bodies. However, an unborn baby also has a claim on the right to live. Obviously this is one of the most difficult debates we can have, and it will not be easily resolved, if ever. There are no absolutes involved, and political parties should not take it upon themselves to rule on an absolute answer.  A political party should be inclusive encouraging debate on this important issue.