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It was always going to be awkward that the first ever campaign debate hosted by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto had every party represented by men.

But it was not until the topic turned to abortion that the gender imbalance became most evident, as male representatives of all five parties endorsed a woman’s right to choose while also offering their own qualifications and reservations, and getting in partisan digs at their opponents.

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It fell to Dan Turcotte, the Green Party candidate from Don Valley East, to actually mention women, and to emphasize what the federal government can do to help them by promoting their access to health care, safety and education.

Moderator Don Newman, the former CBC political broadcaster, said he found all their responses unsatisfying. He acknowledged that Liberals are determinedly pro-choice although their Catholic leader Justin Trudeau has expressed his own personal pro-life views, and that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, also personally pro-life, has said he will not open the abortion debate in Parliament. But this is the “biggest issue for most Catholics,” Newman said, and none of the candidates on stage in Toronto Thursday night gave “much comfort to the Catholics in the room.”