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There are no defensible grounds on which to declare abortion or any other issue 'special' and wall them off from discussion

This is basic stuff. Canada’s press galleries are too full of process nerds for the Shock, Confusion and Horror act — “Leader to allow private members’ bills!!!” — to sound remotely credible. Indeed, generally speaking political journalist are quite sympathetic to the idea of backbenchers being freer to go about their business. It’s why Michael Chong’s Reform Act attracted so much positive notice.

There are no defensible grounds on which to declare abortion or any other issue “special” and wall them off from discussion. Once upon a time, even many pro-life MPs would have bristled at the idea on principle. The only reason Trudeau was able to implement the policy in his caucus was because MPs had been effectively silenced on most everything else so long ago: With a few honourable exceptions, they will do and say almost literally anything the whip demands.

Canadian elections are above all else a battle over small differences — not over what limits to place on abortion, for example, as in every other Western nation, but over how best to ensure there will never be any limits. The parties willing to at least let their MPs discuss the subject in Parliament, should it strike them to do so, thus become the extremists. Threatening the NDP for third place, May now finds herself depicted by some progressives as Genghis Khan in drag simply for refusing to whip her MPs on votes, in keeping with longstanding Green Party policy.