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Apart from all this, a national anti-abortion group called RightNow urges anti-abortion youths to get themselves hired as UCP interns for the summer.

There has hardly been a moment in Alberta, ever since abortion was fundamentally legalized in the 1980s, when such groups haven’t tried to influence a party, create their own, or take one over. Despite every effort, they have remained marginal.

But now these people have hope in their hearts. For the first time in a very long while, the party they fully support could become the Alberta government.

Party Leader Jason Kenney is personally against abortion. His whole record shows it. It’s hardly surprising for this very observant Catholic.

But Kenney says he would set these divisive social issues aside as government leader. He pledges not to change abortion practice in Alberta.

“I’ve learned a lot from Stephen Harper in that respect,” Kenney told Postmedia’s James Wood last year.

“I think Stephen and I have a lot of similarities in our general approach, which is you start with a certain set of convictions but you can’t impose them on society,” he told Wood.

Many Alberta New Democrats, including MLA Marie Renaud, simply don’t believe Kenney.

Renaud pointed out on Twitter that the provincial premier, unlike a federal minister, actually controls the levers of health care. He, or she, can change abortion rules with a cabinet vote and the stroke of a pen.

When Brian Jean was Wildrose leader, he took much the same line as Harper, warning conservatives not to get caught in positions that could sow division and cost votes.