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I don’t totally understand what Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives were trying to do Wednesday when they sent out a video and accompanying statement from leader Patrick Brown. “I am pro-choice,” he averred. “That includes protecting women exercising their rights from intimidation or harassment.” So far, so good. The Liberals were minutes away from tabling legislation establishing “safe zones” around abortion clinics: 50- to 100-metre bubbles into which protesters won’t be allowed. Brown has steadfastly insisted he has no intention of stepping on abortion or any other third-rail issue.

Then it got a bit confusing. “Kathleen Wynne has an agenda … to re-open debates about divisive social issues,” the statement read (playing on the accusation usually levelled against the Tories). “While she’s doing that, I’ll be talking about creating good jobs.”

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By Thursday afternoon, it was clear Liberal shenanigans were indeed afoot. The Tories moved for unanimous consent in the legislature to pass the safe-zone bill then and there, and the Liberals refused. All of a sudden, wouldn’t you know, they decided more consultation was necessary. (It’s a perimeter around a building. How hard is it to enact and enforce a perimeter around a building?) This gives certain members of the Tory caucus more time to stick their feet in their mouths, and that would suit the Liberals just fine. On Thursday, even as they blocked passage of their own bill in the legislature, they accused Brown of “double-speak on abortion rights.”