Brown bobs and weaves, but could end up on ropes
Thanksgiving is for wedges of pumpkin pie.
But political wedges never go out of season, thanks to Queen’s Park.
A wedge issue is a well-known political trap to foment dissension. In the U.S., Republicans have long relied on race-baiting. In Canada, Conservatives hid behind burkas. In Ontario, Tories stirred the pot on sex education.
But wedges work both ways. Now, Ontario’s governing Liberals are trying to sow dissension on abortion — only to reap the whirlwind. Beware the boomerang when an opponent calls your bluff.
In an emotional appeal this week, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi called for tough new restrictions on protestors outside abortion clinics to prevent intimidation of patients and health-care workers. The unspoken expectation was that it would exploit open tension between PC Leader Patrick Brown and those who fight to the death for their pro-life views.
But when Brown got wind of the Liberal proposal, he issued a preemptive statement accusing the government of trying to “reopen debates about divisive social issues.”
The Liberals have been baiting Brown over his abortion ambiguity for years.
As a Conservative backbencher in 2012, he sided with the anti-abortion camp by voting to explore criminal code restrictions. But Brown experienced a conversion on the road to Queen’s Park after winning the provincial leadership.
“Let me be very clear: I am prochoice,” he declared Wednesday.
His Tories pounced the next day, unexpectedly proposing unanimous support to rush the legislation through in a day. Caught off guard, the Liberals insisted the law re- quired more study despite a summer of consultations.
Apart from the role reversal, Naqvi’s dual roles left him conflicted — for he is supposedly our apolitical attorney general, yet simultaneously the government’s hyperpolitical House leader quarterbacking partisan manoeuvres.
Brown deftly avoided Naqvi’s trap and the Liberals lost the battle of optics in the eyes of the media. But a wedge casts a wider web. More than merely exposing contradictions, it aims to peel away a politician’s own core supporters, nibbling away at the base he holds dear. By that measure, the Tories may yet pay a price.
Full credit to MPP Lisa MacLeod for persuading her fellow Progressive Conservatives to outmanoeuvre the Liberals by “calling their bluff.” She knows her comments may put her at risk of anti-abortion retaliation in her own riding.
But while her caucus was trying to put its best face forward, a Tory MPP who owes his seat to antiabortion groups wrong-footed himself. Sam Oosterhoff rose in the legislature Wednesday to describe abortion as a tool for “eliminating people,” notably those with Down syndrome. Before reporters could question him, Brown’s office muzzled the 20-year-old MPP.
The abortion manoeuvre is only the latest in a series of evasions by the PC leader, a lifelong politician who won’t be boxed in. Every time Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals stake out a new position, Brown’s Tories reposition themselves:
As the Liberals moved forward on cap and trade, Brown ordered a U-turn among climate change deniers by embracing, belatedly, a carbon tax (which he had opposed as an MP in Ottawa).
When Wynne and the New Democrats proposed expanded pharmacare, Brown ultimately promised to abide by it.
As the NDP and Liberals rushed to reimpose full rent control, the Tories held their noses — and tongues — going along with what is surely anathema to their free-market base.
When the Liberals partially privatized Hydro One, Brown reversed the party’s pro-privatization stance to attack any sale.
On the maximum wedge of a $15 minimum wage, pitting Brown against bedrock small business backers, the PC leader pivoted to supporting the dollar amount while questioning the timetable for its introduction.
Under attack for flirting with sex education opponents, Brown divorced them while declaring fealty to Pride parades, antagonizing his most socially conservative supporters.
The PC leader knows how to dodge a wedge by bobbing and weaving. But he only has so much margin of manoeuvre before leaving his base behind, as happened on climate change.
Brown boasts that the Liberals threw everything they had at him during his 2015 byelection campaign, and it didn’t stick. Nor did he get stuck this week on the abortion front, despite being blindsided by his own anti-abortion MPP.
But the downside of ducking is that it leaves voters wondering what you stand for. Which is why the Liberals won’t stop trying to trap him, despite ending up with pie on their face this week.
In politics, as in pies, one wedge leads to another. Call it just desserts. Martin Regg Cohn’s political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca, Twitter: @reggcohn
When Patrick Brown got wind of the Liberal proposal, he issued a pre-emptive statement accusing the government of trying to ‘reopen debates about divisive social issues.’