After some confusion in the Conservative ranks, Andrew Scheer’s Quebec lieutenant, Alain Rayes, is apologising for misleading candidates in the province when he insisted to them that the party considered abortion a settled matter and that they wouldn’t allow any attempt to change the laws. Not so – Scheer’s actual pledge is that the government – meaning Cabinet – would not bring forward any bills, but the backbenches are free to do so, which is why anti-abortion groups have been busy trying to get their supporters nominated as candidates. And now the party and Rayes are saying that he just misheard Scheer’s pledge, which could put some of those Quebec candidates that Rayes recruited in a sticky position because some of them are saying that they decided to run for the Conservatives because they were assured that they weren’t going to touch abortion. Oops.

And this dichotomy of a hypothetical Conservative Cabinet pledges versus its backbenchers is one of those cute ways that Scheer can try to mollify the Canadian public while at the same time assuring his social conservative base that yes, he’s still the party for them, and he’s going to ensure that they have space to put forward legislation. From there, depending on whether or not they have a majority government and if so, how large it is, it comes down to counting votes to see if these kinds of bills have a chance of making it – and the current move in anti-abortion circles is to use backdoor attempts at criminalization through means like trying to create jurisprudence by means of laws that give a foetus personhood status through bills that treat them as such when a pregnant woman is murdered, for example, which they then plan to slowly extend to abortion services. It’s a long-term plan, but one that begins with getting enough anti-abortion candidates nominated and elected, so even though Scheer says his Cabinet won’t introduce these bills, as private members’ bills, they are unlikely to be whipped, and that leaves him to free his caucus to “vote their conscience.”

Of course, if he’s planning to be like Stephen Harper and assert pressure to ensure that these kinds of bills don’t make it through, then his courting of the anti-abortion community is hollow, and he’s lying to them, which will also be something that his base will have to contend with. But the clarification that only a hypothetical Cabinet wouldn’t introduce any anti-abortion measures is too cute by half, and relies on the fact that not enough people appreciate the difference between Cabinet and the backbenches, and why that distinction matters.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau kept a lower profile at the G7 summit, but did raise the Hong Kong protests and the need for a united front in bilateral talks.
• G7 leaders pledged $20 million US to help fight the fires in the Amazon. Canada pledged an additional $15 million and use of our water bombers.
• Also at the G7, Emmanuel Macron’s surprise tactic of inviting Iran’s foreign minister seemed to have worked in toning down Trump’s rhetoric.
• Catherine McKenna says any future increases in the carbon price post-2022 will need to negotiated with provinces, while Pierre Poilievre cries “hidden agenda.”
• The federal government is negotiating a framework for First Nations to have control over cannabis retail and revenue-sharing in their territories.
• Following complaints that they were tailoring their shipyard search to Davie, Public Services and Procurement “corrected” an “inconsistency” on the bid requirements.
• Government spending announcements continue to roll out (because fixed election dates totally don’t incentivise governments to do this kind of thing. Really!)
• The aerospace sector in Quebec put out a report to warn of a coming labour crunch, and wants the government to come up with a long-term vision for the sector.
• The Los Angeles Times has a profile of Supreme Court of Canada Justice Abella.
• The Liberals have unveiled their own campaign slogan, which is “Choose Forward,” while both Liberals and Conservatives have put out new ads.
• The memorial for Deepak Obhrai was held in Calgary yesterday, and attended by Andrew Scheer and Stephen Harper.
• Word is that Obhrai’s son is planning to run for the nomination to replace him, but it’s also a field of about ten candidates.
• Now that the Bernier “stop mass immigration” billboards are down, the group behind them are also disavowing them, claiming they were just the messenger.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column tracks the formal start of the election campaign, and when the writs will actually be drawn up.
• Journalism professor Paul Adams has a takedown about how media is failing in how it reports about polls. (But they’re like crack, so they keep doing it anyway).
• Susan Delacourt evaluates the revealed political slogans, and gets some critical commentary on the imported Trumpian influence in each of them.
• Andrew Coyne considers Jagmeet Singh’s declaration that he won’t work with the Conservatives to be pre-election jockeying for strategic voters.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a fun little examination of Donald Trump’s claims about his height and weight, when compared to Trudeau at the G7 “family photo.”

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