There isn’t a politico in Canada who didn’t see it coming: a concerted effort by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to steer the country’s gaze away from their own multiple shortcomings and instead fix upon Andrew Scheer’s personal views on abortion and same-sex marriage.And when it came, oh boy, did the Liberal war room let fly. For eight concussive days, the Conservative leader remained inexplicably silent as the rival messaging hammered home, seeding the notion that Scheer represents a hidden agenda to turn back the clock to the middle of the 20th century. Never mind that neither issue so much as nudges near the top 10 things voters are worried about in 2019. Never mind that Scheer’s long-standing policy varies not one iota from that of his predecessor, Stephen Harper. Never mind that Scheer had already offered multiple pledges not to tread anywhere near such socially divisive terrain. And when Scheer finally fought back, eight days late, in a hastily arranged news conference at Pearson Airport, it somehow came off as less than the sum of its parts. Yes, the Conservative leader pounded his talking points into the ground, over and over, promising anew that neither abortion nor same-sex marriage is anywhere on his legislative agenda. Promises matter in politics. And as we all know, promises get broken. But what was so striking about these particular vows was their sheer impersonality. The Conservative candidate made it abundantly clear he would technically oppose any attempt by his social-conservative backbench to reopen the abortion file. But his on views on the subject were a no-go zone. Ask the personal, get a talking point. So, of course, the questioned lingered: “Does he really mean it?” Perplexed that the Conservatives could so easily be taken off message for so long, speech writer and political commentator Scott Reid assessed the entire episode as “a pageantry of doubt.” It may have begun as little more ...
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