In the House of Commons this past week, Babel MP Patrick Brown stood up to vote. As we hear very little of what Mr. Brown does in Ottawa, his vote was noted. He was one of more than half the Conservative caucus who voted in favour of the Commons studying if a fetus is a human being before the moment of birth. This was believed by all sides to be an effort to reopen the abortion debate.
But Babel voters are well aware of Mr. Brown’s seeming lack of interest in anything important in Ottawa. They expect that, as usual, someone has told him how to vote on this motion. It could be as simple as advice from Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan, whose riding of York Simcoe abuts the Barrie riding. Mind you, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would never have allowed Van Loan to order all Conservative MPs to vote for the motion. Maybe the odd one who needs extra help would be allowed.
There is also the possibility of his vote being encouraged by Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney. Kenney is now considered the leading social conservative in the Conservative caucus and that might explain the low state of affairs for that type of conservative these days. Kenney has so few leadership qualities, it is not likely he could lead a group of drunks to the local bar.
Some people might think it was Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose who told Brown how to vote. This is unlikely though as she kept her voting intentions close to the vest, so to speak. With womens’ groups now screaming for her head, Ambrose was not about to broadcast her intentions.
Somebody told the media in Babel a couple weeks ago that Brown would like some help in deciding how to vote on this motion. Despite being raised as a Catholic, Brown probably did not have a cozy chat with the parish priest on the issue. Many of his constituents would have told him to vote ‘no’ on the issue if only he had really asked.
But Brown finally stood up on an issue with a vote that is likely to make most women mad at him. Many of these women have voted for Brown in the past because they wanted the smooth Stephen Harper as Prime Minister. It seems when you vote that way, you do not always get an MP that you would want to take home to meet the family.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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