Leadership Quote by Stephen Harper

A politician doesn’t “not have a position” on abortion; he has a positioning strategy. Stephen Harper’s line is a masterclass in tactical restraint, built to sound principled while keeping the explosive details offstage. The key phrase is “very clear,” a pre-emptive claim to transparency that actually performs the opposite: it shuts down follow-up by implying the debate has already been settled. Clarity becomes a shield.

The pivot from “I” to “the party” is the real maneuver. Harper frames the issue as an institutional question of party policy rather than a moral or legislative question of governance. That matters in a Canadian context where abortion is less about a single landmark statute than about the political volatility of reopening the file. By insisting the party shouldn’t take a position, he signals moderation to swing voters and urban centrists, while leaving enough interpretive room for socially conservative supporters to believe the door isn’t locked, just politely closed for now.

Subtextually, it’s a coalition-management statement. Leaders of broad conservative parties often have to keep two audiences in the same room: those who want the issue sidelined and those who want it re-litigated. “Should” does heavy lifting here. It’s not “will not,” not “cannot,” but a soft normative claim that suggests discretion rather than prohibition.

The intent is to depoliticize without disowning. It’s an attempt to turn abortion from a defining wedge into an administrative non-topic, while still keeping leadership authority intact: if the party has no position, the leader controls when and how the conversation returns.