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Danielle Smith clarifies the the non-abortion issue Saturday night...

“Can’t and won’t. I’ve made my position clear that as long as I’m leader of this party, we won’t be legislating on this issue,” Smith said at a Calgary seniors lodge.

“We have had no direction from our members that they want to open this issue, we have never had any policy on this issue. I would not legislate in this area, and it’s not an issue Albertans are talking about.”

“I’ve spoken with a legal scholar in the past couple of days, and he indicated it would likely be offside with section 7 of the Charter. This is the reason why it has to go to a judge. Because we can’t be having public referenda on things that can’t be instituted.”

Section 7 deals with a person’s right to “life, liberty and the security of the person and the right not be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

“This is what happens in politics when you have a new conservative party, a new threat to a governing party, is that there are issues that are going to come up to try to scare people into thinking you shouldn’t vote for them because they are going to upend the legislation that currently exists,” she said.

“We have seen this time and time again, whether it was the Reform party or the Canadian Alliance or even Stephen Harper’s Conservatives — (Liberal leaders) Paul Martin, Jean Chretien always trotted out these divisive, contentious moral issues to try to scare people.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/al...249/story.html