Brian Lilley's blog
Seal meat on the menu. Gotta get me some flipper pie.
She smiled when I stopped her to ask the question, "Have you tried seal meat before?"
It was the question of the day for me Tuesday afternoon in the lead up to today's event at the Parliamentary Restaurant where seal meat will be on the menu. So there was Megan Leslie, the New Democrat MP from Halifax giving me a primer on eating seal meat, "it's gamey."
Now to stereotype, Ms. Leslie looks like the type of young woman who, were she from Toronto, would eschew any meat and have answered my question with an explanation on the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Thankfully Ms. Leslie is no stereotype. So, yes, she tried seal on a trip to the Magdalen Islands and found it better than she expected, "I thought it would be fattier, you know when you think of marbled beef. But the fat is on the outside; you know the blubber layer to keep them warm. So I thought it would be fatty but it was quite lean. But it was gamey, gamey is the word I would use."
Just a few steps away, still in the foyer of the House of Commons I stop Liberal MP Scott Simms from Newfoundland who becomes wistful as I ask him about the taste of seal meat, "They tell me, there is nothing better than flipper pie and a glass of Chianti."
Simms agrees with Leslie that the taste of seal is gamey and he adds that seal is an acquired taste, "but one worth acquiring." So what would I be acquiring if I try seal meat in the Parliamentary Restaurant? Is this like chicken, beef, fish? A good question says Simms, "More like rabbit," he says. "A dark meat, it's very rich, very filling."
Now, I stopped and spoke with east coast MPs because, those are the people that would have tried this meat. Not everyone is a fan though. Gail Shea, the Fisheries Minister may defend the seal hunt but in no way does she sound like she enjoys eating seal meat, "It depends on how it's processed. There is a type of seal meat that is made into a pepperoni. If you ate the pepperoni, I don't think you could taste the difference if it were seal meat or another type of meat." Okay, so minister, do you like seal meat? "I like pepperoni," says Shea.
That's okay though, you don't need to like eating seal, that's not the point of this exercise MPs and Senators are taking part in today. No, today is about Canadian politicians thumbing their noses at Europeans and animal activists. The European Union has put in a ban on Canadian seal products. Sure they may have bought them for hundreds of years but now, they think it is mean and cruel and they are trying to force Canada to stop.
The EU is backed in this push by animal rights activists including celebrities and radical groups like PETA who would prefer that no animal were ever killed again and that everyone turn to a vegetarian diet.
A full discussion of the merits, or demerits, of the seal hunt will have to wait for another day, I'll only say the cute little white coat seal pups you see in posters are not hunted, it's not allowed. Beyond that the arguments will have to wait, I have to get in line at the restaurant to see what all this fuss is about, I expect a long wait.
Cancel NAFTA? American lawmakers look to rip up trade deal
In an election year, American politicians look to stay in power by closing the border.
Harper's Olympic bounce becomes Ignatieff's hangover
Toronto's Archbishop Collins warns Ignatieff and Harper on abortion and foreign aid
One of Canada's top Catholic clerics has fired a shot across the bow of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and in the process sent a warning to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins issued a statement late Thursday saying it was "astonishing" that Ignatieff was advocating for contraception and abortion to become part of Harper's G8 proposal to reduce maternal and child mortality in the developing world.
"When there are so many obvious practical steps that can be taken to promote maternal and child health throughout the world, it is sad to see Mr. Ignatieff introduce into the discussion this negative proposal, which in no way serves to improve the health of mothers or children, but which rather imperils the most vulnerable among us."
Archbishop Collins, who represents 1.7 million Catholics across an area that covers much of the GTA and the area north of Toronto up to Georgian Bay, says the focus of any such proposal to improve the lives of women and children should focus on clean water, improved nutrition and vaccines, not abortion.
The statement is unusual in that it singles out a specific politician for a specific proposal but comments on policy by Canada's Catholic bishops is not unusual in and of itself. In the last year, the bishops have spoken out on euthanasia, human trafficking and several international issues from Israel to Sri Lanka. And while this statement seems to focus on Ignatieff, in saying, "We all await with keen interest the tangible measures that the Prime Minister will propose," Collins has put Harper on notice as well.
Ignatieff's office offered no immediate comment in response but earlier in the day the Liberal Leader had been asked about his abortion commitment as it relates to several pro-life members of the Liberal caucus. "I'm in a party that has deep respect for the privately held views of my colleagues and friends, including my friend Paul," said Ignatieff. "I understand that this is a very serious issue. I respect liberty and freedom of conscience, especially freedom of religious conscience."
The argument from Ignatieff though is that freedom of conscience is not the issue. "The issue is," says Ignatieff, "will Canada continue with its 25 year-old policy of supporting full access to the full gamut of reproductive health services that women need in order to have safe pregnancies, safe terminations, and healthy kids?"
One of the interesting things to note over the past few days of Ignatieff advocating abortion as a means to reducing maternal and child mortality is that he has been unable to say the word abortion in public. In statements and in response to questions from the CBC, Sun Media, the Toronto Star and myself, Ignatieff has used several euphemisms but not the abortion word. Reporters have noticed, he can't say it. Instead he says safe terminations, full gamut of reproductive health services and at least until Thursday he had been calling abortion part of a range of contraceptive options.
There is clearly politics at play in Ignatieff's decision to raise this issue and in his words "lay down a marker" for the Harper government. The Liberals hope to resurrect the "hidden agenda" tactic with the Conservatives as a way to make voters uneasy with Stephen Harper's government. They also hope to squeeze the Conservatives into accepting what maternal health care means on Liberal terms. There are many in the Conservative caucus, and I would include Stephen Harper among them, who are afraid of being called social conservatives. They avoid all issues that might give the opposition an opportunity to label them. If enough of these Conservatives get nervous, the PMO will quietly give the Liberals, and the mandarins at CIDA what they want, abortion as part of the maternal health package.
There is a risk for the Conservatives here politically speaking. Although they may feel that they can ignore their social conservative base, that these voters have nowhere to go, the reality is, these voters, campaign workers and volunteers could just stay home in the next election. Anecdotally, I can tell you of many former Liberal volunteers that did just that and avoided the party they once gave so much to, in the first elections after the sponsorship scandal broke. Social conservatives may be among the weakest sub-sections within Harper's Conservative party but without them, it's unlikely he would win any election.
The Prime Minister though could satisfy his base and not alienate middle of the road Canadians by simply saying no to Ignatieff. When Harper announced in Davos that something must be done for the 500,000 women that die in childbirth each year and the 9 million children that die before their fifth birthday, I doubt that anyone outside of abortion lobby groups said, "I know the solution, abortion." By saying that his plan will focus on primary health care, clean water, food and vaccines, Harper could gain widespread public support. The question is, will he be brave enough to do it?
