A discussion between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a People’s Party of Canada supporter over abortion is gaining lots of attention online.
Trudeau visited the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus on Wednesday to speak with students and faculty. A two-minute video was shared on Reddit by NoahFromCanada and was viewed more than 451,000 times on Twitter as of Thursday afternoon.
Many people commended the prime minister for engaging and being "non-defensive."
The video shows, what appears to be a younger male, filming his conversation with Trudeau. The discussion starts with the Canadian Dental Care Plan, which will allow low-income families to send their children to the dentist.
“Would you support that? Trudeau questions the man.
“I’m not fully into it,” he responds.
“You don’t think low-income families should have access to dental care?” Trudeau questions.
“Ugh, I think they should,” he says.
Trudeau informs the man that the Conservative Party voted against the dental plan and “the party you support doesn’t support it.” The man fires back that he is more PPC (People's Party of Canada).
“More PPC? OK. So why is that?” replies Trudeau. "Why are you PPC?”
“I’m mostly Christian. I’m against the vaccine mandate,” he replies.
Trudeau quickly responds “Mostly Christian? So you don’t think we should be supporting Muslims?”
“I think we should support everyone,” replies the man.
Trudeau repeats to him "You should support everyone.” The conversation then takes a turn to abortion with the man saying the Liberals' support of abortion is “against Christianity.”
“OK. OK. Do you think that women should have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies?” Trudeau asks.
“Personally, no,” says the man.
Trudeau asks him again: “You think you should be able to choose what happens to a woman’s body?”
“I think if they’re sleeping around they shouldn’t be allowed to abort the baby, personally. I am pro-choice,” he says.
“Wow, wow,” responds Trudeau with a smirk. “You just said you were pro-choice."
“No, No. I am …what’s it called... pro-life,” he says.
A person who was in the crowd responded with the word "spicy" while observing the discussion.
The prime minister responds: “You don’t think women should be able to make choices with what they do with their bodies?"
"With abortion? No," he says.
"Why not?" says Trudeau.
"Because it was their choice to sleep around," he responds.
Only once Trudeau mentions a woman being raped does the man say, “That’s where it get complicated.”
“No, no it doesn’t get complicated. It’s either yes or no. It’s an all too common example,” says Trudeau. “Women get raped all the time and it's something we have to take seriously. Let's talk about that specific example: should a woman who was raped be able to get an abortion?”
The man responds “Ugh… I’m split on it, 50/50” in regards to if sexual assault victims should be allowed to have an abortion.
Calmly, Trudeau says, “No, no. You are not in favour of saying, ‘Yes, a woman who was raped should be able to choose to not bear that child.'”
“Ugh. I honestly don’t know,” the man says.
Trudeau had the last word, concluding the man needs to do "a little more thinking" and “a little more praying on it as well.” Before he walked away, the prime minister patted the man on the shoulder.
The meeting at the campus was to tour the University’s Stanley Pauley Engineering Building to discuss tax credits proposed by his government’s budget.
PPC Supporter tries to argue with Trudeau at UofM campus this morning.
by u/NoahFromCanada in Winnipeg
