Unfortunately, the assorted findamentalist Christian/social conservative anti-abortion elements over here have been cranking up the rhetoric in the past year or so, along with drumming up support to try and defeat the same-sex marriage legislation that the current government has introduced. And they have been receiving funding from religious intrest groups in the U.S. to keep the battle going.

The current minority government has been rocked by a serious scandal, and there's a strong likelihood that there will be a vote of confidence soon, which they will lose unless something happens in their favour soon.

The main opposition party, the Conservatives (who are not the old Tories but a new party formed from the right wing of the old Tory party and the ultra-right wing Reform party), are very socially conservative, and while their leader has said that he has no plans at the moment to try and introduce legislation limiting access to abortion, there is a strong element in his party that want him to do exactly that, along with defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman, bringing back the death penalty, and a number of other policies that would likely create a huge amount of controversy.

It's going to be a very interesting few years for progressives in Canada, I fear.