Clarke Anthony (Tony) Abbott (born November 24, 1966) is a Canadian politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
[1] He came west to serve as Senior Pastor of the Faith Evangelical Covenant Church in Breton, Alberta, a position that he held from 1989 until 2000.
[6] In 2001, Abbott introduced the Citizens' Initiative Act, a private member's bill that would have allowed any Albertan 18 years or older to sponsor a draft law by obtaining signatures from a number of eligible voters equal to 10% of the votes cast in the most recent provincial election, such signatories being required to include voters representing at least 10% of the votes cast in the election in at least two thirds of the province's ridings.
[14] Abbott's second 2003 bill, the Livestock Industry Diversification Amendment Act (which was also government-sponsored), dealt with domestic cervids that escape into the wild, and passed the legislature.
[19] Abbott and other proponents of the bill, including Progressive Conservatives Richard Marz, Victor Doerksen, David Rodney, and Cindy Ady, cited the example of plastic surgery (including breast augmentation, liposuction, and rhinoplasty) as examples of the treatments the bill was targeted at.
[19] Opponents, such as Liberals Bruce Miller, Weslyn Mather, and Harry Chase, New Democrat David Eggen, and Progressive Conservative Thomas Lukaszuk suggested that minors were unlikely to be able to afford such procedures without parental involvement anyway, and that the bill's true target was abortion.
[19] The bill was ultimately postponed for six months (with Abbott's support - in response to the comments of Progressive Conservative Lyle Oberg, a medical doctor, Abbott agreed that the breadth of medical treatments covered under the bill required further study), effectively killing it, since the legislature was not in session six months later.
[21] The Mental Health Amendment Act, which he had planned to introduce as a private member's bill before it gained support from previous health minister Iris Evans, to reduce the requirement for involuntary institutionalization of the mentally ill from "in a condition presenting or likely to present a danger to self or others," which courts had interpreted as requiring the presence of imminent danger, to "likely to cause harm to the person or others".
[22] The bill also allowed authorities to force patients to adhere to physician-mandated treatment plans even once they were no longer hospitalized.
[25] He was criticized for these comments by his Liberal colleague Rick Miller, who later alleged that Abbott confronted him physically in the corridor behind the legislative chamber following his speech.
[6] However, he said that he wouldn't run against local member of the House of Commons of Canada Rob Merrifield until the latter was ready to retire, calling the prospect of challenging him in a nomination fight "unethical".