Media continue to slam Justin Trudeau over confusion about abortion edict

Shortly after Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership in 2013, a Conservative party staffer told me that her party didn't really need to launch attack ads against the new leader.

She facetiously said that all they had to do is sit back and let the inexperienced Trudeau talk.

Yes the comment was catty and probably unfair. But I would assume the staffer is feeling a little vindicated this week after the brouhaha over Trudeau's May 7th edict about all future Liberal candidates having to be pro-choice.

"For current members, we will not eject someone from the party for beliefs they have long held," Trudeau said, according to the National Post.

"But the Liberal party is a pro-choice party, and going forward, all new members and new candidates are pro-choice."

[ Related: Despite open nomination vow, Trudeau bars pro-life candidates from running as Liberals ]

According to CBC News, it appears that Trudeau spoke out of turn.

If that's the case — if Trudeau was just speaking off the cuff — that's a pretty significant gaffe that has resulted in controversy that has hung over the party, like a black cloud, for the past two weeks.

For Trudeau to wade into a politically charged debate with an inaccurate statement — when he didn't have to — was reckless.

Liberal Party strategists have since tried to soften their leader's stance. Trudeau issued a letter, on Monday, saying that candidates will be allowed to have their own views but that he expects "incoming MPs to vote in favour of a woman’s right to choose."

Other Liberals have also tried to 'clarify' Trudeau's statements while referencing the Charter.

But the damage has already been done: Two weeks after he made his initial comments, the media are still writing about it and Canadians are reading about it.

On Wednesday, CBC News penned a piece suggesting that Trudeau's abortion stance has left the Liberal Party in a state of confusion.

The National Post's Kelly McParland wrote about the "inconsistencies" in Trudeau's position and how his lack of understanding of the issue have "only further strengthened doubts about his suitability for the job [of prime minister].

And the Globe and Mail tried to quantify the political damage to Trudeau and the Liberals.

"In telling Canadians that new Liberal MPs will have to vote pro-choice from now on, he's given some the impression that he's booting people out of the party because of their deeply-held views. It's become an issue of inclusion," the Globe's Campbell Clark wrote.

"The Liberals might have little hope with Evangelical Christians, about 9 per cent of the population, 59 per cent of whom voted for the Tories in 2011, according to Angus Reid Global's Andrew Grenville. But churchgoing Catholics,about 5 per cent of the population, used to be more likely to vote Liberal, until 2006. That suggests some might one day vote Liberal again, Mr. Grenville said. They may be less likely if Mr. Trudeau's position on abortion is taken by many as tantamount to exclusion."

[ Related: Why Conservatives’ anti-Trudeau attack ads may be helping the Liberals ]

Over the past year, Trudeau has had his share of verbal gaffes: things like saying that he admires the dictatorship in China or making a joke about hockey and the Russian occupation of Crimea.

But most of those mistakes were trivial and almost amusing; in other words, those things didn't hurt his party in the polls.

With this whole saga, however,Trudeau has created his own controversy. A leader — a prime minister in waiting, if you will — should have been better prepared.

Moreover, to the glee of Tory staffers everywhere, the Liberal leader is playing into the Conservative Party narrative that he may just be 'in over his head.'

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