The MP versus the journalist

Pity poor Rob Merrifield, Conservative MP for Yellowhead in Alberta. A few unguarded comments in an interview with a Globe and Mail reporter at the beginning of the month sparked a controversy that could cost him his position as health critic and a possible cabinet post in a new Conservative government. Merrifield is a Christian and pro-life. What was his offence? Merely suggesting that he favoured counselling for women seeking abortions in an interview he thought was primarily about reproductive technology.

Incidentally, one of Merrifield's legislative assistants is a man named Eric Hogeterp, a 1993 graduate in political science from Redeemer University College and thus -- you guessed it -- another of my beloved protégés.