Revolutionary Moderation

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The Conservatives managed another gaffe today, and this one feels easy to score. A four-pointer, in fact.

Mr. Merrifield [Health critic, and Conservative candidate for Yellowhead] said that women considering terminating their pregnancies should have third-party, independent counselling prior to undergoing the procedures, saying it would be "valuable" to women who may only be seeing one side of the issue. He did not specify whether counselling should be done by a doctor.

Harper needs to keep a lid on these people. I've said it before - the one thing that will have the Conservative campaign doing a mean impression of the Titanic is any appearance of being the old Reform Party. I'm not convinced Merrifield's comments are as over-the-top as all that, but any smell of legislation on abortion opens the door to criticism that however moderate Harper appears to be, he's surrounded by the same members of the social right that made Reform and Alliance unelectable.



Spencer, Reid, Merrifield - how many more of these can Harper afford?



Merrifield, health critic talking on a health issue: PROM=2. Talking on an issue that the Conservatives can't stay safely far enough away from: SIG=2. Total, four points of bad news for the Mobius Strippers.