When Luxembourg voted to legalize euthanasia, the Grand Duke Henri refused to sign it into law.

So their parliament promptly voted to give him a purely ceremonial role. Fine.

I still say it is a testimony to personal courage that a man would risk his position and power to oppose a bad law.

This is what I look for, by the way, in Canadian leaders. A glimmer of hope that somewhere they have personal convictions that they are willing to stand on. It’s rare (see how Morgentaler sailed through the Order of Canada process with most of our elite) but it does still exist, as the Grand Duke Henri shows.

I’ll also add this: The beauty of religious types is that they don’t seek earthly power–making them much more free to conduct themselves with integrity. I believe that as faith increases, so does freedom, and fear decreases, too. This counter-cultural perspective rarely hits the media, but I see it in faithful people all around me.

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Brigitte’s head is spinning: Wow, is that what “convictions” look like? One rarely sees any…