Headlines like “Harper and family meet with Pope” or “Harper, Pope discuss economy, values” have prompted the (Catholic) girl who answers the phones here to ask: “Did he also apologize to the Pope for putting the communion wafer in his pocket at Romeo LeBlanc’s funeral?”

The answer is almost certainly not. Mr. Harper has already slammed the “communion story”Â  as a “low moment in journalism.”Â  (Though looking at the “Raw Video – Harper Hides the Body of Christ” on You Tube, it is at least hard to see the wafer actually going into his mouth.)

Of course Prime Minister Harper himself is something of a master of low moments in journalism. Look no further than the almost coterminous headline “PM blasts Michael Ignatieff –  then admits mistake” (Where Mr. Harper rather venomously attacked the leader of the official opposition, for saying allegedly un-Canadian things about foreign policy he did not actually say.)

Anyway, it’s no doubt true that none of this counts as any great crime. Years ago now, my brother used to put parts of his dinner that he did not like in his pocket too. On the other hand Bob Rae reacted quickly to the Ignatieff incident with: “I think all Canadians have to recognize that we have the smallest man on the world stage that it’s possible to imagine, and that’s Stephen Harper.”Â  Whatever its impact on the next election, “smallest man on the world stage” does sound like the kind of thing that might make its way into a history book.