The Written Word: June 8, 2008
By Rafe Mair
Sunday, June 08, 2008 03:57 AM
The affaire of former Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and former 
girl friend Julie Couillard raises this question – was Prime Minister Harper entirely truthful when he said Bernier's resignation has nothing to do with his ex-mistress, who has been linked with Hells Angels members?
girl friend Julie Couillard raises this question – was Prime Minister Harper entirely truthful when he said Bernier's resignation has nothing to do with his ex-mistress, who has been linked with Hells Angels members?I’ll tell you what sprang into my mind when I heard that Mr. Bernier had been careless with government secret documents – what possible secrets could Canada have that would be of any interest to anyone? And is Mr. Harper telling us that had there been no, ahem chesty – another ahem – broad involved Mr. Bernier would have been dealt with more leniently?
The reason I try to get away with sexist words like “chesty” and “broad” is rooted in the piling on attack on Ms. Couillard by lady journalists, especially in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Indeed, the CanWest papers and the TG&M have delighted in bringing back memories of Pierre Sevigny, a Diefenbaker Defence Minister and genuine war hero and his scandalous affair with an alleged East German spy, Gerda Munsinger back in 1962. The Sun, seldom able to see a belt without hitting below it, trotted out the nearly 30 year old tale (no pun intended) of BC’s Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal's dalliance with a hooker. It leaves this observer to conclude that whatever Mr. Harper might have said, loose papers on a couch were no match for a story about loose boobs on a babe.
The consequences for the Prime Minister could be grave. Finally the Liberals, grand masters at scandalous behaviour, have something on the Tories. And because Mr. Harper made it into a serious breach of security case, Mr. Dion can adopt the most serious of miens (and he comes by them naturally) and scold the Liberals on the security matter and, since the media started the bit about the broad, throw sex (which always sells well) into the mix without the press pointing out that this isn’t fair.
Mr. Harper has, since he became PM, been able to look “Prime Ministerial” while Mr. Dion doesn’t look capable of such a presentation. That’s changed as the Prime Minister has been seen as unsure and, worse, a man without decent choices to put in cabinet. M. Bernier was one of the Conservative’s 10 Quebec ministers and Mr. Harper’s lack of an obvious Quebec replacement is bound to help the hitherto helpless M. Dion to move the Liberals back into serious contention in La Belle Province, especially since the Bloc Quebecois are at best in a state of disarray...
As former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said, in politics, “six weeks is an eternity”.
Perhaps Mr. Harper has demonstrated that Mr. Wilson was wrong – make that six hours!
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