I have to admit, I chuckled when I read that the Liberals sent a letter to the Prime Minister today inquiring why the former Minister for the Status of Women was unceremoniously dumped from the Conservative caucus. After all, this was the party calling for Stephen Harper to send her packing after an airport worker didn’t take too kindly to her description of Charlottetown’s airport as a “hellhole”.
It was only in March that Wayne Easter did his best impression of “whack-a-mole” during Question Period, rising every day to alternately berate Ms.Guergis or Mr.Blackburn, before the House of Commons got on to the more serious business of smearing the Canadian mission with complicity in war crimes.
The Liberals acknowledge their prior calls to send Helena Guergis packing on numerous occasions. But suddenly the party has become extremely concerned about her dismissal, and demand to know what “serious” and “credible” evidence the government possesses that led to her untimely meeting with the bottom of a bus.
Last week the embattled Member for Simcoe-Grey appeared on the CBC. This week the Liberal Party is going to bat for her? I’m afraid that, barring the Garth Turner two-step across the Commons, her career is headed the way of the Kyoto Protocol.
Do not for a moment think that the Liberal Party feels any genuine sympathy for Helena Guergis. Much like Afghan detainees, this is about the “integrity of the government.” Well, that, and clinging to something they hope will make the government look bad.
It’s true that the Liberals aren’t the only ones in the dark about why Helena Guergis was booted from caucus. While there are plenty of bad optics about the entire case, nothing substantial has surfaced to indicate any serious wrong-doing on her part. Other than the fact that he may have used her office and parliamentary email account, there is nothing linking her to husband Rahim Jaffer’s activities.
The “credible allegations” from a third party source that led to Ms.Guergis’s removal were thought to have come from private investigator Derrick Snowdy, but he cleared her entirely in testimony before a House of Commons committee. Indeed, far from embarrassing Ms.Guergis, the shocker of the hearing occurred when Mr.Snowdy said that Liberal Party President Alfred Apps “drove the getaway car” for Toronto businessman Nazim Gillani by representing him as a lawyer in disputes over questionable business transactions.
The Liberal letter makes reference to statements made by Conservative MP Shelly Glover on CTV yesterday, in which she insisted there will be more information forthcoming soon.
Whatever the situation may be, rest assured that the Liberal Party is on the case to ensure that when the Conservatives remove Cabinet members, it is for a reason that meets with the approval of the Official Opposition.
The Liberal Party of Canada, desperately grasping at straws since 2006!
What a bunch of hypocrites, the LPC and The Toronto Star, both howling for Guergis’s head, and now questioning the PM why he took her head!
Maybe Libs are sucking up to Helena so as she won’t sue Iffy for those ‘liar’ and ‘organized crime’ remarks he made about her, outside of immunity.
So what will the Liberal attack be if the RCMP do find 3 offshore accounts in Belize, in Helena and Jaffers name?
I would rather see the evidence Easter said he received that started this whole thing. Does it even exist, did he have a dream, did he make it all up.
Maybe the liberals simply think it is relevant that Harper claimed she did something that warranted a criminal investigation, and that has turned out not to be true.
I understand that your Harperites here have no problem with the fact he is a liar, but it could just be that other people do not share that particular view.
Gayle:
Talk about hypocrisy though, the Liberals spent months calling on Harper to give her the boot because she threw a hissy fit at an airport.
Then it becomes known that her husband was apparently violating HoC rules regarding use of email addresses, perhaps lobbying illegally, using drugs, involved with shady business characters, that she and him went on official government trips together and he perhaps lobbied illegally during those trips, etc…
Since the Harper government can’t initiate criminal or ethical investigations, they passed on the information to the RCMP and the ethics commissioner and took action to limit the political damage that might result. Harper felt that it warranted a criminal investigation, the RCMP apparently disagree.
Most of it may be guilt by association (ie her husband uses cocaine) but all of it raises reasonable questions about her own involvement in his activities. None of which could be clear without a full investigation. But a full investigation would be politically damaging to the CPC if she remained in caucus.
It isn’t the first time a cabinet minister (Liberal or Conservative) has been sacked or forced out of caucus pending resolution of some scandal.
Beyond which, maybe I’m just cynical, but just because the RCMP doesn’t press charges against someone doesn’t mean that a crime hasn’t been committed. One of my friends recently (last year) reported that she was raped to the RCMP and gave her assailant’s name, address and position but last I heard, no criminal charges were being pressed since there was insufficient evidence. Meanwhile, his employer launched their own investigation and determined that the accusation was likely enough to justify his dismissal and terminated his employment.
All of which is to say that the standards that are applied by the RCMP are not the same as those applied by employers and parties like the CPC. The CPC may have information that the RCMP cannot use to make decisions (ie hearsay or conversations taped without proper consent). That information may be politically damaging to the CPC so they don’t want to release it except to the RCMP but is insufficient on its own to press charges or maybe even launch an investigation.
Or it could be that Guergis just pissed off the PMO enough to get sacked and he was just looking for an excuse.
Aside from your partisan bashing at the Liberals, does it not trouble you what happened to Helena Guergis? Harper won’t say why he dumped her and unleashed the hounds to destroy her.
Why did Harper do this? Do you think it is fair? What did Helena do to deserve this?
miffed.. I believe you’ve come to the wrong place for nuanced thought.
Harper unleashed the hounds to destroy her???
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You are funny miffed – you forgot about the weeks leading up to the turfing when her tantrums, her miscarriages, her mortgage, her assistants problems were all front page news with constant demands that Harper fire her.
I would say that this was a modern day Salem witch hunt that ended just as you wanted it to.
I just find if so funny that you have all done 360′s as if you all had nothing to do with her being “destroyed”.
Gayle…how do you know? You seem to suggest that you have some inside info into what his reasons were? Spill it girl!
Do you know how utterly laughable you all are. The 360 you have all done on this whole thing is head spinning. Do you really think that no one has noticed.
Miffed just what does ‘fair’ have to do with anything. The Cabinet is formed by by the PM and he can install or remove a cabinet minister for any reason he deems important. In other words being in the Cabinet is a privilege not a right and any Minister that stains the reputation of PM Harper’s government will likely receive similar treatment.
Why don’t you provide some links that show I have done a 360 on this.
Otherwise, stop being so silly.
As for my information about what his reasons are, well he said there were serious allegations, and it has been released those allegations came from Snowdy, and we all know what Snowdy said.
Do you have a link to where the LPC demanded Guergis be kicked out of her party?
Do you have a link to where the LPC said Harper should speak to some sleazy PI in order to hear some sleazy “serious” accusations against her, and then fire her?
It is one thing to say she is incompetent – that was obvious – but to fire her for that would reflect on Harper. So, he trumped up some criminal allegations instead, smearing her in the media in the process.
Except he did not fire her for any of the reasons you cite. He came out and told Canadians he fired her due to some serious allegations, and implied she was involved in criminal activity.
Sure – so fire her without implying she is a criminal.
Gayle:
The Liberals smeared her in the media repeatedly after she threw a ‘temper tantrum’ at the airport in PEI. They demanded that Harper fire her as a cabinet minister for that alone. A temper tantrum doesn’t reflect on competence at all, but can reflect on stress levels and personal problems.
They demanded Harper fire her after some of her assistants wrote letters to the editors praising her without properly attributing themselves. (Liberals have NEVER done that… right?)
http://www.liberal.ca/en/newsroom/media-releases/17836_minister-guergis-must-step-down
Ignatieff was the one who linked her to organized crime.
http://www.thespec.com/article/754232
Ignatieff accused her of being a liar and said she did not deserve the ‘confidence of Canadians’.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/31/tor-guergis-liar.html
So, you are saying that Harper should have listened to some sleazy newspapers and fired her because she had a stress-related breakdown?
I’m not sure where your angle is here Gayle, except that you seem as desperate as the Liberals to somehow smear Harper at every turn.