Scandal, Canadian-style
So the Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has been forced to resign under a cloud of scandal. And the Prime Minister continues to act like the “speak no evil” monkey about the situation. This is the same leader who has put significant energy into controlling the country’s media and its access to revelations about everything governmental on Parliament Hill.
Bernier gets a lot of attention because of his relative youth and his good looks. Hey, it’s equal time for men, after so many women in politics have attracted reams of ink over what they wear and how they do their hair. Bernier is a divorced father of two at the age of 45. He may be camera-friendly, but he’s also a bit of a loose cannon who has made a series of rather serious political gaffes, the latest being a promise to send a planeful of supplies to Myanmar - a plane that wasn’t available. That sent the Hill into a scramble to find a substitute jet to make good on his promise.
Now Bernier’s ex-girlfriend is revealing more than she showed on the day of his swearing-in, when he, apparently, chose her dress. She says he left classified documents behind and she didn’t turn them in for five weeks. (Was she a slow reader?) She claims her bed was bugged and her life has been ruined.
What a mess! The opposition wants an inquiry. The PM has already received Bernier’s resignation. This is getting loads of coverage overseas and it remains to be seen if it will have a negative impact on our image. Will the Prime Minister continue to claim that nothing is wrong, that the personal lives of his ministers is none of his business, that people should just move along and carry on as normal? He can say whatever he wants, but that doesn’t make it so.