Helena Guergis, the minister of state for the status of women, responds during Question Period on March 31, 2010.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The logic behind the Conservative central office's decision to de-list Helena Guergis as the party's candidate for the Simcoe-Grey riding is understandable. The decision is not without risks, however. It tramples on the rights of the party grassroots, and threatens to make out Ms. Guergis, and not the government that has been damaged by her antics, to be the victim.
Ms. Guergis has embarrassed her government and colleagues. She faces unspecified allegations, which the Prime Minister felt compelled to turn over to the RCMP, has been caught up in the controversy involving the business activities of her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer, and has thrown a well publicized tantrum at an airport. The Conservative Party cannot take comfort from any of this - thus the impetus to turn the page on Ms. Guergis.
However, Ms. Guergis has already paid a serious price for her transgressions, real and perceived. She has had to resign from cabinet, and has been thrown out of caucus, pending results of the police investigation. These are severe punishments, meted out in an atmosphere of unknowing, of speculation. The resulting media coverage has been both exhaustive and damaging. Irrespective of whether Ms. Guergis is allowed to stand in the next election, her political career is in tatters.
There is no presumption of innocence in politics. Ms. Guergis is guilty of becoming a political liability and, for the party apparatus, that is enough. But it may not be enough for Conservative supporters, or voters more generally.
Canadians have a great stake in the democratic process and, what is most fundamental for political parties, that stake involves the decision, among supporters, about whom they want to represent their constituency in Parliament. That decision may sometimes be at odds with the wishes of party leaders, but it remains in the end their decision. It is deeply troubling, then, that the Conservative Party's actions on Thursday appear to have been, as Ms. Guergis puts it, in "direct retaliation" to a letter in favour of her candidacy that was recently sent by the Conservative riding association in Simcoe-Grey.
Canadians have a sense of fair play. Barring her candidacy before she has been given any chance to defend herself, indeed before even the grounds for her expulsion have been explained to the public, can only engender sympathy for Ms. Guergis. The Conservative Party would have been well advised to allow the investigation to run its course, and barring any criminal charge or serious ethical breach, to leave her fate in the hands of the Conservative supporters, and ultimately the voters, of Simcoe-Grey.