Even by the harsh standards of politics, Stephen Harper’s treatment of Helena Guergis is shabby. Although his former cabinet minister has long been cleared of the wild allegations against her, he continues to treat her as a non-person, refusing even to let her name pass his lips – unless he thinks her name is “This Individual.” (“There was a range of political problems around This Individual,” he said on Friday. “There is simply no desire to see the return of This Individual to caucus.”)
The Prime Minister’s Office acted properly last year in passing allegations about Ms. Guergis to the RCMP. (The allegations were revealed this week to have included fraud, extortion and involvement in prostitution.) Mr. Harper behaved appropriately in suspending Ms. Guergis from cabinet and caucus while the Mounties inquired into the allegations. But when she was exonerated, he should have taken her back.
Mr. Harper’s ostracizing of Ms. Guergis reflects poorly on his respect for the Conservative riding association that nominated her and for the electorate that gave her a seat.
Allegations, even when baseless, have the power to destroy. “The damage is real, it is deep and it is permanent,” Ms. Guergis told a news conference. However trite it may seem to say so, the people elected to Ottawa are in fact people, and should be treated with dignity.
And what were those problems based on? While Ms. Guergis showed poor judgment in an emotional outburst at an airport, was her greatest fault being married to the former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, who had been charged with cocaine possession? And if so, would expulsion and ostracism have awaited a male cabinet member or MP if his spouse had been the subject of controversy?
If Mr. Harper wishes to present a squeaky-clean image for his party – well, ever since Maxime Bernier’s shenanigans (leaving classified documents at his lover’s home, for which he was not expelled from caucus), that’s a tough sell. And there’s the matter of Bruce Carson, the repeat convicted fraudster who worked in his inner circle. Squeaky-clean won’t wash.
If Ms. Guergis wins in her old Ontario riding (she is running as an independent), and Mr. Harper finds himself needing a single vote to preserve another minority government, This Individual may become Helena Guergis again.
