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HELENA GUERGIS’S OFFICIAL FANCLUB
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by
Willy Noiles
April 8 - 14, 2010 |
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Being a cabinet minister can be politically bruising — especially if you’re given to throwing temper tantrums in airports — so having good staff is important. Simcoe–Grey MP Helena Guergis, minister of state for the status of women, is luckier than most: her staff loves her so much they spend their free time writing letters to the editors of the newspapers in her riding, extolling her virtues without identifying themselves.
Staff like this are hard to come by. How many other bosses are lucky enough to have employees write glowing letters about them to newspapers? For instance, after news leaked of Guergis’ tantrum at the Charlottetown airport on February 19, when she berated airport staff, threw her boots at a security official and told another airport staffer, “I’m going to be stuck in this hellhole because of you,” a letter arrived at the Collingwood Connection. “Certainly the progress of our local athletes competing for the first time on Canadian soil in the Olympics, international relief efforts and the local municipal election campaigns is more important than whether or not our MP Helena Guergis had a tantrum at a PEI airport or not,” a “Jessica Morgan” wrote. “When the Liberal MP handed this secret story to the national press, did anyone scrutinize the integrity, significance and prominence of this story? Isn’t that the media’s job? I have faith it would have been duly scrutinized if the story were handed over from a Conservative MP. Honestly this kind of news reporting is an absolute waste of ink.”
Turns out “Jessica Morgan” is actually Jessica Craven, who works in Guergis’ Collingwood constituency office. “Morgan” is the last name of her common–law husband. As for her complaint that the media wasn’t doing its job in simply reporting what Liberal MP Wayne Easter told them, she obviously missed The Globe and Mail interview with one of the airport security officials involved. Seems Easter’s admittedly second–hand version was tame compared to what actually happened. Considering the government announced they are raising airport security fees to pay for new full–body scanners and other increased security measures at the same time a minister of the Crown is abusing airport security, the story was definitely newsworthy. One can almost surmise that Craven doesn’t even see the double standard that was at play here. Guergis arrived at the airport only 10 minutes before the plane was due to take off and had what staff would later tell the Globe was among the worst meltdowns they’d ever seen, yet the plane and its 40 passengers waited for her. If any of Guergis’ constituents had pulled that kind of stunt, not only would they never have been allowed to board the plane, they would have likely been arrested.
And Craven wasn’t alone in penning letters to the editor. Her mother, Dawn Richards, wrote at least one letter praising Guergis as a “strong role model for our daughters,” again without disclosing her connection to the minister’s assistant. Another constituency assistant, Valerie Knight, wrote several letters defending the minister without identifying she worked for said minister. Paul Shaw encouraged readers “to move on from Guergis’ tantrum” without disclosing that he had served as her riding association president and was the last Reform Party candidate in the riding. Bonnie Ainsworth also defended the minister in a letter, but forgot to note that she worked as an assistant to Conservative MP Patrick Brown, who represents a neighbouring riding. “And these are only the instances that we know about—for now,” Easter quipped last week.
Guergis’ fan club’s letter–writing campaign was uncovered by the Collingwood Enterprise–Bulletin’s managing editor, Ian Adams, last week. The paper had published three letters and had received a fourth the weekend of March 27–28. “Some of us in the local media have had our suspicions over the last couple of months,” Adams told Canwest News. When he first called Craven at the constituency office to verify his haunch, she slammed the phone down. She later e–mailed and stopped by the newspaper’s office. Adams said Craven indicated she did not believe there was a conflict of interest because she wrote the letters on her own time and she was expressing her own opinion, but would note her connection in future. Didn’t believe it was a conflict? Somebody this stupid shouldn’t be working in a political office.
Few have missed the irony of uncovering staff deception here. In 2001, Guergis’ husband, former Edmonton MP Rahim Jaffer, dispatched an aide to pretend to be him on an Edmonton radio show, an imitation so poor he was promptly busted by the host. The only difference here is that Guergis supposedly didn’t know about this letter writing campaign by her fan club. She said in Question Period she had only learned about it the day before. “With respect to the staffer in question, she called me (Tuesday), she advised me of the situation, we discussed it,” Guergis said. “We did discuss that it was inappropriate. She apologized and assured me that it will not happen again.” Yeah, only because the jig was up.
Not that many believe Guergis knew nothing of this campaign. While it’s theoretically possible, it’s also possible Guergis will be voted Most Likeable MP. Possible, but not likely. “How could she not know? Any minister or department is always in the media monitoring, on anything that comes up with that departmental name or that minister’s name in it,” Easter said. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff went even further. “If they have someone make up little letters, in my book that’s lying. And then pretending that you didn’t really have anything to do with it, it was all the staff—that’s lying a second time,” Ignatieff said outside a caucus meeting. “I don’t think a person like that is worthy of the confidence of Canadians. I don’t think that person is worthy of remaining in the cabinet of Canada. It’s that simple.”
For now Harper is defending her. But Ottawa reporters note she has already lost the support of many members of the Conservative caucus—not only because of her airport tantrum or the recent controversy surrounding hubby Jaffer’s plea deal to careless driving when he had originally been charged with impaired driving, cocaine possession and speeding, but because she acts like an ultra–powerful minister despite having a low–level portfolio. In the next cabinet shuffle, expect her gone.
Perhaps the time has come for Craven to write one last letter, but this time using the pen name Helena Guergis. Something like, “Dear Stephen, Please accept my resignation from cabinet. Thank you, Helena.”
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Helena has finally "resigned" but in doing so she has insulted her boss who just happens to be the Prime Minister of Canada.
It was Prime Minister Stephen Harper who requested the RCMP and the Federal Ethics Watchdog investigate allegations and assertions against Guergis.
Guergis had the gall to declare in her letter of resignation that these allegations are "baseless" and "unfounded".
To be fair to Guergis, she has not been convicted of or even charged with any wrong-doing - mor
Posted by Jim on April 10, 2010 at 10:30pm | Report this commentHelena has finally "resigned" but in doing so she has insulted her boss who just happens to be the Prime Minister of Canada.
It was Prime Minister Stephen Harper who requested the RCMP and the Federal Ethics Watchdog investigate allegations and assertions against Guergis.
Guergis had the gall to declare in her letter of resignation that these allegations are "baseless" and "unfounded".
To be fair to Guergis, she has not been convicted of or even charged with any wrong-doing - mor
Posted by Jim on April 10, 2010 at 10:20pm | Report this commentHelena has finally "resigned" but in doing so she has insulted her boss who just happens to be the Prime Minister of Canada.
It was Prime Minister Stephen Harper who requested the RCMP and the Federal Ethics Watchdog investigate allegations and assertions against Guergis.
Guergis had the gall to declare in her letter of resignation that these allegations are "baseless" and "unfounded".
To be fair to Guergis, she has not been convicted of or even charged with any wrong-doing - mor
Posted by Jim on April 10, 2010 at 10:19pm | Report this comment
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