EX-MP JAFFER FACING DRUNK DRIVING, COCAINE CHARGES

Rahim Jaffer, husband of Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis, has been
charged with drunk driving and possession of cocaine. Police stopped
Jaffer, a 37-year-old Angus resident, on Sept. 11 on Regional Road 50
in Palgrave. Caledon OPP say he was speeding through the village.

Jaffer will be in Orangeville criminal court on Oct. 19 to answer the
charges.

His license was suspended for 90 days.

Jaffer did not respond to several requests for comment.

Guergis, a junior minister responsible for women's issues, issued a
brief statement saying "I take this very seriously. I love my husband.
I will wait for further information before I make any comment."

Jaffer was MP for the riding of Edmonton - Strathcona from 1997 until
a surprise defeat in last year's election.

Days before the vote, Jaffer's campaign approved radio ads chiding NDP
Leader Jack Layton for comments years earlier that Jaffer cast as
broad support for marijuana use.

The spots said, in part: "Edmontonians understand how difficult it is
to make sure our children make the right choices, especially on
serious issues like drug use. The Conservative Party supports
drug-free schools and getting tough with drug dealers who sell illegal
drugs to children. Don't let our schools go up in smoke. On October
14th vote Conservative."

Jaffer was one of the youngest members of the Conservative caucus. He
was first elected in 1997 as a member of the Reform Party at the age
of 25. He was well-liked and respected by his fellow MPs and by Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, who appointed him national chair of the
Conservative caucus shortly before he left politics.

Jaffer had a reputation as a gadfly in the capital and could often be
seen at bars around Parliament Hill. But he settled down toward the
end of his days in elected politics and eventually married Guergis the
day after he lost his seat.

A Conservative source said the former MP was in Ottawa today, but was
keeping a low profile and not mentioning his recent arrest or the
charges against him.

The Ugandan-born Jaffer had hoped to win back his Edmonton-area riding
in the last election but reportedly lost favour with the party brass,
who sped up the nomination process last spring and failed to notify
him.

He told the Canadian Press at the time that he planned to settle down,
finish the MBA program he was taking, get to work starting a
consulting business in Ottawa and support his wife.

"Both Helena and I are seriously thinking that if we want to turn
attention to family, it's probably wiser that I sit this election out
and focus on ourselves once this MBA is done," he said in May.

"In the future, who knows? Maybe at a later time, once our kids are
grown up and can support us, I might go back to politics."

Jaffer recently worked for Green Power Generation Corporation, which
helps bring alternative energy technologies to market.