THE CASE AGAINST HELENA GUERGIS

The Toronto Star's big expose on Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer
should be bound in book form and handed out to schools as Canadian
Politics 101. Want to know what real-life politics is like? Read the
book.

The Star, understandably enough from a newspaper-selling point of
view, has been treating the situation like the second coming of Gerda
Munsinger, the granddaddy of all Canadian political scandals. On
Thursday, to its credit, it provided details that show the story could
have been presented in a much different way.

For the first time, we found out that Guergis had been going through a
difficult personal period prior to her famous PEI airport blowup. Two
miscarriages in under a year; the minister was four months pregnant
when she lost the second baby before the ill-fated trip to
Charlottetown. "When one's hormones are badly out of whack, life can
be difficult," notes a sympathetic editorial in a local newspaper.

Her mother had also recently suffered an anaphylactic attack. Guergis
called 911 and her mother was rushed to the hospital, where she
suffered a heart attack.

Just a bit of pressure, no? If Canadians had known this when the
Liberals gleefully circulated the details of Guergis' airport blow-up,
would we have been as quick to condemn? Would the Ottawa media, which
long ago lost patience with Guergis's haughty personality?

And what about Rahim Jaffer, the husband causing her additional grief?
A former MP who seemed on the road to great things gets caught
drinking and driving, with drugs in the car. When he gets off with a
small fine, thanks apparently to a colossal police mix-up, it's
treated like a government scandal, as if Ottawa had any direct
influence over a provincial Crown prosecutor.

According to the Star account, Jaffer's mistake was to dine with a
Toronto "businessman" who works out of a strip club and, according to
the Star, brags about luring clients into compromising situations,
snapping cellphone pictures and then using that to pressure them. And
sure enough, when Jaffer attends a dinner at an expensive Toronto
steakhouse, it turns out there are "busty hookers" (a term the Star
has come to love) present. Smile for the cellphone, please.

The Star interviews a private investigator, who says he elicited
undercover information from the "businessman," who bragged about his
methods and his influence. He boasts to the investigator about having
access to the Prime Minister's office. He boasts about setting up
offshore accounts for the Jaffers. According to the newspaper, "while
some of the things he boasts about are true, often his boasts are
groundless."

So, to recap, a man who can't be trusted and who allegedly brags of
his skill at blackmail, makes claims that can't be backed up involving
a high-profile political couple. The male half, Jaffer, is dumb enough
to be driving around with drugs in his car. The female half, Guergis,
who has just suffered two miscarriages and rushed her mother to
hospital, shows the pressure when she cracks in public. She gets no
sympathy, as the press doesn't like her and seizes the opportunity to
put the boot in. Her caucus colleagues run for cover. The Prime
Minister sticks by her until apprised of the claims of the private
investigator, who passes on the unsubstantiated claims of the
unreliable businessman, at which point he kicks her out of caucus and
calls in the RCMP, providing himself with political cover.

Meanwhile, her mortgage is being questioned for no other reason than
that she seems to have gotten a good deal; and $742 in questionable
campaign expenses are held up as further evidence of her craven
personality. Her sister says she's the one who submitted the expenses.

I've never met Guergis. All in all she sounds hard to take. It's easy
to imagine even worse revelations are yet to come. But so far the
crimes she's committed are: marrying a husband with appallingly bad
judgment, letting him use her office, having an annoying personality
and breaking down in public under the pressure of two miscarriages and
her mother's health scare. For that she's been ousted from her job and
party and crucified in the press.

I wonder why more people don't choose a career in politics.