Canada's embattled foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, has resigned after leaving classified documents at a private residence. Prime Minister Stephen Harper called it "a serious error."
But what exactly was the serious error? Well, having a girlfriend - Julie Couillard - linked to Hells Angels motorcycle gangs, having a girlfriend who likes to dress in a provocative manner (my picture shows the pair at the minister’s swearing in ceremony), having a girlfriend who is not publicity shy, having a girlfriend who is pretty upset over the minister’s efforts to terminate the relationship and above all having a girlfriend who is about to go on television to spill the beans might have something to do with it.
Now the Lizard has nothing against colourful characters or indeed attractive women. Carla Bruni could hardly be said to be a typical politician’s wife and certainly her past is colourful but she has done nothing but enhance the diminutive Gallic whirlwind that is M. Sarkosi.
Now, we don’t know what documents the minister left lying around and whether Hells Angels are busily poring over foreign office briefings.
But that is hardly the point - newspapers and the public love kiss and tell stories and it’s not Julie’s fault if she’s a little too hot to handle – the minister should have been more careful with classified material and should have had more control over his private life.
Of course, just hours before Bernier resigned the prime minister was saying, "I have no intention to comment on a minister's former girlfriend," Harper went on, "I don't take this subject seriously."
But with Julie about to go on the box the PM was forced to take it all very seriously indeed.
So in the end it seems it was the old story of there being no fury like a woman scorned and the woman in question too much for what is after all a Conservative government.
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