Guergis and the Damage Done

Tears! Babies! Prostitutes! Cocaine! A made-for-TV drama wraps up the third week of campaigning.

Helena Guergis's year-long quest to find out why the Conservatives kicked her out of their caucus came to an end today, with the independent MP slamming her former boss for running a “concerted effort to perpetrate lies” linking her to extortion, drugs, and prostitution.

Tim Powers of The Globe and Mail posits that Harper was right to keep mum on the allegations against the member from Simcoe-Grey. “He properly asked the police to investigate them; they did and in the process found they were without merit,” writes Powers. “Putting those allegations into the court of public opinion would have produced a show trial of ridiculous proportion,” he says, pointing to the public thrashing of Bruce Carson over as-yet unproven allegations of influence peddling. Powers then issues a challenge to the other leaders to explain how they would handle a similar issue within their own ranks: “If elections are a test of leadership I'd like to hear what – if anything – the others might have done differently.”

Over on iPolitics, Sonya Bell localizes the Guergis affair in suggesting the race between Guergis and a parachuted-in Tory candidate raises fundamental questions about Canadian democracy. “If party brand trumps local candidate, as many observers suggest, any Conservative candidate would win the riding ... But, if in an age of apathy, Guergis's victim status motivates constituents the way it has motivated her small but fervent volunteer force, she could keep the seat she has held since 2004.” A cynic would say her victim status was magnified tenfold Friday morning.

And back in the Globe, pollster Nik Nanos coldly disseminates what effect a tearful Guergis claiming the Prime Minister's Office engaged in character assassination will have across the country: “For the Tories to have any sort of chance for a majority, they need to be competitive among women (who are currently more undecided than men) – so he has to be careful in how he manages this.” But Nanos says since the auditor general's leaked report last week produced little movement either way in the polls, the opposition parties have failed to take advantage of a string of hiccups coming from the Tory camp.