Guergis row looks painfully self-serving for media

A “dog”? You are calling a Privy Councillor a dog?

Something caught my eye, and I stopped, briefly, to look at the front page of The Toronto Sun this past weekend. Despite all of my affectionate teasing of the professionalism of the Four Estate over the years, I was still surprised to see them refer to former Cabinet Minister Helena Guergis as a “dog” on her “way out”.

That says it all about the media mindset, even if this entire “criminal scandal” appears to be anything but, at least so far.

What we have is a clear situation of stupid choices. And the media love it, of course, but I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. A matchbox in the drawer, perhaps, but there’s no fire yet as far as Ms. Guergis is concerned.

I have no doubt that Ms. Guergis’ husband, Rahim Jaffer, failed the test that every staffer and political spouse needs to pass: don’t do anything to embarrass the elected official.

According to the OPP, Mr. Jaffer was arrested last Fall while driving under the influence, and carting a party in his pocket in the form of cocaine. Thus began this unfortunate episode, and our window into the mistakes that people make, even when they should know better.

Based upon the media coverage, you’d have thought Mr. Jaffer had morphed into former U.S. Senator John Edwards. Or the U.S. Senator that was charged for making hand signals under a stall in an mens airport bathroom. Since Canadian political journalists are starved of the real scandals that they see regularly south of the border, they don’t have a sense of proportion when some ex-pols go astray.

However, having referred to Ms. Guergis and her husband as a “would-be” Tory “Power Couple” just last year, The Toronto Star can’t but be elated that they’ve brought them down, as their Saturday headline declared: “PM cuts cord on Power Couple“. Although for what, exactly, we aren’t yet sure.

I note that The Star promoted them from “would-be” Power Couple to the real thing, just in time for this week’s alleged scandal. The truth is this: they were never a Power Couple in the first place.

A Conservative Member of Parliament who loses his seat in Alberta is anything but powerful. Failed Canadian politicians are usually referred to as electoral losers in that context, not powerbrokers. As for Ms. Guergis, there is nothing about being Minister of State for the Status of Women that connotes actual power.

I should know, in the 80s I used to work for one of Ms. Guergis’ predecessors.

As a Ministerial role, Status of Women has no Department per se. It has no particular operating mandate. There is no cabinet committee to Chair as a result of your duties. The Priorities & Planning Committee of Cabinet does not have a spot for you, unlike many other government portfolios.

Power? One should be so lucky. The U.S. Vice-Presidency is a powerful position by comparison, and former FDR V.P. John Nance Garner called that role “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” But bringing down a politician with no power doesn’t make for the same breatheless excitement, or the shot at a National Newspaper Award, as rooting out a “Power Couple”. So Power Couple they are, if only to fit the media’s agenda.

You want the definition of a Power Couple? Try Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman. Or Victoria Jackman and Bruce Kuwabara.

The idea of selling access to the current PMO is almost too ironic for words. It would take you years just to figure out the forms you have to fill out and Acts you have to follow even before calling. Most Canadians have been drilled by the media to believe that the government of Stephen Harper is the most closed of any in the history of our nation. That’s the mantra, anyway. So the idea that a fellow who lost his Conservative seat, in Alberta of all places, is going to get a hearing with some players in the Langevin Block certainly doesn’t fit the storyline that the media have cooked up over the past four years.

Mr. Jaffer appears to have most definitely failed his wife on several occassions. One needs to keep Pols out of trouble, or the appearance of same. Swaning around Toronto’s International Film Festival with people who are defending themselves against wire fraud charges is to be avoided, as any decent political staffer would tell you. One can sympathize that he was trying to find a new career in the wake of his electoral misfortunes, but folks on Bay Street will tell you that this is not the way to swing for the fences.

There are plenty of straight-as-an-arrow Tories in Toronto’s financial district. It’s a shame Mr. Jaffer wound up with an accused felon instead.

From there, it isn’t too hard to imagine that someone thinks they heard something that is worthy of review by the RCMP; if only to clear the air. But, so far at least, this has none of the elements of former Cabinet Minister Sinclair Stevens (also of York Region) and his “Christ Coin” fiasco, which led to his necessary resignation from the government of former PM Mulroney.

But don’t tell the Fourth Estate that. They’re bored to tears in Ottawa these days, and fighting for their industry’s economic future, as is all too clear from the titillating coverage of the so-called “Power Couple”.

MRM
(disclosure – this blog, as always, reflects a personal opinion and in no way represents the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)