Maxime Bernier quits.
The National Post mentions the “highlights” of his very brief political career.
April 14: On a visit to Afghanistan, Mr. Bernier says Kandahar provincial Governor Asadullah Khalid should be replaced to curb corruption. He later retracts the statement.
May 2-3: A cyclone strikes Burma and Canada pledges $2-million. Mr. Bernier is criticized by opposition leaders who say the figure is too low.
May 7: It is revealed that Mr. Bernier’s former girlfriend, Ms. Couillard, was once married to a Quebec biker gang member. She was also romantically linked to a biker who was later murdered.
May 8: Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismisses opposition leaders as “busybodies.” Says Mr. Bernier’s private life is his own.
May 21: Mr. Bernier promises an aid agency that Canada would provide a C-17 cargo plane to help airlift World Food Program helicopters to Burma. Military did not have one available, so a Russian aircraft was rented.
May 26: Mr. Bernier resigns from Cabinet.
That was the short version.
Here’s the drama-filled version, brought to you by the Toronto Star (who else?)…
She also said that on May 9, she went out for dinner with a friend and returned home to find that her home alarm was deactivated. Couillard then hired a security expert who discovered evidence there had been a hidden microphone in the boxspring of her bed.
“I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being followed and spied on,” she said. “It’s so unreal I feel like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone.”
…so when she found an envellope in her Laval appartment in April adressed to Bernier, she did what we all would have done: She got herself a lawyer. And…
Couillard contacted the Star on May 15, offering to sit for an exclusive interview, and requested a $50,000 payment. The offer was declined. A spokesperson for TVA insisted that “no payment of any kind” was made to Couillard.
Wow. I’m in love.
“I want a girl with a short skirt and a looooooooong jacket.”