Several rather remarkable developments today on the Helena Guergis story …
Prime Minister Stephen Harper called in the RCMP Friday on one of his own cabinet ministers, Helena Guergis, kicking her out of cabinet and the Conservative caucus.
Guergis said she's the victim of “baseless allegations and unfounded assertions.”
In the resignation letter she submitted to Harper, a copy of which was obtained by Canwest News Service, Guergis said: “I take responsibility for any errors I may have made, but at no time did I compromise my oath as a Member of the Privy Council.
“It has become apparent through baseless allegations and unfounded assertions made about my family that I need to step aside to allow for the good work of our government to continue serving Canadians,” she wrote.
Harper would not say why he asked the RCMP and Parliament's conflict of interest commissioner to investigate Guergis' activities other than to say he was prompted to act after his office learned of “some serious allegations regarding the conduct” of Guergis, who was the minister of state for the status of women.
Though Guergis technically resigned her position, Harper, at a Parliament Hill news conference, made it clear she had little choice in the matter . . .
[The picture to the right is one I took in 2007 in the Kawempe slum in Kampala, Uganda while covering Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attendance at the 2007 Commonwealth Summit. Guergis, in red, was then the secretary of state for foreign affairs and Rahim Jaffer, to her left, was then an Edmonton MP (and, at the time, her fiance).]