What exactly was promising about it? His career was one gaffe after another. The key part of the foreign affairs portfolio is being informed, and being diplomatic. He managed to be neither, as evidenced by the various trouble he got into shooting his mouth off.
Please provide cites for “shooting his mouth off.”
I’m referring to the Kandahar governor statement, and the C17 thing, both mentioned in this thread already. The former shows that he doesn’t understand being diplomatic, which is kind of the foremost requirement of his former job. The second shows he doesn’t bother to keep himself informed of facts relevant to what he’s doing, which is bad in any line of work.
Can you please elucidate what it is about him that you think so valuable that he constant screwups are mere trifles in comparison?
Kandahar- Political corruption abounding. Although true and acknowledged, he should not have made the public statement: agreed.
C17 - We have 4 new planes. He offered the service of one. Damned, 3 are in for maintenance at the moment. An honest mistake.
Then his private life is invaded and desecrated by an ex-girlfriend. I’m not sticking up for him necessarily, but I think he got a raw deal. Otherwise he’s been a good public servant, from what I can see.
ETA: You never did provide cites. And never will be able to.
Actually I do believe the C17’s aren’t capable of transporting the helicopters in question without their being completely disassembled anyways.
What exact cites would you like from me? Both the statements I was referring to are acknowledged by you to be mistakes, albeit you think neither of them are serious. I think that any one of them wouldn’t be a big deal, but together and in addition to carelessness with classified documents comprise a pattern of behaviour that makes him a lousy foreign affairs minister.
“Otherwise he’s been a good public servant.” What specifically is included in this otherwise? Is it just that he didn’t make any other newsworthy screwups (that we know about)? Or can you actually list some notable accomplishments?
Linky no worky.
They took it down. Try this
I don’t care if it was just a memo discussing whether the government wanted clicky-top pens or capped pens. Bottom line, it was classified as secret. It is not his place to decide what classified information is ‘harmful’ or not, and which information he can leave at his girlfriend’s house for 5 weeks, to the point that he breaks up with her and leaves it there. The guy is a colossal disaster.
He left classified Canadian government information, that could have potentially had repercussions for both Canada and the U.S., at the home of someone with known organized crime ties. Yeah, he has a ton of potential. :rolleyes:
I make no comment.
This is going to end up in the pit, eh.
Ah, thanks. She’s the one on the left, with the breasts, right?
Heh, I have no love for this politico, but it all seems rather like a tempest in a teapot. The efforts of the media here to blow it up into a big, juicy scandal seem lame to me. Even if his ex was in cahoots with the worst biker gangsters imaginable, and sharing all her secrets with them (of which there is exactly no evidence), what are they going to do with foreign affairs documents anyway?
More like this guy just caused one gaffe too many, and the PM decided he was a liability - losing track of classified documents is a bad move, regardless of the biker chick. Fair enough, but hardly the vastly exciting sex scandal some hope to make of it.
Do you know how to say “motorboat” in French? 
Bernier might be a decent guy, and I say that as a guy who voted for his party.
But I vehemently disagree that this is not a major deal. It’s a VERY big screwup, and the motives and character of Bernier’s girlfriend really aren’t relevant. He put himself, and classified information, in a compromised state. In terms of national security, it is inexcusable for someone charged with handling such information. From the perspective of his position as a senior minister in Harper’s government, it’s politically idiotic, and Harper was right to throw his ass under the bus.
Bernier is, and rightfully should be, held to an extremely high standard. “I left some classified documents at my girlfriend’s house” is just preposterously stupid. I used to handle classified documents and I sure as shit didn’t go around leaving them at my girlfriend’s house; in fact, I’d check by bag before leaving work to make sure I wouldn’t accidentally take something with me. Leaving a folder on top of a filing cabinet in a secure room is one thing; leaving shit at your booty call’s house is way, way past stupid.
If there’s anything positive to take away from this from a Conservative standpoint, at least Harper “asked” him to resign. I doubt a Paul Martin government would have even admitted the error. Beyonf that, this is an embarassing gaffe.
I thought there was supposed to be no such thing as privilege in the NDP’s world. You would have been chauffeured to school in a $250,000 vehicle all right, but it would have a route number and you’d have to share with a lot of other people.
Agreed. My wife was always an attractive lady, but once she got her Canadian citizenship–man, she suddenly became smokin’ hot! 