Observing the Lisa Raitt debacle unfold has been of more interest to me, I admit, than say Ruby Dhalla’s difficulties. Maybe because of my connection to the former Halton MP, or maybe because to date none of those commenting on Raitt-gate, on either side of the floor, have come anywhere near the real reason why in the case of Maxime Bernier, he was unceremoniously fired, whereas in the case of Lisa Raitt, as some believe, a different and/or a double standard applies.
The reason Lisa Raitt hasn’t been fired is because of boinking and cleavage, or rather the lack thereof. To be clear, I am not talking about Lisa Raitt nor directly about Julie Couillard, but rather about CTV’s Robert Fife with whom, according to this video, Minister Raitt’s documents were forgotten and remained so for a week.
The truth is Lisa Raitt has so far not been fired not because misplacing sensitive documents isn’t a dismissible offense. It is, “regardless of who the Minister is” according to Mr. Harper. For the record, Mr. Harper is the one that set the bar that high, not Canadians. Accordingly, it’s Mr. Harper that is not living up to his own standards, that he, himself, established and selectively used in determining Maxime Bernier’s fate.
Please, let’s at least call a spade a spade. Ms. Raitt today still has her job only because Robert Fife, by all accounts, isn’t a hunk of a guy with a revealing package and an allegedly questionable past whom Lisa Raitt was boinking at the same time as she was so caught-up in the moment that she forgot secret files.
On the contrary, when Ms. Raitt lost the files she was not at Robert Fife’s apartment, she was on official business at an official place of business (CTV) and a mistake happened. That’s why she is being forgiven and perhaps also because Conservatives don’t want to make Halton too easy a battleground by admitting the fledgling new Minister is anything but a superstar. Besides, who of us has never misplaced something important, although usually it does not take a week to notice, or someone else to bring it to our attention.
Maxime Bernier’s crime isn’t so much that he forgot the files at Ms. Couillard’s home, but rather that he failed to bring with him a dispensible 26 year old.