XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, ott.general   
   XPost: bc.politics, ab.politics   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   Hahahaha!!  This will be the government remembered for their hatchet   
   jobs on each other.  'Guergis'd' will be the new term in the Canadian   
   dictionary.   
   ______________________________________   
      
   National Post | March 31, 2014   
      
      
   Singed Harper gives Soudas the Guergis treatment   
      
      
   If you look back through Harper's time in office, you see that he's   
   often been tolerant of his own MPs causing him headaches.  So why did   
   Soudas -...   
      
                         Dimitri Soudas resigns as Conservative's executive   
   director after nomination row involving girlfriend   
      
   Dimitri Soudas' self-penned Twitter entry describes him as executive   
   director of the Conservative Party of Canada, former Canadian Olympic   
   team executive and former director of communications to Prime Minister   
   Stephen Harper.  "#VeniVidiVici," it concludes, with no hint of irony.   
      
   It seems though that the combative Mr. Soudas spoke too soon.  He came,   
   saw and conquered but then he upset the senior power brokers in his   
   party and now he's out.   
      
   A spokesman for the Conservatives said last night that Mr. Soudas had   
   gone. "I can confirm that Dimitri Soudas has stepped down as executive   
   director. Beyond that, we don't comment on staffing," said Cory Hann.   
      
   Dimitri Soudas, up until Sunday night the Executive Director of the   
   Conservative Party of Canada, is no longer in that position.  Some   
   sources say he resigned, others say he was fired.  It seems that the   
   reality is somewhere in the middle: He was told by the party bosses that   
   he was done, and that was that.  A compulsory resignation is perhaps the   
   most accurate term.   
      
   Soudas is a controversial figure.  Disliked by many Conservative MPs and   
   grassroots organizers, he is - was? - a favourite of Prime Minister   
   Stephen Harper, who places a lot of value on personal loyalty.  Soudas   
   was Harper's guy, put in place at the top of the party to put it in a   
   position to win in 2015.   
      
   And now he's gone, poof, vapourized.   What the hell happened?   
      
   All the leaks to eager media sources so far seem to tell the same story.   
   Soudas is involved in a romantic relationship with Eve Adams, a   
   Conservative MP in southern Ontario.   
   Adams is facing a nomination challenge in 2015.  It seems that Soudas -   
   the boss of the party - was told to stay neutral and above the fray. He   
   appears to have fallen short in some as-yet unexplained manner.  So   
   blammo.  He's gone.  Perhaps if Soudas had been better liked among the   
   foot soldiers he'd have had some room to maneouvre, but as it is, you   
   can see why the tiny handful of senior Tories who outranked him felt it   
   easier just to shove him into the disintegration booth4 and be done with it.   
      
   Even so, the speed with which that was done is astonishing.  The only   
   whispers of trouble in the nomination battle involving Soudas's partner   
   emerged late last week, mere days ago. This happened very, very quickly,   
   and especially in comparison to other recent scandals that the Prime   
   Minister has had to deal with.   
      
   Think of the problem senators, for instance, particularly Mike Duffy.   
   The Prime Minister was aware for months that Duffy was in trouble over   
   expense claims, and yet did nothing while members of his staff tried to   
   figure out a solution.  It doesn't matter how much he knew about what   
   his staff was doing, or when he knew it - the point is that he was   
   willing to be patient with a potential political liability and look for   
   other solutions.  And then, of course, was Harper's patience with his   
   former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, who was retained in his job until   
   it was absolutely crystal clear that he'd written the afore-mentioned   
   Duffy a cheque.  Up until then, even as questions and criticisms of   
   Wright's conduct mounted, Harper stood by his man.   
      
   These are just the recent examples. If you look back through Harper's   
   time in office, you see that he's often been tolerant of his own MPs   
   causing him headaches. Tony Clement, Maxime Bernier, Peter MacKay, Dean   
   Del Mastro, Vic Toews on any number of occasions, Rob Anders almost   
   constantly - Harper may eventually take action, ranging from demotion to   
   exile, but he's not hasty. He doesn't rush into things.   
      
   An exception to that rule was when Helena Guergis, a Tory MP from   
   northern Ontario, was given the boot as soon as allegations of criminal   
   activity emerged.  Guergis, who was married to a defeated Tory MP from   
   Edmonton, was alleged to have been involved (mostly through her husband)   
   with various shady characters, and was also accused of allowing her   
   husband to access government resources through her office even after he   
   was out of public life.  Harper threw her out of cabinet, and caucus,   
   with extreme speed, and the expulsion of Soudas seems to have followed   
   that pattern.   
      
   Why?  Maybe there's more to this than we know, leaving Harper and the   
   top Tory brass with no choice but to go thermonuclear from the get-go.   
   Possibly … but there's no sense of that at all.  No rumours of   
   misconduct beyond what we know, and that makes sense.  Soudas is a   
   Harper loyalist through and through.  It's doubtful he'd do anything too   
   awful that might hurt the leader.   
      
   Perhaps the explanation for Soudas's fast expulsion isn't about Soudas,   
   but Duffy and Wright.  Harper's had a lousy year with internal problems.   
     No doubt he's feeling the burn.   
   Given a choice between trying to ride out yet another internal scandal   
   or just pulling the trigger, even against a friend and confidant, the   
   latter option may have just been too tempting. If so, Soudas - a   
   die-hard Harper man - is another victim of some senators spending badly.   
     Bet he didn't see that one coming.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)