Harper and Helena

As much as it pains Canadians, and especially those unfortunate voters in the riding of Simcoe-Grey, Helena Guergis is not going anywhere.

Stephen Harper never admits that he's made a mistake. If he removes Minister Guergis from her portfolio as Minister for the Status of Women, he thinks that it will appear that her appointment was a mistake. Even worse, it will appear that the Opposition was right all along and that she should have been removed long ago. To our Prime Minister, making a mistake is showing weakness and weakness is something he hasn't shown since the playground way back when he was in public school.

If Harper realigns his cabinet prior to the next election, we may see Helena demoted to the back benches (again, following her husband Rahim's career path - they certainly have more in common than what I first thought!). That way Harper can always use the "she left for personal reasons" or "I'm just reshuffling my cabinet"excuse without personal repercussions.

I'm no great fan of Michael Ignatieff but at least when the vote on his Party's abortion motion went south on March 23rd, 2010 he "manned up" and admitted that he had made a mistake. You can't help but at least peripherally admire that in a politician.

I hope that I'm wrong about Harper and Helena but I doubt it.