Senator Downe Interviewed Regarding Guergis Affair

CBC Radio One’s World This Hour, April 16, 2010

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BERNIE MACNAMEE (Anchor): To Ottawa now where the spotlight in the Helena Guergis affair shifted from the chastened MP to those who banished her to the backbenches. It’s been a week since she resigned from cabinet and was kicked out of the Conservative caucus. Now questions are being raised about how decisions are made in the Prime Minister’s Office and how those decisions are communicated. Louise Elliott has that story.

LOUISE ELLIOTT (Reporter): For months Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Helena Guergis.

STEPHEN HARPER (Prime Minister): The Minister of State Mr. Speaker continues to do good work for Canadian women.

ELLIOTT: Then overnight, everything changed.

HARPER: Last night my office became aware of serious allegations regarding the conduct of the Honourable Helena Guergis.

ELLIOTT: Harper’s tone last Friday left little hope of resurrection.

HARPER: No, I’m very disappointed. It’s a very sad day.

ELLIOTT: But it now appears the Prime Minister’s source was a private detective whose information was second-hand and whose credibility has been called into question, which has led many veterans of Parliament Hill to wonder. Did the Prime Minister’s Office exercise due diligence?

PERCY DOWNE (Liberal Senator): There was always rumours and gossip and you had to find out the facts. We don’t know the facts here.

ELLIOTT: Senator Percy Downe was the chief of staff to Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Downe says the Prime Minister’s biggest mistake thus far has been to conceal a key part of the story from the public.

DOWNE: The Prime Minister has put a cloud over, over the minister and he has a responsibility to tell Canadians what he referred to, what triggered his response of kicking her out of the ministry and removing her from the Conservative caucus.

ELLIOTT: Conservative senators contacted for this story declined to comment. But some seasoned politicians say Harper may have acted in the eleventh hour to avoid accusations of a cover-up. Louise Elliott, CBC News, Ottawa.

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