A top Conservative commentator says Prime Minister Stephen Harper's iron-willed decision to "cut the cancer out" by exposing Rahim Jaffer's undeclared lobbying over the past year and throwing Helena Guergis overboard is intended to end the brewing scandal before it spreads.
But political observers and opposition MPs believe Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) is also trying to ensure the unusually lurid details of the furor involving the husband and wife team does not erode crucial financial and electoral backing for the federal Conservative party from perhaps its single most important base—the conservative Christian right.
And, even though Conservatives believe Mr. Harper's decision to draw attention of the media, MPs and the federal lobbying commissioner with a trail of emails showing Mr. Jaffer's lobbying efforts after his 2008 election defeat will put the government in a transparent light, the emails themselves suggest the strategy could backfire and lead to new questions about backroom government pressure on public servants.
"There's no question these documents will come back to haunt the conservatives," said NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, Man.).
A bundle of emails and letters the government distributed to selected journalists after sending it off to Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd last week included more than 40 emails involving odd schemes Mr. Jaffer and his Green Power partner Patrick Glémaud were promoting through Conservative MP Brian Jean (Fort McMurray-Athabasca, Alta.), a friend of Mr. Jaffer's who had been designated as the government gatekeeper for the $1-billion Green Infrastructure Fund, and Sébastien Togneri, then director of parliamentary affairs to
