As most of you who read this blog know, in my novel The Coup, President Mahone is forced to resign when the world learns that he has had an affair with a young woman who is also linked to the head of China’s espionage agency (although, as readers know, much about this relationship has been manipulated by Vice President Pope.) Well, big props to Canada, which has done a terrific job in producing their own version of that scandal. Yesterday, Maxime Bernier, Canada’s Alec Baldwinish Minister for foreign affairs, was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had left confidential, NATO-related documents in the apartment of his now ex-girlfriend, Julie Coulliard, who, rather Judith Exnerishly, had previously been romantically linked to members of Canadian motorcycle gangs. Yes, in what is the most fantastic part of this story, it turns out that Quebec has a big problem with outlaw motorcycle gangs who “have long tried to infiltrate politics and the judicial systems,” as the Times reports. In a TV interview, Ms. Couillard acknowledged that beginning in 1993, she had lived for three years with a “well-known crime figure” who connected to the gangs, and was later married to an actual biker gang member. And then, not long after, Monsieur Minister! What brought this couple together? You tell me. (I don’t know if Ms. Coulliard measures up to Maggie Newbold, but she obviously knows how to capture eyeballs.) Was his downfall a set-up? Well, if a boyfriend leaves documents at a girlfriend’s apartment, do you expect her 1.) to give him a call and tell him, or 2.) phone a lawyer for advice? I don’t know if Bernier was manipulated by rival, but something sure smells fishy to me.
