gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

Foreign Affairs: Sexier than ever!

Wow, there's a first.

Our office boasts a tiny TV that is usually, and silently, tuned to CBC-TV or Newsworld (er, unless there's a big game on…)

Today's cabinet shuffle was nattering away in the background, when all of a sudden jaws dropped and all the men (then everyone else) gathered 'round. They've appointed a hottie!

Said hottie: Helena Guergis, now member of the Privy Council, secretary of state for foreign affairs and international trade and sport.

And, as one fellow beside me said, "of my heart."

The press has already made much of the rugged good looks of bachelor Minister of Foreign affairs Peter Mackay. And now this! Yowza. Watch out, diplomatic world. Canada is turning up the heat.

(Oh, apparently it's pronounced "DZHOR-dzhis" - not "gorgeous", unfortunately. I couldn't find any sources indicating Ms. Guergis' marital status, but I'm betting it won't be long before someone takes an interest. Either way, Canada's gonna have the sexiest foreign ministry in the developed world. Good on us.)

Belinda who?

For further entertainment, be sure to read the Wikipedia entry on Ms. Guergis.

According to that source, her credentials include running a bed and bath gift shop at a mall in Angus, and winning the Miss Huronia Pageant. After winning, she apparently found out that she had paid four times the actually entry fee, and successfully sued the pageant administrator for, among other things, the cost of her gown. Said administrator claims Guergis made death threats so scary that she had a miscarriage.

Sadly, Guergis later lost Miss Oktoberfest and the Canadian Search for Miss Universe, and had to settle for politics.

Highlights of her political career as include telling Trinity-Spadina voters she was for same-sex marriage (2003), then telling Simcoe-Grey voters she's against it (2004) and voting against it in 2005.

That year she also tabled a private member's bill banning MPs from crossing the floor. The next year, she went to work for parliamentary secretary David Emerson, fresh off of his trip across the floor.

(According to her website, "A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another.")

So far the press really doesn't seem to know what to make of this appointment. The Globe story, at least at the time of this post, had one-paragraph descriptions for almost all the ministers, but for Guergis, there's a blank line.

(The next iteration focused only on ministers, and she was removed entirely. And it's the first time I've seen the new CTVglobemedia logo down at the bottom… yuck.)

By the way, what on earth is this photo they have on Rona Ambrose? To me, it looks for all the world like someone aiming a sniper rifle at her.

Perhaps that's how they got her out of the environment ministry hot seat. She's moving on to intergovernmental affairs, western economic diversification, and the Privy Council.

I have no idea what any of those things are, but that may not be a prerequisite.