OTTAWA — Stephen Harper hasn’t had much luck with the women he’s appointed to cabinet, but his government doesn’t appear to have a woman problem — yet.
Helena Guergis’s spectacular flame-out was just the latest in a series of ill-starred adventures among the prime minister’s female front benchers.
Rona Ambrose, Lisa Raitt, Diane Ablonczy, and now Guergis — all at one time appeared headed for enhanced status in a cabinet dominated by pale males and all have seen their wings clipped, although only Guergis was shown the door.
Yet through it all, pollsters say the Conservatives have actually managed to close the traditional gender gap that plagues most right-of-centre parties in western democracies.
Harris-Decima chairman Allan Gregg says his polling has until recently shown the gap to have disappeared altogether, the first time that has happened in the 40 years he has been tracking public opinion.
But he says the gap has widened again over the last few weeks as the Guergis affair has rocked the government.