Embattled minister expensed handbags, shoes and jogging gear during ’08 campaign
Elections Canada auditors are going through the campaign expenses of Status of Women Minister Helen Geurgis, and it appears a few of her purchases may be, um, ineligible. She claimed $977 worth under the “other” category following the 2008 election; receipts suggest the purchases include clothing and handbags from the discount retailer Winners. Geurgis also appears to have expensed a considerable amount of jogging gear from the Running Room, according to a report in today’s Ottawa Citizen. It’s not exactly Watergate: given the minister’s previous image as the style-setter of the Tory caucus, she may be most embarrassed by the revelation that her designer-label stuff comes from Winners. But more suggestion of impropriety is about the last thing Geurgis and her husband Rahim Jaffer need just now.