Minister). Baird was a bully. He sneered for the longest time in Parliament's question period before he changed his image. I think he had botox or something. He's been Harper's right hand minister in a number of portfolios. He was popular on the right. This will hurt Harper's chances in the 2015 election. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The good news is that perhaps he may actually come out when he is in private life and teach all those right gay hating wingnuts in Canada that they unknowingly admired a gay man for a decade and it didn't kill them. CBC news says that he can get his parliamentary pension at the early age of 55 if he quits now rather than later. I don't know exactly why he is leaving.

prison in dictatorial Egypt for telling the truth while an Australian journalist is released?


"Sources close to him with direct knowledge of his plans say they expect Mr. Baird to resign his cabinet seat on Tuesday and step down as MP for his Ottawa West-Nepean riding soon."

What is going on, this is like Kerry suddenly resigning, and if Kerry was Republican.

Actually, I think he's positioning himself as the "comeback kid" after Harper loses the next election or only wins a majority. Either way, the cons will have a leadership convention and he'd be able to present himself as a past-successful outsider.

or only gets a minority.

I had some encounters with JB many years ago, when he was just a conservative fledgling. "Bully" is an understatement, though I hear from mutual acquaintances that he's softened quite a bit in his old age. There was a lot of room there, so maybe....

But when I heard he was stepping down, my first thought was that he'd found a special guy and had to make a hard choice. Wishful thinking, I guess.

sinking ship was my first thought. Second thought: don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, Baird.

Third thought: he's got something up his sleeve. Probably a cushy oil patch ceo job until he decides to get into politics again.