With the leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada underway to replace former prime minister Stephen Harper, a selection of less than stellar candidates have entered the race.  Two of the most notable include Harper's former foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, and Kellie Leitch.  Both are very liberal when it comes to social views, but that is the least of the concerns about their candidacies and what they say about the sorry state of Canadian conservatism. Bernier's former girlfriend, Julie Couillard, was the subject of intense media scrutiny in early 2008, whereby the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir found that Couillard "had links to the criminal biker underworld as late as 2005 – [and yet] is the head of a high-tech firm that has been involved in airport security."  Bernier was then forced to resign as foreign minister in May 2008 "after leaving NATO-summit documents in the home of his former girlfriend, Julie Couillard."...(Read Full Post)