Move Over Helena Guergis

The question many people here on the prairies are asking themselves, well here on the middle of the prairies anyway, is who the hell is Serge LeClerc? It is also the question that Premier Brad Wall must be wishing he’d asked himself some time ago.

LeClerc was the kind of guy the political religious right dream about. The former drug kingpin, gang leader and self proclaimed most dangerous criminal in Canada, who found God and right wing politics was like a dream come true to Brad. In fact LeClerc says that Brad Wall asked him to run for the Saskatchewan Party after a vision of LeClerc being sworn in came to him in a dream. That all must seem like a bit of a nightmare at this point.

In retrospect it seems like the MLA has been unravelling for a while now. He was recently was accused of giving the Leader of the Opposition the finger in the Saskatchewan legislature and the NDP leader has also claimed that LeClerc threatened him.

Now the CBC has a tape on which someone who apparently sounds very much like LeClerc talks about personal drug use and engaging in sex with another man.

LeClerc has been vociferous in his denials calling the leaked material to be a smear job saying that he does not use drugs anymore saying “If I had been doing drugs, cocaine especially, 13 months ago, I’d be 110 pounds and I’d be a babbling idiot.” Really? For a former drug kingpin he really doesn’t know much about recreational drug use or perhaps he is just another babbling idiot.

He also was quick to say that he has never engaged in “illicit homosexual sex” which helped to confuse matters even more. That comment of course, made one wonder, either LeClerc thinks that sex between two, or more, consenting men or women for that matter is illegal or he might be saying that any sex he may have had with another male was between consenting adults.

Since his initial comment he has tried to clarify matters by saying that he does not have sexual relations with men.

If there is nothing to all this it would seem that it would be simple to offer up his computer so his hard drive can be scrutinized but as luck would have it, Serge claims he doesn't have his personal laptop any more. No word on where the one he was issued as a MLA is.

We may never see Serge LeClerc back in the legislature. He is now saying that he had decided, before the potential scandal broke, not to seek re-election and that he had discussed his decision not to re-offer with the premier. The Premier must have forgotten that conversation since he apparently signed LeClerc’s nomination papers March 30. LeClerc is now saying that he may go in sick leave rather that face the music. No surprise that he would take this very modern way out rather than staring the opposition down across the legislature. The NDP have made it very clear they do not want him over on their side of the house.

Serge LeClerc is a bit of an enigma. He is a shameless self promoter with about five websites all talking his former life of crime in a rather boastful manner. He sounds proud of his work as a criminal. Somehow most of what he says rings hollow to me. There is no shame when he talks about his former life and to me at least, his boastful tone doesn’t seem quite right for someone who has turned his life around after finding religion.

What we really do need now is for someone with at least some moderate research skills, a modest budget and some time, a rare thing in the Saskatchewan newspapers community, to find out how much of the Serge LeClerc story is actually true and how much of it is just the ramblings of a petty criminal who found an easier way to fund his meal ticket.

So, move over Helena Guergis, Serge is taking over.