So the Harpers are Separated. It Was no Big Secret.

I posted several months ago that Laureen Harper had apparently left her husband, appearing only occasionally for photo-ops.

And months before I posted that, the rumour mill was already grinding. I mean seriously. The man's a control freak. How could anyone stay with him?

So I guess wondering why the media was still playing along, Norman Spector went out on a limb and revealed that the marriage had been in trouble for about two years.

He didn't mention Laureen's Mountie, but just put into words what most people already knew.

According to The Globe article, Ms. Harper “is not shy at all...she has a wonderful sense of humour and a good political nose – but she has declined offers to sit down with journalists, preferring not to be the story. Rather, she wants the light to shine on the work of her husband and his government. … (Cynics may think that the couple agreed to the interview because an election may not be far away).”

Perhaps. But, I think that something else is at play here.Three weeks ago, a most extraordinary paragraph appeared in a column published in the Ottawa Citizen. It read as follows:“In Ottawa, tongues have been wagging for two years about trouble in one political marriage. One of the partners is now said to have left the nest. It hasn't made the newspapers, at least not yet.”

Why the games?

Spector's never been one of my favourite columnists, but why should he be fired over something so silly? And why pull the story? Most of us already knew and nobody cares.