Helena Guergis and her husband, Rahim Jaffer, left for the Caribbean and a week in the sunshine on April 3. It was Easter and the House of Commons was in recess.
As it turned out it wasn't much of a holiday. Just five days into their vacation in Punta Cana, Ms. Guergis offered her resignation as status of women minister to the Prime Minister over the phone from the Dominican Republic.
Stephen Harper had tracked her down at her resort early Friday morning - this, after hearing allegations from a third party the night before that prompted him to give information to the RCMP and suspend her from the Conservative caucus.
During that phone call she tendered her resignation and Mr. Harper accepted it. Ms. Guergis and Mr. Jaffer were scheduled to return from their vacation on Sunday.
Although she was not in the House yesterday, she was very much present in name and spirit as the opposition grilled the government as to why the Mounties are involved. What are the allegations against Ms. Guergis?
No new information was given. And so it's expected this focus on Ms. Guergis will continue today in the Commons - especially with revelations in The Globe this morning that she often let Mr. Jaffer use her taxpayer-funded car and driver.
While this plays on, however, there are those who are concerned with another focus: the portrayal of Ms. Guergis in the media as the ditzy blonde beauty queen with the little-girl voice who didn't deliver in her portfolio.
She has her defenders, and some are coming forward.
Admittedly, there are those who say she was prickly to work with - in fact there is a view among her former staff that when Mr. Jaffer was around she was calmer - but she is also smart. In fact, she's "brighter than people give her credit for," one source who worked in her office told The Globe.
"We should actually give credit where credit is due," the colleague said. "In the meantime it is incorrect and inaccurate to say she didn't do anything."
Pat Vargas, the executive director of an Edmonton-area women's shelter, A Safe Place, says Ms. Guergis listened and understood. The former minister convinced her cabinet colleagues to support $1-million in funding to support the establishment of Uniting to End Violence against Women, a national network for women's shelters.
"She was a fighter," said Ms. Vargas, who is a veteran worker in the field. "I'm sure that it might not be easy in an all-conservative party to be pushing women's issues, to be pushing to giving money to shelters."
Ms. Vargas, who first met Ms. Guergis when they were doing their MBAs together in Alberta, described her as an "awesome minister." Others point to her view that the way to convince men that violence against women is an important issue is through their wallets.
Last February she purposely sought out a "non-intuitive audience" and spoke at the Toronto Economic Club about the costs to industry and government of violence against women. Not surprisingly, there was little or no coverage of her speech.
"While ending violence against women is an issue of justice, morality and humanity, I am certain those of you in business will be shocked at the staggering financial costs associated with such abuse," she told the business crowd.
In detailing the price tag, Ms. Guergis said it costs $4.7-billion annually to deal with abuse. She highlighted figures from the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters that say 70 per cent of those who suffer from domestic abuse are victimized at work and that more than 75 per cent of abusers who have been charged used workplace resources, including company phones, emails and vehicles.
And in keeping with her commitment to help abused women, Ms. Guergis secured $10-million in the budget to deal with missing and murdered aboriginal women. Although some criticized it as token amount, the Native Women's Association of Canada gave Ms. Guergis a lot of credit for her support.
"There is something about her that I really, really liked," Ms. Vargas said, adding that she is disappointed with how Ms. Guergis has been treated in the media.
For example, she notes that since Ms. Guergis's troubles began, the beauty queen pictures have been replaced by "ugly" faced-pictures. "It's pretty hard to be a woman in politics today," Ms. Vargas says.
(File photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)