Political trouble often arrives in threes. It’s rare, though, for one politician to get in three kinds of trouble all at the same time. Tony Clement, the now-former Conservative, the long-time MP from Parry Sound-Muskoka, has somehow pulled it off. Subscribe to the Star to support political reporting and analysis from our award-winning journalists in Ottawa.With the revelation this week of Clement’s confessed, sexting adventures with a would-be extortionist, this former minister and leadership contender has landed on the wrong side of at least three big themes in the political news.The #MeToo movement; Digital hacking, security and personal privacy concerns; Read more:Tony Clement booted from Conservative caucus over sexting scandalOpinion | Vinay Menon: I was going to write about Donald Trump, but Tony Clement wouldn’t let meConservative MP Tony Clement scales back duties, says he’s being extorted over sexually explicit images And finally, but not insignificantly, an emerging drama at Queen’s Park, with provincial Conservatives going through their own controversies over alleged sexual misbehaviour. We may never know what motivated Clement to place his long political career so close to the flames of self-immolation, but we do know it took a particular detachment from some high-profile current events. Start with the growing number of allegations about Clement’s relations with young women, which were popping up virally all over social media on Wednesday. Even if only the admitted case is correct, how did the #MeToo movement escape the notice of this MP? Was Clement away during the last few years when Parliament — no, the whole world, really — was talking about sexual harassment on the job and in public life? The sins to which Clement has confessed — improper exchange of sexual information with a young woman online — were so obviously wrong, said Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, that the official Opposit ...
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