Ex-Harper aide wanted to help former escort, court hears

OTTAWA— A former top aide to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper stood to benefit from his alleged involvement in attempting to persuade the government to buy water-purification systems from the company employing his girlfriend, a court heard Monday.

Bruce Carson formally pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of influence peddling in a trial that Harper’s opponents are using to question the prime minister’s judgment in making appointments.

The Ottawa court heard that Carson testified he was merely trying to help when he offered to assist an Ottawa-based company, H2O Water Professionals, in getting meetings in 2010 and 2011 with government officials.

But Crown attorney Jason Nicol told the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that Carson wasn’t just some altruistic figure trying to help H2O Pros clinch a deal to sell water-purification equipment to First Nations communities desperate to fix their tainted-water problems.

Instead, Nicol said, Carson was motivated by a desire to help his thenfiancée, Michele McPherson, leave behind her former lifestyle as an escort.

“It’s all about a pretty girl,” Nicol said, as he read from the thick binders of evidence presented at Carson’s preliminary hearing, which were formally submitted Monday as evidence at his trial, which was expected to last just one day.

“She’s the only reason we’re all in this,” Carson said of McPherson in an email he sent to the owner of H2O Pros, where he raised the issue of providing a commission for her.

Carson was a senior adviser to the prime minister from 2006, when the Conservatives first took office, to 2008.

The Crown also said Carson contacted the prime minister directly about the proposal.