Ray Novak turns the unfathomable into reality

Stephen Harper is seen with former Conservative staffers, left to right, Dimitri Soudas, Mike Beaton, and current staffer Ray Novak following an impromptu ball-hockey game on the tarmac prior to boarding his campaign plane in Kitchener, Ont., on Saturday, April 9, 2011. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

There was no early warning rumble in the distance. No lightning bolt to brace those below for the air-splitting crackle to catch up. The thunderclap came out of the blue this week directly over the Stephen Harper campaign buses.

Ray Novak knew, at least that's the eyewitness evidence Harper's former lawyer told the Duffy trial today.

So despite lame excuses to the contrary, it appears the right-hand-man to the Prime Minister of Canada was in the loop on Nigel Wright’s $90,000 cheque to ghost-finance repaying Mike Duffy’s bogus claims, the PMO’s top lawyer told police.

The truest words out of the Conservative mouthpiece so far on this dress rehearsal campaign were to insist it would be “unfathomable” if current chief of staff Novak had knowledge of this incendiary move and didn’t share it with the boss.

But it seems Novak knew. And he didn’t share. Pity any chairs within kicking range when Stephen Harper found out.

The Ray Novak story is a bit like a Horatio Alger tale.

The shy junior aide who carried Harper’s briefcase, set speaking notes on the podium and checked to make sure three glasses of water were in place, rose to become the most powerful appointment in Canada’s political hierarchy.

It almost goes without saying that of the 12 Harper office disciples so far implicated in the cover up from evidence in the Duffy bribery allegation, Novak was the least likely Judas.

Most of the others, the notorious short-pant people, are full of themselves, drunk on power and delight in flexing PMO muscle on underlings and MPs. I don’t put anything past them.

Not so Ray Novak. He’s no power-tripper. The Conservative caucus likes him. They believed the boss was well-protected when he was on gatekeeping duty.

Yet it now appears Novak spotted a dangerous development in the biggest scandal confronting the government and kept his boss in the dark.

Perhaps that’s why Harper sticks to his script in fending off persistent reporter questions. No words can articulate how betrayed he must feel.

So a bad smell returns, permeating high into a PMO supposedly given a pre-election housecleaning of staff sullied by the Mike Duffy saga.

And it comes at the worst possible time as Harper trolls for votes, trying to frame his superior leadership as the ballot box question.

Novak knew. Harper didn’t. It’s still inexplicable but, suddenly, it’s fathomable.