OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to deal Wednesday with the disagreement in his caucus over the treatment of predecessor Brian Mulroney, a senior Conservative source said.
Harper was out of the country three weeks ago when several members of his caucus objected to Conservative attempts to create distance between the current prime minister and his predecessor.
A source said the prime minister will address the issue Wednesday as Conservative MPs meet for the first time since that fractious gathering.
A minister caught in the centre of the disputatious caucus dismissed talk of disciplinary action when asked whether Harper might seek to punish those who complained.
"No, not at all," said Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the minister for seniors under Harper and one-time top aide to Mulroney.
"I think it's over and done with right now."
LeBreton shocked some of her old friends from the Mulroney era by explaining that the former prime minister asked to be removed from a party membership list.
LeBreton was heckled at the meeting. She later sent out a private email insisting Harper's office had nothing to do with leaking details about Mulroney's membership; one furious recipient forwarded it to The Canadian Press.
A longtime friend says it's been a testing time for LeBreton. But he said she's always been guided by her moral compass -- one which has consistently led her in one single direction.
The order from Harper to avoid speaking to Mulroney, and the more recent dispute over the lapsed membership, are no different.
"I'm sure this has been a period of some pain for Marjory," said Sen. Hugh Segal, who has worked with LeBreton since 1972.
"I think she would say to herself, 'This is a very difficult choice I have to make. But the right choice is loyalty to the prime minister who is in office now.'
"Because if you're going to be a minister of the crown, and if you accept that burden, then you have to accept the prime minister's role as primus inter pares (first among equals)."
Segal has worked alongside her in the Senate, in Mulroney's office, and before that in the office of Opposition leader Robert Stanfield.
She was already a Parliament Hill veteran by the time Segal arrived in the Opposition Leader's Office in 1972.
LeBreton accompanied John Diefenenbaker on a 1965 whistlestop tour that would be the last train campaign until the Green Party's Elizabeth May revived the traditional last year.
She stuck by her party through political catastrophe and personal tragedy over the decades.
She became an anti-drunk driving activist when her daughter and grandson were killed by a motorist who was also a partisan Tory. She stood by the old Progressive Conservative party after the electoral annihilation of 1993.
LeBreton vigorously opposed the merger that would kill the old party, until finally concluding the PCs would die anyway unless they united with the ex-Reformers.
A self-described fiscal conservative and "live-and-let-live" social libertarian, LeBreton soon became a prominent player in the new Conservative party.
She travelled with Harper in his two successful election runs, juggling a variety of roles including adviser, spokesperson, cheerful storyteller, and institutional memory of Conservative past.
A key part of that past was Mulroney -- to whom LeBreton was so close it was said they spoke every single day. A few months ago, she regaled others on the campaign bus with stories about the stemwinding stump speeches she heard Mulroney deliver en route to his crushing majority victory in 1984.
There are still pictures of Mulroney on her office wall. But she hopes her old friend understands if she doesn't call for a while.
"Mr. Mulroney was also a prime minister and had a cabinet," she said in an interview.
"I'm sure that in his innermost thoughts he fully understands the position Prime Minister Harper took. Because it's the only position you can take when the government and cabinet are faced with a situation like this."
LeBreton sent an email to associates earlier this month saying Harper's office had nothing to do with leaking details about Mulroney's expired membership card.
She told old PC allies that the government actually heard about Mulroney's status from the media -- not the other way around.
But a pile of evidence suggests otherwise, and LeBreton's old friends aren't buying her explanation.
They promptly forwarded the note to the media and expressed disbelief that LeBreton actually bought the story herself.
LeBreton offers no apologies to any of them. She says she simply wanted to do the right thing when it became clear two years ago there could be a public inquiry into Mulroney's cash dealings.
"As the prime minister said, it's been a very difficult time for all of us," she said.
"But I don't do anything that I personally am uncomfortable with or that I personally can't look at myself in the mirror (over). The Mulroney government had a great record. The country benefited greatly from his leadership and I was happy to defend him.
"But this new circumstance -- as the prime minister has said -- is a very difficult situation for all of us."
