A convicted felon—who disclosed his checkered past during a security check—was hired by Stephen Harper as a chief policy analyst and troubleshooter in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Bruce Carson, of course, has been in the news for weeks. But more details are even now coming to light, and this is all our hapless PM can say:

“I did not know about these revelations that we’re finding out today. I don’t know why I did not know. Had I known these things, I would not have … hired him.”

Does this sound like the rock-solid, meticulous micromanager who has lulled some Canadians into a false sense of security as the great helmsman of the country?

Carson had been convicted of five counts of fraud, and received court-ordered psychiatric treatment, prior to being hired on as one of Harper’s closest advisers. He is currently under RCMP investigation for illegal lobbying since he left the PMO in 2008. He met with Harper Minister™ Peter Kent as late as this past February.

Once again, here is Harper’s flaccid response:

“I think it’s important to remember that Mr. Carson is not accused of anything that has to do with his employment in my office. These accusations relate to things that occurred afterwards. As soon as we found out about those matters, we turned them over to the authorities.”

Just think about that for a moment. Apparently Carson was dodgy before being hired on by Harper, and dodgy after he left. But we’re asked to believe that his character went into re-hab for a period exactly coinciding with his stint as a senior Harper advisor.

The CTV story notes that “in his job as a senior adviser to Harper, Carson would have been privy to highly sensitive government files.” What we have here is Bernier writ large—and all we’re getting from the Iron Man is helpless flapping and hand-wringing.

This is a serious question of national security. Will it even come up during the leaders’ debates?