The prime minister ran out of choices.  Stephen Harper had little choice but to do something about former Foreign Affairs minister Maxime Bernier:

Harper said he accepted Bernier's resignation after learning late Sunday that Bernier had inadvertently left the documents in an unsecured location. It was unclear what was in the documents.

"It's only this error. It's a very serious error for any minister," Harper said. "The minister immediately recognized the gravity of that error.

"Let me be clear: this is not to do with the minister's private life," the prime minister added. "What matters here is that rules respecting government classified documents were broken. Obviously it was not done on purpose … but it was clearly done and it has to be treated appropriately."

Bernier's time at foreign affairs was clearly troubled -- some of the trouble of his own making, most not -- but losing track of documents is just unacceptable.  David Emerson is taking over:

Harper has asked Trade Minister David Emerson to assume the foreign affairs portfolio on an interim basis, while Heritage Minister Josee Verner will handle the Ministry of La Francophonie, which was also held by Bernier.

Interestingly, Bernier has lost the soft ministry of La Francophonie, so it seems likely Bernier is destined for the backbenches.

Who takes over?  Hey, I think Jason Kenney would be a good choice.  He's already taken the lead in issues that would normally have been handled exclusively by foreign affairs.  In particular, Jason Kenney was the lead in taking Canada out of Durban II, and handled the final negotiations concerning the transfer of Brenda Martin out of a Mexican prison.

Jason Kenney -- but I guess we won't know for a few days.

In the mean time, the opposition will make some hay out of this, of course.  Already they are talking about damage to Canada's foreign reputation, but the damage could be limited by simply taking note of the resignation and being smug about it.  If the resignation had not been offered, then clearly the opposition could, and should, be demanding action.  But Bernier is out, so there is little left to say.

The government will have to report on the documents that were temporarily lost, but I'd be surprised if it amounted to much.

But I fear that we can expect the opposition, and the Liberals in particular, to do all it can to make sure that any damage to Canada is maximized.  If there is any opportunity to make Canada look worse, or to aggravate any damage to Canadian interests, expect the Liberals to take it.  All while bemoaning the damage to Canada.

On the other hand, the Liberals might surprise us all, take the win, and move on.  I doubt it.  I expect they'll repeat over and over again how Canada cannot be trusted by our allies.  Yeah, that helps.