Bernier tells Strombo he's learned from his mistakes

Regrets? He'sgot a few. But Maxime Bernier toldGeorge Stroumboulopoulos Tonight on Thursday that he's learned from his mistakes.

"Definitely my choice of girlfriend wasn't a good one," Bernier said, smiling and joking now about themistakethat felled his once-rising star status in Stephen Harper's cabinet.

When Bernier was serving as foreign affairs minister in April 2008, he left classified briefing documents behind after a visit tohis former girlfriend Julie Couillard's house.

Reports then surfaced that Couillard hadprevious romantic relationships withmenwho belonged to biker gangs. However, she said she cut off her personal tiesto organized crime groups long before she began dating Bernier.

In his interview with Stroumboulopoulos, Bernier described what happened on the day he resigned, saying that the prime minister asked for time to think about it at first and later came back to him and asked him to write his resignation letter, which he accepted.

'When I resigned, frankly, I thought my career was finished. It was a hard time' Maxime Bernier

"I'm intelligent. I knew that I had to resign. I didn't wait for him to ask me to resign," he said. "It was a big mistake at that time and the only thing to do was to resign."

With the passage of time, Bernier now makes light of his past error in judgment,tellingStroumboulopoulos what he is doing to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"I can tell you that I don't have any secret documents with me. It's in my office. It's going to stay in my office. And if I have to read something very late at night I stay late in the office," Bernier said.

Bernier also describedhis political motivations, and his efforts to redeem himself politically and personally.

"When I resigned, frankly, I thought my career was finished. It was a hard time,"he said.

"Everything under me was falling and I was hurting my family. It was tough for my family. It was tough for my daughters," he added."You feel like you did a very huge mistake and that's hurting you but it's also hurting the people around you."

Bernier spoke frankly about his decision to carry on and run for re-election.

"I decided that I'm in politics to defend freedom and liberty and I must go on. And if the people in my own riding in Beauce want me I'll go on and I'll continue. I was very happy to be re-elected after that," he said.

Bernier said he was "very stressed" during that campaign but that his constituents understood.

"They told me 'don't do that again Maxime!'"he said.

Watch the interview with Maxime Bernieron the George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight page.