Monday, February 6, 2006

crossing the floor faster than you can say 'cabinet minister...'

That was fast.

Even faster than crossing the floor two weeks after your constituents re-elected you... silly David Emerson... even sillier Stephen Harper...

Leave it to the blogosphere to give disgruntled people a soapbox...

For interests sake, here are some of the Vancouver Kingsway facts we posted on Mr. Smith's blog...

Election results in Vancouver Kingsway on January 23rd:

Liberal - 20,064
NDP - 15,570
CPC - 8,699
Grn - 1,301
LTN - 277
COM - 162
CAP - 143
M-L - 69

History of electoral representation in Vancouver Kingsway:

1953-58 - CCF
1958-62 - PC (Dief sweep)
1962-74 - NDP
1974-79 - Liberal
1979-88 - NDP
(dissolved from 1988-1997)
1997-2006 - Liberal
Posted by at

10 comments:

  1. Idealistic PragmatistFebruary 6, 2006 at 2:06 PM

    Vancouver Kingsway had their election two days before the rest of us? How the heck did they manage that? ;-)

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  2. davebertaFebruary 6, 2006 at 2:24 PM

    Vancouver is a magical place.

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  3. DaveFebruary 6, 2006 at 5:54 PM

    Enough is enough. What the heck does democracy mean for any of us when this crap goes on.

    If you care about democracy, help me and Democracy in Canada.
    http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_emerson-critics20060206.html

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  4. Robert McBean.February 6, 2006 at 8:50 PM

    For some reason Tony Abbott's "whore" comment about Belinda Stronich comes to mind. Let the hypocrisy begin.

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  5. jayleeFebruary 6, 2006 at 9:02 PM

    i am appauled at how something like this can happen. i'm glad i'm not a conservative, i would feel more than betrayed. but to betray the people who got you elected ... and then the other who didn't even get elected and gained a cabinet post... good lord, do we live in cuba, iraq, ...

    sadly, i think by time government resumes, this will have settled down, and on the back burner. people seem to forget if it isn't news in our face.
    instead i think we as a democracy have to speak out, write letters, and demonstrate (peacefully of course) and change this type of abuse of power.

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  6. EmilioFebruary 6, 2006 at 9:16 PM

    I'm not too happy with this but I understand why Harper did it. He has no representation from the three biggest cities in Canada (not that I care) and obviously wants some in the next election so he's having cabinet ministers from those areas to make up for it whether having a very qualified Liberal into his cabinet or having a guy from Montreal sit as a senator to represent Montreal. Its a tricky thing if you have no real representation from certain areas of the country and it would lead to howls from left-wing nutcases that the CPC is neglecting the big three cities so Harper did what he thought he had to. He filled the void.
    However I would feel more comfortable if David Emerson had a by-election to determine if his constituents like the idea of him defecting. Because I still remember when that blond whore crossed from Conservatives even if her timing was alot more controversial and she had a cabinet post created just for her instead of crossing the floor at the beginning of the new parliament. Her riding voted for a Conservative and thats what they should expect, not a floor crosser. And that goes for David Emerson too.
    In terms of Michael Fourtier, I have no comment other than I hope he wins a seat in Montreal in the next election.

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  7. GuyFebruary 6, 2006 at 11:30 PM

    I bet you there's a lot of people who are now wishing they voted NDP in Emerson's riding.

    -Socialist Swine

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  8. NastyboyFebruary 7, 2006 at 5:29 AM

    Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

    (sigh)

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  9. JimFebruary 7, 2006 at 7:35 PM

    Shit like this just reinforces the meme that you never get what you vote for, whether it's Liberal, Conservative, or NDP.

    I'm already amused by Conservatives, ever the stone-throwers, rationalizing political ploys like this. It's like that episode of the Twilight Zone where the revolutionary turns into the tyrant he deposed.

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  10. MeanyFebruary 8, 2006 at 12:45 AM

    Yeah feels like a good slap in the face doesn't it? That's exactly how Tories felt when Belinda made the jump and you all were overjoyed. Maybe it's because Graham is an extremist who can't hold on to moderates like Emerson? Hmm? No? Maybe we can justify this because Emerson finally saw the light and is abandoning those "extremist" Liberals? Yeah? Maybe it shows that the Liberal's are no longer a "mainstream big tent" national party and only represent Toronto interests? Sound familiar?

    Anyways, as a Conservative I think this is an AWFUL way to start things off and I am annoyed about it. I think we need both of the parties to sign some sort of agreement that they can't poach each others MP's for cabinet positions. If MPs want to leave and sit as backbenchers in other parties, that's up to them, but the PM of the time shouldn't reward them with a plum cabinet post. Paul Martin set a nasty precident with what he did, and double shame on Harper for repeating it. :(

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