Bobs Own Pipe
10-02-2006, 03:35
He's possibly the most reviled man in Canada right now. Who? David Emerson, of course. (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/09/emerson060209.html)
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/09/emerson060209.html
...and for those of us who simply cannot bring ourselves to look at anything other than NS, here's that article cut-n-pasted here:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I don't really care' about reaction to party switch: Emerson
Last Updated Thu, 09 Feb 2006 11:01:18 EST
CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca)
David Emerson, the Liberal who became a Conservative within days of the Jan. 23 election, says he switched parties to do the best thing for his constituents.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/emerson_protest060209.jpg
Protest in front of David Emerson's
constituency office in the riding of
Vancouver Kingsway.
"If you want to call it arrogance, go ahead, fill the newspaper with it. I don't really care," Emerson told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday night. "I am pursuing the very agenda I got involved to pursue when I was in the Liberal party supporting Paul Martin."
In a surprise move announced Monday when Stephen Harper was sworn in as prime minister, Emerson was named to the Conservative leader's cabinet, as minister of international trade. He had defected to the party he had repeatedly denounced in the weeks leading up to election day.
Liberals in Emerson's riding of Vancouver-Kingsway are furious, and demanding that he repay nearly $97,000 in election campaign contributions (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/08/emerson-riding060208.html). Pablo Coffey, a voter in the riding, said Emerson should see if his constituents back his defection."If he had the courage to run in a byelection, he wouldn't receive 500 votes. He would be destroyed in this riding."
The Conservatives last won the riding in 1958, and the Tory candidate got less than 20 per cent of the vote on Jan. 23, compared with 43.5 per cent for Emerson and 34 per cent for the NDP candidate. In cyberspace, political blogs and discussion groups are reacting to Emerson's move. Meanwhile, Emerson was downplaying his move, saying: "I didn't expect the kind of reaction I got."
But some B.C. business and political leaders are supporting Emerson because they like his agenda – including improving trade with Asia and resolving the softwood lumber dispute with the United States.
Emerson said it was a tough decision to switch parties, but in the end, he decided it was the right thing to do after talking to Harper."I got a call and an opportunity to actually have an impact rather than operate from the opposition side of the House. And I thought that would bear more fruit for the people of the riding and the people of the province."
Harper said he needed Emerson to give Vancouver a voice in the cabinet. The Conservatives did not elect any members from British Columbia's biggest city.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/emerson_david_cp_8443813.jpg
David Emerson in 2004.
(CP Photo/Andrew Vaughan)
As for the call to return the donations he received as a Liberal, Emerson said: "I think these people ought to give their head a shake and ask themselves how much of that money would have even come to the Liberal party if I hadn't been there."
Meanwhile, the Toronto Star reported Thursday that Emerson, formerly the Liberal industry minister, objected to a deal to settle the softwood dispute which the former government was preparing to disclose after the election.
He told the newspaper that he opposed the deal in cabinet because it wasn't good enough.
While Canada's public position was that it had won international trade rulings that gave the Canadian industry a complete victory, the Liberals were prepared to settle for less.
And while publicly rejecting the U.S. call for more negotiations, Ottawa was in fact close to reaching a backroom deal that would have allowed the U.S. to keep some of the tariffs it had collected on Canadian lumber, and limit Canadian access to the U.S. market, the newspaper said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An arrogant, presumptious, puffed-out little opportunist with a grotesquely bloated sense of self-importance. And yet, what's more odious by far is the utter dismissal of this, by the other members of the new Tory caucus, as an issue that pertains directly to the new government's oft-and-loudly brayed demand for greater accountibility in Ottawa. Well, at least that's the tune they sang in Opposition. Now that they're calling the shots, all bets are off. As most of us expected anyway, no matter how Blue-eyed Stevie slung the bullshit.
Less than week in office, and Mr. Harper has not only actively encouraged an MP to do grave disservice by misrepresenting his constituents, or worse - by not representing them at all, but in the case of Michael Fortier, attempted to cleverly circumvent Parliament altogether by making a cabinet member of an unelected citizen - through an agency he and his Party have made great political hay by disparaging, contriving to eliminate, and promising to update - the still-as-yet unelected Senate. Not only does Mr. Harper have no qualms using the Senate to forward his as-yet unclear political agenda, but he seems either blithely unaware or completely uncaring that, as Mr. Fortier does not hold a seat in the Commons, he will be completely unavailable for the daily Question Period, wherein Ministers and their Critics are supposed to air questions and answers pertaining to Ministerial Portfolios and issues of the day.
Harper's proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is just as shady a character as any Liberal ever was, or might have been. That he and his caucus behave in this manner, immediately after being handed an actual minority government, not even a safe majority that he can use to really throw his weight around, is not just disconcerting, it confirms every worst fear in the hearts and minds of progressive people throughout our nation.
That some, such as Monte Solberg, have the audacity to manifest petulance and irritability when asked for comment on these matters by members of the fifth estate in the halls of Paliament should serve to underscore for all Canadians that these Tories aren't your Mom and Dad's Tories; these are people who feel that they, by virtue of having been elected, are now entitled to comport themselves however they see fit, and to Hell with whatever the rest of us think. There'll be no small pleasure had in seeing them back in Opposition for another ten or twelve years. And David Emerson? I hope he doesn't plan to return to Vancouver-Kingsway anytime soon. He might need police protection to do so.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We done been fooled again.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/09/emerson060209.html
...and for those of us who simply cannot bring ourselves to look at anything other than NS, here's that article cut-n-pasted here:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I don't really care' about reaction to party switch: Emerson
Last Updated Thu, 09 Feb 2006 11:01:18 EST
CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca)
David Emerson, the Liberal who became a Conservative within days of the Jan. 23 election, says he switched parties to do the best thing for his constituents.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/emerson_protest060209.jpg
Protest in front of David Emerson's
constituency office in the riding of
Vancouver Kingsway.
"If you want to call it arrogance, go ahead, fill the newspaper with it. I don't really care," Emerson told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday night. "I am pursuing the very agenda I got involved to pursue when I was in the Liberal party supporting Paul Martin."
In a surprise move announced Monday when Stephen Harper was sworn in as prime minister, Emerson was named to the Conservative leader's cabinet, as minister of international trade. He had defected to the party he had repeatedly denounced in the weeks leading up to election day.
Liberals in Emerson's riding of Vancouver-Kingsway are furious, and demanding that he repay nearly $97,000 in election campaign contributions (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/08/emerson-riding060208.html). Pablo Coffey, a voter in the riding, said Emerson should see if his constituents back his defection."If he had the courage to run in a byelection, he wouldn't receive 500 votes. He would be destroyed in this riding."
The Conservatives last won the riding in 1958, and the Tory candidate got less than 20 per cent of the vote on Jan. 23, compared with 43.5 per cent for Emerson and 34 per cent for the NDP candidate. In cyberspace, political blogs and discussion groups are reacting to Emerson's move. Meanwhile, Emerson was downplaying his move, saying: "I didn't expect the kind of reaction I got."
But some B.C. business and political leaders are supporting Emerson because they like his agenda – including improving trade with Asia and resolving the softwood lumber dispute with the United States.
Emerson said it was a tough decision to switch parties, but in the end, he decided it was the right thing to do after talking to Harper."I got a call and an opportunity to actually have an impact rather than operate from the opposition side of the House. And I thought that would bear more fruit for the people of the riding and the people of the province."
Harper said he needed Emerson to give Vancouver a voice in the cabinet. The Conservatives did not elect any members from British Columbia's biggest city.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/emerson_david_cp_8443813.jpg
David Emerson in 2004.
(CP Photo/Andrew Vaughan)
As for the call to return the donations he received as a Liberal, Emerson said: "I think these people ought to give their head a shake and ask themselves how much of that money would have even come to the Liberal party if I hadn't been there."
Meanwhile, the Toronto Star reported Thursday that Emerson, formerly the Liberal industry minister, objected to a deal to settle the softwood dispute which the former government was preparing to disclose after the election.
He told the newspaper that he opposed the deal in cabinet because it wasn't good enough.
While Canada's public position was that it had won international trade rulings that gave the Canadian industry a complete victory, the Liberals were prepared to settle for less.
And while publicly rejecting the U.S. call for more negotiations, Ottawa was in fact close to reaching a backroom deal that would have allowed the U.S. to keep some of the tariffs it had collected on Canadian lumber, and limit Canadian access to the U.S. market, the newspaper said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An arrogant, presumptious, puffed-out little opportunist with a grotesquely bloated sense of self-importance. And yet, what's more odious by far is the utter dismissal of this, by the other members of the new Tory caucus, as an issue that pertains directly to the new government's oft-and-loudly brayed demand for greater accountibility in Ottawa. Well, at least that's the tune they sang in Opposition. Now that they're calling the shots, all bets are off. As most of us expected anyway, no matter how Blue-eyed Stevie slung the bullshit.
Less than week in office, and Mr. Harper has not only actively encouraged an MP to do grave disservice by misrepresenting his constituents, or worse - by not representing them at all, but in the case of Michael Fortier, attempted to cleverly circumvent Parliament altogether by making a cabinet member of an unelected citizen - through an agency he and his Party have made great political hay by disparaging, contriving to eliminate, and promising to update - the still-as-yet unelected Senate. Not only does Mr. Harper have no qualms using the Senate to forward his as-yet unclear political agenda, but he seems either blithely unaware or completely uncaring that, as Mr. Fortier does not hold a seat in the Commons, he will be completely unavailable for the daily Question Period, wherein Ministers and their Critics are supposed to air questions and answers pertaining to Ministerial Portfolios and issues of the day.
Harper's proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is just as shady a character as any Liberal ever was, or might have been. That he and his caucus behave in this manner, immediately after being handed an actual minority government, not even a safe majority that he can use to really throw his weight around, is not just disconcerting, it confirms every worst fear in the hearts and minds of progressive people throughout our nation.
That some, such as Monte Solberg, have the audacity to manifest petulance and irritability when asked for comment on these matters by members of the fifth estate in the halls of Paliament should serve to underscore for all Canadians that these Tories aren't your Mom and Dad's Tories; these are people who feel that they, by virtue of having been elected, are now entitled to comport themselves however they see fit, and to Hell with whatever the rest of us think. There'll be no small pleasure had in seeing them back in Opposition for another ten or twelve years. And David Emerson? I hope he doesn't plan to return to Vancouver-Kingsway anytime soon. He might need police protection to do so.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We done been fooled again.