Vancouver it’s time to let David Emerson go
Before you leave angry comments let me say that I do not like the Conservatives. The closest I ever came to liking them was an odd affection I had for Joe Clark, and Stephen Harper you are no Joe Clark. I met Harper once, the day that he had managed to merge his Reform/Alliance Party with the Progressive Conservative Party. He was speaking in Kelowna and it was my birthday, and my plans to spend my birthday drinking where interupted when my editor at the Phoenix, the student newspaper in Kelowna, said that I had to go to interview Stephen Harper.
Anyway long story short I decided to do 50% of my drinking before the interview, and arrived at the interview on foot about ten minutes after having drank about seven shots of various liquor types. I was hoping to get the interview done before the demon booze took ahold of me, but I was kept waiting for another hour. Then I got about five minutes with Harper who looked like he had typhoid fever, and had probably not slept for three days as he had been hammering out the merge. I meanwhile was entering the stage of being drunk where coherent thoughts were a thing of the past. So neither of us were up for our meeting of the minds, and we ended the event as a draw with me gaining about six minutes of vaugly insulting questioning on tape where I asked how he felt now that “the Reform revolution has failed”.
That said my story is far better when I’m drinking, and in person but even in this rambling run on paragraph form it’s a far more interesting encounter than the people who keep showing up with signs anytime turncoat MP David Emerson or Harper himself show up in Vancouver [cbc].
Let’s face it nobody cares anymore. Emerson did not break a single law doing what he did. Sure it was unethical and sleazy but he’s a Member of Parliment what did you expect? I was happy when Belinda crossed the aisle and helped prop up the Liberals for a few more months, so I’m certainly not going to begrudge Emerson getting a cabinent post the same way.
If you want to protest a Harper appearence protest for something meaningful. Protest the fact that he’s wanting to re-open the same sex marriage issue. Protest the fact that he’s wanting to cut taxes, thus either cutting into the social services we all value in this country or putting us back into deficit spending. Protest the fact that he hasn’t kicked Ralf Klien in the head for trying to blow up Canada’s single payer health care system. Protest something random and crazy, like his plan to arm hobos and start his own private army of them to keep his hold on power.
But please, let’s all just move on now.
So, if Emerson ignores the problem it should go away. Maybe the same would work with global warming. Or property crime, we should just roll over and say whatever, because, you know, it’s happening and it’s not changing. So let’s give up. Let’s all just give up and throw in the towel, because having an accountable representative in government, meh, so 20th century. Jeffrey, I get that you’re tired of hearing about something, but there are some people left who think a person should run for government honourably, and when they don’t they should be held to account to those who voted them in.
It’s not about ignoring the fact that Emerson’s a douche, it’s about realizing he is and moving on. Do you honestly think that Emerson is going to see someone holding a sign that says “Resign now” and realize that he should and then resign?
I’m not saying do nothing about it, but it’s politics and it’s a four year cycle. The voters will remember this and turf him out if they truely are angry at him in four years.
The fact is that he did not do anything illegal, just dishonest. We might expect better of him, but we all know now that that was foolish and the next time his voters won’t vote for him unless they want to vote for someone whose likely to change parties.
Having said that I support an MPs right to change parties, it’s one of the few outlets they have to actually follow their beliefs as opposed to being whipped into shape by the party machine. Now Emerson didn’t change parties because of his deeply held beliefs, but because of a cabinet post. That sucks, but it’s the way it works.