Divided over David

A lengthy article in the latest issue of the Vancouver Courier, now on doorsteps and also available online, presents a balanced view of the Emerson defection from all sides. I spoke to Courier reporter Mike Howell at an Emerson protest rally last week.

But not everybody there was an NDP supporter.

Longtime Conservative Mike Watkins, who was once national committee chair of the Progressive Conservatives, and Kevin Chalmers, a senior volunteer in both Emerson campaigns, bravely addressed the crowd.

Watkins, a soccer coach, had just come from a practice and was dressed in shorts and wearing a whistle around his neck.

“I’m here to ask the rhetorical question, ‘Why aren’t there more Conservatives speaking out against this? Am I the only one here, or the only one foolish enough to get up in front of a crowd?’”

He then grabbed his whistle and blew two sharp beeps.

“Emerson, you’re back to the showers for unsportsmanlike conduct.”

A correction to that article to ensure the impression it leaves is accurate—I was a national committee chair for the former Progressive Conservatives, but was one of many. I chaired the National Technology Committee for the party, was a member of the Vancouver Kingsway Riding Association, Tour and Advance Chair for BC Council, past Secretary of the Vancouver South Conservative Party riding association, and worked in various capacities on campaigns at the local and national leadership level.

Like many members of the Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance parties – the founding organizations of today’s Conservative Party – I did my bit wherever I could to help prepare our party for the time when conservatives would bring back to Canada a principled government.

Volunteers work hard within all parties to move their political agenda forward. Unfortunately it seems that at the grass roots level we have a deeper and more robust appreciation for principle than some of our leaders.

It’s now the news story that won’t go away…

Got that right.