Conservative Two-Step

Its truly breathtaking to step back and witness hypocrisy bubbling forth from our Leader (that’s that “democratically” elected PM guy) and some of our supposed leading lights. People like John Reynolds, for example, who – acting on Stephen Harper’s ok – brokered the infamous deal with David Emerson.

I said, ‘How would you like to stay in the government?’ So we had a conversation about the pros and cons of that, and then, I said, ” ‘why don’t we just sit on it for a couple of days? I’m not talking to anybody. You think about it and we’ll get together’ 2006 Conservative Campaign Co-Chair and former MP John Reynolds, PC

Yup, that’s John Reynolds, Privy Councilor – and then MP for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast – negotiated a deal between Emerson and Stephen Harper that saw David Emerson flip parties for a cabinet position.

That would be the very same John Reynolds who in the summer of 2005 filed complaints with the Law Society of British Columbia and the Law Society of Upper Canada against three lawyers cum political figures: Vancouver—South MP Ujjal Dosanjh, then Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Chief of Staff Tim Murphy, and former Ontario premier David Peterson.

The accusation? That the three acted as middlemen in brokering a deal between the Prime Minister Martin and one or more of: disgraced former Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal, and party hopping MP’s Scott Brison and Belinda Stronach.

Wait a minute… isn’t this the same John Reynolds, then MP, still Privy Councilor, that brokered a deal between Prime Minister Harper and David Emerson?

Yup.

Is the Harper-Emerson affair (with an assist by Reynolds) an issue of ethics?

You better believe it. The only difference between Dosanjh-Murphy-Grewal, and Harper-Reynolds-Emerson is that in the case of the latter, they probably didn’t leave incriminating tapes lying around.