Media Highlights for Wednesday March 8 2006 David Emerson
Mar 8 (CBC News) Browbeating the ethics czar and other fun pastimes
At this juncture all the commissioner has said is that he is embarking on a preliminary investigation. He is out to see if there might be any grounds to the allegation that Emerson was somehow induced by the perks of power, or prestige, to cross the floor with the alacrity he did.
And even if Shapiro concludes there was some ethical breach, instead of the usual political intrigue that surrounds floor crossing, the sanctions could be anything from a slap on the wrist to, what many are calling for, a by-election in Emerson’s riding of Vancouver Kingsway. It would certainly be one way of testing the PM’s cabinet-making prerogative, to see if Vancouver voters really do want their own man on the inside.
That’s what we want – a by-election. As soon as possible.
Mar 8 (Toronto Star) Editorial: Is this Harper’s ethical cleanup?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised during the recent election campaign to “clean up Ottawa.” He said “accountability and ethics will be at the centre of our governing agenda.” He pledged to “improve Canadians’ faith in public institutions.” And he vowed to lead by example.
There was little of that high ethical purpose on display yesterday as Harper stiff-armed federal Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro, who is trying to decide whether Harper broke any rules by recruiting former Liberal MP David Emerson into the Conservative cabinet.
There is no denying that Shapiro’s decision to probe the Emerson affair is controversial. Belinda Stronach’s defection to the Liberals triggered no inquiry. But even so, once the ethics commissioner has decided, rightly or wrongly, to launch an inquiry, the Prime Minister should set aside any reservations, and set an example by assisting.
While the Stronach defection saw no inquiry launched, in conjunction with that matter, then Conservative MP John Reynolds filed complaints against former Liberal Premier David Peterson with the Law Society of Upper Canada. Lets not forget our own ethical double standards.
Mar 7 (Bruce Cheadle, Canadian Press) Broadbent critizes Harper’s tactics to remove ethics czar
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s heavy-handed “boycott’’ of an ethics investigation has made the resignation of Parliament’s much-maligned ethics commissioner all but impossible, says former MP Ed Broadbent.
And that’s deeply ironic, said the veteran NDP parliamentarian, given that there was a broad consensus among MPs that Bernard Shapiro needed to go.
“The prime minister put him in a position that he can’t resign now. You can quote me on that,’’ Broadbent said in an interview Wednesday.
“It will look like he was hounded out of office and then it will make it difficult for anyone coming in to look like other than someone who is going to be totally acceptable to the prime minister.’’
So let Shapiro get on with the job, with the full assistance of everyone, including the PM, in the House.
EMERSON MUST RESIGN! By Andy Vine
Listen to the song
Well you can slice it you can dice it
You can write it on a sign
You can shout it you can tout it
You can even make it rhyme
But whichever way you view it
Rationalize it or construe it
Mr Emerson MUST RESIGN!!
Yes Emerson must resign
David Emerson must resign
Mr. Harper are you listening
It’s a democratic system
And Emerson must resign.
Complete lyrics are available on Vine’s website.
John Geddes, Ottawa Bureau Chief of Maclean’s magazine, writes in Harper’s Eleven (Maclean’s, March 8, 2006):
Critics suggest Harper is guilty of a petulant inability to work with those who fail to meekly fall in line; admirers point to his steady rise as evidence he has been proven right most of the time. Most recently, they say, polls showing Canadians weren’t really outraged by the Emerson defection vindicate Harper’s instinct to largely ignore the media frenzy.
Spin: Canadian’s don’t care about the Emerson affair.
Fact: Canadians do care. Vancouverites really care. And Vancouver-Kingsway residents care so much, they are enraged. The majority of Canadians, British Columbians and Vancouver-Kingsway residents all want one thing: Emerson’s resignation.
Supporting evidence:
- Ipsos-Reid poll of Canadians conducted on behalf of CanWest Global (Feb 7 to 9th) informs: 62% of those polled said that David Emerson should ”immediately resign his seat in the House of Commons and run in a by-election”.
- Ipsos-Reid poll of British Columbians (Feb 7 to 12th) where 62% were found to disapprove of David Emerson’s defection. Even in ridings where Conservative voters predominate, 75% of those polled want to see Emerson run again in a by-election. In the lower mainland, demand for a by-election rises to 79%.
- Mustel Group conducted a poll of Vancouver-Kingsway residents which
showed that 62% voted for the party, and answered the question ”Would you vote for David Emerson if ran as a Conservative candidate?” with a resounding 76% saying “no”.
- Underscoring the reality that people here voted for party and platform first, in a seperate Mustel Group poll, conducted on behalf of the Liberal Party before the start of the 2006 General Election, 90% of Vancouver-Kingsway residents contacted could not name a single accomplishment of then Liberal MP Emerson, and gave him a 34% approval rating.
- Two hours of Canadians calling into CBC‘s Cross Country Checkup (MP3 audio format)
Memo to John Geddes: Canadians are outraged, British Columbians are outraged, and Vancouverites are especially apoplectic in their response. Even many Conservatives, more privately than openly, are mad as hell – and we should be.
Hopeful opinion or selective quotation of what little favourable polling exists over the Emerson affair won’t change the reality on the ground: Most Canadians want David Emerson to run again as a Conservative, as he promises he will, not at some imaginary future date but right now.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper keeps forgetting who he works for, and why we have offices like the Ethics Commissioner.
The power to make cabinet appointments is a power that resides in the office of the Prime Minister as the highest democratically elected official in the country and this Prime Minister has no intension of acceding that jurisdiction in any way, shape or form to any government official. Prime Minister Stephen Harper
That’s not very accurate. Harper wasn’t elected Prime Minister, he was elected Member of Parliament representing the people of the electoral district of Calgary Southwest. No one elected him, democratically or otherwise, as “Prime Minister”.
Those that argue otherwise are buying into the “people more often vote for the party” argument, which is sensible, only many of those same people (in my party) argue that in David Emerson’s case, his constituents voted for the man, not the party. A nice turnabout, but inconsistent with reality.
Contemporary studies are virtually unanimous: most people make Party a primary consideration when they cast a ballot. Certainly in the recent David Emerson affair, we’ve all been well reminded that party still matters:
Of all respondents, 42% voted Liberal, 24% NDP and 14% CPC. Of those that voted Liberal, 23% voted for the candidate, David Emerson, 62% voted for the party. To the question, ?Would you vote for David Emerson if ran as a Conservative candidate??, the result was an astonishing 11% yes and 76% no. Mustel Group poll of Vancouver-Kingsway residents
Stephen Harper needs to remember that he wasn’t elected as Prime Minister by the people of this country, but he is sworn to do right by us. That means that his own ego and ideas need at times to take a back seat to the wishes of the people. In the case of the Harper-Emerson affair, he’s done us all wrong, and most of us – across this country – want things set right.
The people of Canada are on side with the people of my riding and the Vancouver area as a whole: we demand Emerson’s resignation and a by-election. Let Emerson put his fate in the hands of the people, as a Conservative.
A majority of Canadians believe David Emerson should “immediately resign” his Vancouver-Kingsway seat and run under the Tory banner in a byelection, a new opinion poll suggests.
Sixty-two per cent of Canadians polled said the former Liberal industry minister—who defected two weeks ago to the Conservatives to become international trade minister—should submit his political future to the will of the votes once again. CanWest News, reporting on a Canada-wide Ipsos Reid poll done in mid-February
Historically, the office of the Prime Minister is to be considered as “first among equals” – akin to the chair of a meeting, where all voices including the chair carry equal weight. Contemporarily we’ve seen the Office of the Prime Minister continue to gain much more power than the concept, which dates back from early English parliamentary tradition, originally intended.
Reform-oriented conservative thought in this country holds that the Prime Minister and his office hold too much power. As a reform-oriented thinker, Stephen Harper has yet to demostrate that he is interested in shedding any of that power.
Bringing the issue back to basics, our form of government is at its foundation based on the notion of consent, by the people, that we will be governed. The people have not consented to what David Emerson did and Harper enabled and thus it is incumbent upon the Prime Minister to set things right.
If Prime Minister Harper would only remember that people’s voices matter more than his own, we wouldn’t be in this mess today, and there would not now be an ethics investigation into the actions of our prime minister, less than one month after he was sworn in.
TONIGHT March 13: I’m told there’ll be an Emerson feature on tonight’s show – at 7:00pm Pacific. For other viewing times consult CBC‘s schedule
Past show online: On Friday March 3 the venerable Canadian comedic institution, Royal Canadian Air Farce, turned their guns on David Emerson. Nuggets within the clip for your cutting and pasting pleasure:
I’ve gotta tell you, I’m very proud to be a Liberal. David Emerson, on election day, January 23rd
We now know that Emerson was negotiating for a cabinet position with Harper’s middleman MP John Reynolds on January 24th. A very proud man indeed.
No one feels it as much as me, who saw this spring a determined attempt to lure various MP’s from our party with various offers of cabinet positions, ambassadorships – frankly outright bribes. Stephen Harper, during one of the English language leadership debates
Harper decried what he perceived as Liberal party attempts to steal MP’s, and then as one of his very first acts as PM, does exactly that.
Get to know your candidates. Get some sense of who they are and where they stand, whether they have integrity. Stephen Harper, during the debate
Sound advice Mr. Harper – but given your complicity in the Emerson affair, totally worthless. You’ve further undermined the integrity of the system, and your own credibility.
Air Farce concludes the clip, which is set in a garbage dump, with ”Now I know what that smell is – political hypocrisy.”