Harper: Don't tell me I have to listen to the people
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.