David Emerson: Media Watch
Media Highlights for Friday through Monday March 13 2006 – David Emerson
Updated through the day until the end of the day.
March 13 (Editorial, The Toronto Star) PM’s commitment to ethics falls flat
Flash forward to 2006. We’ve had two elections. A different party is in power now. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who made his commitment to ethics a key part of his election platform, is refusing to co-operate with Shapiro.
Harper takes issue with Shapiro’s investigation into David Emerson’s quick conversion to the Conservative values, not to mention his appointment to cabinet, just days after the election in January. He says he won’t co-operate, and says the ethics commissioner has no right to decide who is named to the cabinet.
But that’s not the point.
This isn’t the first time that Harper has refused to work with Shapiro. Last year, when former Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal said the Liberals were trying to get him to switch sides, Harper could find no time to meet with the ethics commissioner.
Granted, Shapiro’s performance has come under fire from all sides. But he is still the ethics commissioner, and the law specifies that MPs are to co-operate with him.
Like it or not, the Ethics Commissioner has an obligation to follow up on complaints and unless the office is treated with respect, and all parties cooperate with inquiries, Canadians will see any attempt to establish ethics as a core value in government as a complete sham. Harper has no choice but to cooperate, and if the inquiry is completely without merit, he and Emerson will be exonerated.
March 13 (Editorial, The Winnipeg Sun) Bogus indignation
We wish that Harper had not found it necessary to appoint Emerson to cabinet, particularly after campaigning on a mantra of accountability and ethics. In fact we think he was downright silly to invite criticism so early in his mandate and we have suggested in the past that Emerson step aside to avoid derailing the government’s agenda.
Harper’s decision was wrong at the time and remains wrong today and citizens here in my riding are not going to simply forget this issue.
March 12 (Burnaby NewsLeader reproduced in the Chilliwack Progress) Watchdog needed
So much for cleaning up government and lessening the power of the prime minister’s office. Harper’s actions amount to bullying what is supposed to be an independent watchdog.
If the PM is so convinced he’s done nothing wrong, then he should let the investigation proceed unencumbered.
March 13 (John Pigeon, 24 Hours) All out against Emerson
David Emerson briefly addressed protesters from his Kingsway riding on Friday during a construction kick-off ceremony for the Olympic Village.
Emerson called protest organizer Kevin Chalmers a “partisan zealot” after he snuck into the ceremony and demanded Emerson address the protesters not allowed to attend.
Saturday protesters could be seen handing out pin-on labels to Kingsway constituents that read “partisan zealot.”
Setting the record straight: Kevin Chalmers was not the protest organizer. Earlier in the week, upon learning about the scheduled event, people self-organized and attended thanks to a flurry of emails and phone calls going out from citizen to citizen. Edit: Kevin and I have had a long talk about strategy and coordination and have come to agree that we must work together. He recognizes my concern that ultimately Emerson and Harper’s spin doctors reliance on the “partizan zealot” line will gain more traction with the public. There’s no doubt that Chalmers is an active liberal, just as I am a committed conservative. What makes this on-going effort to bring justice to my riding so unique is that we have people from across the spectrum working together, regardless of political differences.
March 11 (Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun) Protesters follow Emerson to Olympic launching
It was an Olympic moment that became another David Emerson story.
A rare public appearance Friday by the once-Liberal, now- Conservative cabinet minister from Vancouver-Kingsway upstaged an invitation-only ceremony to mark start of construction on Vancouver’s Olympic Village in Southeast False Creek.
Emerson began his speech by saying he had enjoyed the Turin Winter Olympics partly because they “gave the TV channels something to run other than David Emerson stories.”
Alas, for the minister, this particular Olympic story became another David Emerson story when the City of Vancouver announced he would be among speakers at the Olympic Village photo-op.
Just as he completed his recitation of the benefits the Olympics will bring B.C., the party was crashed by one of the protesters.
Chalmers, chairman of the Campaign to De-Elect David Emerson, has been an active federal and provincial Liberal and a senior volunteer on both of Emerson’s campaigns in Vancouver-Kingsway.
Setting the record straight: Chalmers didn’t crash the party – he basically walked in quietly, blending in with others who were going in to the invite-only event. I’d arrived long before the ceremony started and he was apparently already inside – we did not learn that until much later. Edit: We’d have prefered some coordination as those outside felt a little silly – we’d made the joint decision to respect the ceremony. Its important to remember that there are Olymipic boosters and critics in our non-partisan group of folks. Excercising respect has become a hallmark of our campaign to draw attention to Emerson and force his resignation.
March 13 (Carol Goar, The Toronto Star) Political parties ripe for reform
Imagine how you’d feel if you had slogged the streets of Vancouver in January to get Liberal candidate David Emerson elected and he blithely announced, two weeks after the vote, that he’d defected to the Conservatives because it seemed like a “logical move.” Evidently the minister of international trade didn’t.
It’s post-election season and once again the politicians, academics, pollsters and lobbyists are warning that public cynicism is running dangerously high. Some think Parliament needs an overhaul. Some say the electoral system is out of date. Some blame the media for focusing on conflict at the expense of ideas.
But one group is exploring less familiar – and more fertile – ground.
The Public Policy Forum, a non-partisan think-tank, and Crossing Boundaries, a national council that brings together representatives from all levels of government, are looking at the chasm that has developed between citizens and political parties.
“Today, few Canadians see parties as relevant vehicles for political action,” says Graham Fox, who is heading the project. ”More troublingly, partisan activity is now seen as base and even essentially corrupt.”
No surprise, given how willingly my party is pursuing the “power at all costs” path that others have travelled. See Rethinking Political Parties (PDF), a discussion paper put out by the Public Policy Forum.
March 13 (The Ottawa Citizen) Ethics is everyone’s job
Why did everyone want an independent ethics commissioner, again? It doesn’t seem like such a great idea now, although I know I favoured it once.
_March 12 (Jim Fox, Myrtle Beach Online) Prime minister faces threat of censure
Opposition politicians in Canada’s Parliament are threatening a motion of censure over Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s refusal to cooperate with an ethics investigation. At issue is the decision by David Emerson of Vancouver to abandon the defeated Liberal government after his election in January to join Harper’s Conservative Cabinet.
March 11 (Peter O’Neil, Vancouver Sun) Complaint raises Emerson ‘conflict’
OTTAWA—Trade Minister David Emerson is in an apparent conflict as Canada’s lead negotiator in the Canada-U.S. trade dispute because he still has a financial stake in the forestry giant Canfor Corp., according to a complaint sent Friday to Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro.
The formal complaint, filed by Liberal trade critic Dominic LeBlanc and provided exclusively to The Vancouver Sun and CanWest News Service, is based on the $167,000 annual pension Emerson still receives from a company that could benefit enormously if the dispute is resolved.
If accepted by Shapiro as a legitimate basis for an inquiry, the complaint is sure to add to Emerson’s woes since he bolted from the Liberals to join Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet two weeks after the Jan. 23 election.
Also published in other CanWest newspapers across the country including the Ottawa Citizen.
March 11 (CTV News) Emerson booed at Vancouver Olympic ceremony
International Trade Minister David Emerson was greeted by booing protestors as he helped kickoff Vancouver’s push to the Olympics at a ground-breaking ceremony Friday afternoon in the heart of the city. Emerson has been embroiled in controversy over his post-election decision to cross the floor from the Liberal Party and accept a cabinet post with the Conservatives. Many of his constituents have demanded he step down, or face a byelection.
Angry protesters kept in fenced-off area during invitation-only sod-turning event.
Despite the tight security, one of Mr. Emerson’s harshest critics—once one of his most loyal volunteers—managed to elude guards at the gate and heckled the minister when he finished his remarks. Kevin Chalmers said Mr. Emerson can duck his constituents, but protesters are turning up the pressure and the volume.
Edit: Its too bad that the press focussed – as Emerson no doubt prefers – on Chalmer’s ties to Emerson’s former party; the real story is how diverse the opposition to Emerson is. Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, Green, new-voters, old-hands, Red Tories, blue Reformers, you name it. Now if only my Conservative friends who disagree with what Harper and Emerson did would speak up, we’d see a resignation sooner than later.
March 11 (The Halifax Herald) Emerson heckled in Vancouver
VANCOUVER (Steve Mertl, CP) – Embattled Tory cabinet minister David Emerson was heckled Friday as his presence overshadowed a ceremony kicking off construction of Vancouver’s Olympic village.
I spoke with reporter Steve Mertl at length, as did others from our group. His column was carried in a number of Canadian papers and also in the Macleands news weekly in their on-line version.
March 11 (Kathleen Harris, Sun News) Ethics boss asked to probe Stronach’s floor crossing
OTTAWA—The NDP wants the ethics commissioner to widen his ethics probe to include Belinda Stronach’s switch to the Liberals.
Floor crossing, especially when the MP lands in cabinet, is worthy of a closer look, no matter which party is the beneficiary. Emerson’s case is not only the most recent, but also the most egregious breach of trust and everyday ethics, no matter what the Ethics Commissioner finds in his report.
March 11 (James Travers, The Toronto Star) Harper has forgotten the election lesson
Voters expected things to change – In doing almost everything right, Harper is doing one thing wrong: He is ignoring that the tiny village clustered below the Peace Tower adjusts its behaviour to the Prime Minister. And on the issue that remains the talk of this town, Harper’s behaviour is a nasty amalgam of spoilt child and arrogant adult.
Sometime between winning the election and forming a cabinet, Harper forgot that the current Conservative success is directly connected to the very public failure of Liberal situational ethics. Somehow it slipped a shrewd mind that Canadians tentatively trusted him with power expecting it would be applied differently; that he would do what he said, not what is expedient.
Not only did Canadians expect this but most of his party’s members demand this and they have been let down. Mr. Harper had better refocus his attention to principles, not power, or he won’t be in power for long.