David Emerson: Media Watch
Media Highlights for Friday March 24 2006
Media Watch is updated through the day until the end of the day.
Vancouver Sun columnist / CanWest News syndicated journalist Barbara Yaffe hits it out of the park today. I’m very impressed with the response from editorialists and journalists over the past six weeks. They get it. The people on the street certainly get it, and their support is what keeps our growing group of democracy-loving activists going.
March 24 (Barbara Yaffe, CanWest News) By-election only solution
Harper’s smug response to Shapiro’s report?
“The attacks on David Emerson have, since his appointment, been nothing more than a partisan effort to demean his fine record of public service.”
Harper should do some fact-finding around Vancouver. I’ve not detected significant partisanship in the protests under way.
Seventy per cent of Emerson-related messages in my e-mailbag suggest people—of assorted political stripes—are furious because they believe democracy is under assault.
The other 30 per cent say the Emerson switch is no big deal and he should be left to do his job.
Few are disputing Emerson’s fine record of public service. Rather, those opposing his switch assert that he must not be allowed to thumb his nose at those who donated to him as a Liberal, who actively volunteered to get his party elected and who bothered voting for him as a Liberal.
If we yawn when Emerson or Belinda Stronach crosses the floor, that’s the beginning of the end of our voting system.
That is of course the real issue at hand here. And the solution…
Emerson and his sponsor, Harper, should begin a dialogue with the sizable number of politically diverse Vancouverites who feel democracy has taken a hit, or just admit they’ve made an egregious error and arrange a byelection.
But first, Harper needs to dismount his high horse.
A request for a town hall meeting has been made. Like many groups who have made legitimate requests of Emerson’s office, there has been no response, not even an acknowledgement of receipt or a caustic “thanks but no thanks” from the beleagured MP.
It gives me no pleasure to criticize my party or the party leader, but when there is truly no other option, no party member should shirk from their responsibility to speak out for what is right. In this saga, its only Harper and Emerson that don’t get it, or pretend not to. In either case, they’ll pay for that, sooner or later.
March 24 (Editorial, Brockville Recorder) Time for Harper to consider criticism of Emerson switch
No doubt the Liberals in particular seized on the issue to hammer the government, but it is preposterous for Harper to suggest the opposition to Emerson’s floor-crossing was entirely partisan.
In fact, many Conservative voters were among the fiercest critics of what happened.
Stephen Harper was elected prime minister in no small measure because he promised to clean up the sleaze and end the backroom deals that have characterized Ottawa for some time.
Yet one of his first acts was to orchestrate just such a sleazy deal.
If Harper is to be a success as prime minister, he must emerge from his bunker and listen to what Canadians are telling him, rather than simply dismissing all criticism as mere partisanship.
Conservative Gord Brown is the Leeds, Grenville Member of Parliament. Maybe its time for the Recorder to push Brown for an opinion too. Why wait – send him your opinion and a call to action by writing Brown at gordbrown@ripnet.com and Brown.G@parl.gc.ca.
March 24 (Heather Mallick, CBC News) Just when did ethics get like this?
Modern ethics have changed so much that we need a new word for them. I decided this after hearing that the ethics commissioner concluded no rules were broken when Stephen Harper talked MP David Emerson into turning Conservative and graciously accepting a cabinet post two weeks after Emerson was elected as a Liberal.
Theres an appropriate new word in English but I doubt the CBC would print it. So we shall turn to Indonesia and call modern ethics “TST.” This is short for Tahu Sama Tahu, and it means “you know it, I know it.” Indonesians use it to refer to a deal between two people, one usually a government official, to cheat the state.
I’ve another new term, a suggestion which perhaps Mallick might pick up on. Home-grown Canadiana, printable, but growing more distasteful day by day. emersoned, a synonym for wronged:
emerson imp. & p. p. emersoned: p. pr & vb. n. emersoning
To treat with injustice; to deprive of some right, or to withhold some act of justice from; to do undeserved harm to; to deal unjustly with; to injure.
I think the usage is likely to catch on. Of course many have always felt, evidently rightly so, that ‘politician’ is a synonym for ‘wrong’, too.
March 23 (Letters, The Georgia Straight) David Emerson: the Tory gigolo we wont forget
The Harper Gang called Belinda Stronach a Liberal whore when she crossed the floor. Now we all should call David Emerson a Tory gigolo. If Mr. Emerson really wants to serve the country, he should step down and become a deputy minister in the International Trade Ministry. But of course he wont, because there is no prestige there. Tim Ngai, Abbotsford
I just wanted to thank you for keeping the Dave Emerson case in public thought by reporting on it still six weeks after his defection. Those seeking justice in his affront to democracy rely on media attention, since the government wont respond to our messages directly. You enable our collective voicethank you. Tess Kitchen, Vancouver-Kingsway
March 21 (Letters, Toronto Star) Ethics about acting in good faith
Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro concludes, “technically there has been no violation to the rules of conduct” and both Stephen Harper and David Emerson huddle spinelessly behind this fig leaf of an excuse. I say to Harper and Emerson, ethics is about keeping your word and acting in good faith; it is about judgment based on inner values. Mere compliance with the rules is the ethical choice of cowards. Your behaviour perpetuates a sordid pattern in Canadian government. Paul Collier