April 2006, (Paul Willcocks, BC Business) House of David
Instead of being celebrated as B.C.s champion in the new government, Emerson was roundly slagged as a symbol of politics gone wrong. He went into virtual hiding, ducking reporters and constituents, cancelling scheduled press conferences, a strategy dictated by the prime ministers office.
He was shattered enough that despite repeated requests over weeks and a general disposition to talk to BCBusiness at most times, he refused to be interviewed for this article. The man who once so visibly represented B.C. business interests is suddenly lurking in the shadows.
[The] B.C. star is badly tarnished.
Its only going to get worse.
Mike Watkins, April 2, 2006
VANCOUVER-KINGWAY – In a previous life, Emerson had plenty of time for the concerns of Collingwood Neighbourhood House, a centre funded through multiple levels of government, which provides a wide range of community services including highly regarded child care. Emerson had graced the centre with his presence a number of times in the past, including appearing there for two all-candidates debates, at the Centre’s request, on one occasion each in the 2004 and 2006 elections.
As a Liberal cabinet minister, Emerson had not only time but empathy and offered strong support for the centre’s mission. In previous meetings, Emerson “made it very clear that he was very supportive of our centre and was an advocate of child care and early learning programs,” according to Sharon Gregson, Director of Child Care Programs for Collingwood Neighbourhood House.
Speaking on behalf of Collingwood, Gregson said “our position is that we are confused, and we’ve requested a meeting with Minister Emerson in order to have him clarify his position on child care matters.”
Like many legitimate groups attempting to track down the peek-a-boo cabinet minister, they are still waiting, weeks later, for a response and answers to this day.
Collingwood, like other such centres in the city, is unable to meet the demand for its child care services. With more mothers than not participating in the paid workforce, there are not enough spaces to meet ever growing community needs. Citing a waiting list perennially measured in the hundreds, Gregson says that “our community needs child care funding” in order to meet expanding demands within the community, needs which are “particularly acute for infant and toddler child care”.
When asked about the Conservative election platform promise to provide tax cuts to businesses and organizations, Gregson pointed out research done by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada which showed a similar plan introduced in Ontario under Mike Harris’ government failed to deliver a single new child care space.
The reality of Ontario’s experience under the Harris government runs counter to the electioneering around the federal Conservative Party’s child subsidy gambit, an election promise of Stephen Harper’s which Liberal David Emerson pledged to fight, yet now as a Conservative cabinet minister, he is duty bound to support.
The federal Conservative ‘choice in child care plan’, reaffirmed after the election as a key government priority, doesn’t offer choices at all. Its a remix of a re-cycled Election 2004 promise – a personal tax credit, repackaged as a direct payment to parents to sell better during an election – with an empty promise that tax-credits ‘businesses and non-profit organizations’ will generate new child-care spaces. Harper says, without anything backing the assertion, the tax credit will generate 125,000 new spaces. Mike Harris said that too. Perhaps the idea came from Harris’s old finance minister, Jim Flaherty, which is now Stephen Harper’s new finance minister.
Non-profit organizations like Collingwood, which naturally pay no taxes, get no benefit whatsoever from tax credits. Like the Harris-Flaherty plan for Ontario, the Harper-Flaherty plan isn’t going to deliver for Canada’s working parents either.
What centres like Collingwood really need is capital funding for new space development, and reliable operational funding, not cuts which the current government has promised.
As the Conservative government has already announced that it will terminate certain federal funding programs as of next spring – creating significant funding shortfalls – what organizations like Collingwood really need is their Member of Parliament to come out of hiding and do his job. It remains to be seen how much longer Emerson can claim to be effective if his office won’t even acknowledge a request for a meeting, much less schedule one.
One can’t help but wonder if supporting child-care was one of the prices Emerson had to pay, in order to get elected – twice, as a liberal – but is a real child-care plan one of the things he’s entirely happy to throw away? His lack of responsiveness to apolitical groups, like Collingwood, and his principle preoccupation with bridges, ports, and trade seems to answer the question, even if he won’t.
If you are concerned about this issue visit www.buildchildcare.ca and sign their petition… and get informed!
Lets take an alphabetical look at the four major parties and what they’ve said on David Emerson.
Conservative Party: Officially – all for it. Emerson himself? He’s said he’s sorry some people are miffed, but tough luck, because he really doesn’t care.
The Green Party web site contains a couple of releases on the issue, including Lower Mainland Green Party Candidates Insist Emerson Resign and Emerson scandal points towards electoral reform.
Somewhat ironically, on their site is a link to a piece by Rafe Mair entitled Don’t Call My Vote ‘Wasted’, where he justifies his vote for the Green Party because “they have principles”. Apparently principles only go so far in Mair’s books, as he has been distinctly uncomfortable in fully criticizing what Emerson has done. One can appreciate Emerson for his abilities and accomplishments – if that stuff turns your crank – and still hold him to account for working against democracy. Mair seems unable to do that, but that’s his opinion, not the Green Party’s I’m sure.
Liberal Party: Liberals also chose to highlight the undemocratic actions of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper and the illegitimate David Emerson:
As Parliament resumes today for the 2006 Spring Session, Prime Minister Harper’s government prepares to face its peers in the House of Commons, with the exception of two key members of the Conservative cabinet who remain unaccountable – Minister of International Trade David Emerson and Minister of Public Works Michael Fortier.
Minister Emerson continues to hide from the people who elected him to Parliament. Nearly two months after crossing the floor to the Conservatives’ cabinet table, voters in Vancouver-Kingsway are still protesting his defection. Over 500 people marched through the streets of Vancouver on Sunday, demanding that Mr. Emerson resign and face his constituents in a by-election. More >
The Liberal Party web site contains a number of references to the Emerson Affair in its press release and news sections, including such gems as Emerson Spends Taxpayer Money to Avoid National Media and David Emerson’s Party – In his Own Words, where Emerson warns Canadians against voting for the party that he was in secret negotiations to join, less than 24 hours after last election’s ballots were counted.
New Democratic Party: Jack Layton, leader of the NDP, mentions our errant member of parliament in his recent speech made on the occasion of the re-opening of parliament:
What can we say about the Conservative time in office so far? Nothing much, actually. New governments traditionally get a honeymoon with the public, if only because ministers are too busy learning their files to implement many controversial decisions. So it is with Harper’s lean cabinet. The surprise appointment of David Emerson was a nine-day wonder in the media, although it must be said that the anger will last much longer in the turncoat minister’s Vancouver riding.
The NDP have a section on their web site dedicated to the floor crossing issue.
Only the NDP and Green Party appear interested in serious democratic reforms designed to give more power to the Canadian Public via proportional representation. The NDP stands behind specific legislation that would prohibit floor crossing (by requiring a by-election) – its not clear what the stand of the Liberal Party or the Greens are on that specific issue. Feel free to enlighten me at info at realdemocracy.ca.
As David Emerson – illegitimately in the eyes of most observers – takes his seat in the House of Commons, elsewhere in Canada citizens continue to demand his resignation. His response? He holds us all in contempt and declares ”I don’t care.”
April 4 (Rick Smith, Thunder Bay’s Source) One Man’s Opinion – Democracy
We think our young people are being killed and maimed in Afghanistan so we can introduce those people to democracy and the great Canadian slash American way. Why dont we try to restore democracy to this country first? Do you know that only 36% of Canadians say this country is governed by the will of the people? And the survey that turned up that sentiment was conducted long before Stephen Harper and David Emerson displayed their disgusting disregard for democracy and the will of the people.
That same survey results tell us that half of us dont trust the politicians we elect. And why should we?
Its clear that Harper and Emerson consider the Canadian people as a mere annoyance.
April 4 (CP, National Post) Emerson urged to ‘call home’
He said Emerson won’t agree to a public meeting over his defection and dismisses protests as the work of partisan activists.
“I know most of the people who have been involved in these protest campaigns and I know for a fact that they are ordinary citizens who want to exercise their right to speak to their member of Parliament,” Pereda said.
April 4 (Canadian Press, Hamilton Spectator) Protest in plane sight for Emerson
MPs arriving for the opening of Parliament were greeted by a small plane circling overhead towing a banner reading “David Emerson: call home.”
“Regardless of what Harper says, regardless of what the ethics commissioner says, this is a moral issue,” Pereda stressed. “Politicians should not be allowed to cross the floor the day after they got elected.”
April 4 (Alan Findlay, Ottawa Sun) Protesters buzz about the House
Also carried in the Toronto Sun and Edmonton Sun
April 3 (CBC News) Emerson recall protest takes to the sky
“We’ve been receiving e-mails from all across Canada. People want us to send lawn signs, just ordinary people who want to participate in this because they see they also have something at stake,” he said. “They see that they have a very small voice. We only get to elect one member of Parliament, and when that one member of Parliament crosses the floor, the value of our vote becomes zero.”
CBC B.C. Almanac’s Mark Forsythe speaks with Maneul Pereda and takes calls – Real Audio
April 4 (CP, Toronto Sun) Turner seated in Tory ‘Siberia’
OTTAWA—Tory MP Garth Turner, who managed to get labelled a maverick even before Parliament met, has been banished to the Commons equivalent of Siberia in the new seating plan.
He got himself into hot water with his party just days after the election when he criticized David Emerson’s defection from the Liberals to Stephen Harper’s cabinet.
In his latest blog posting, he said he understands his critics. “I have spoken my mind since being elected, and repeatedly stated who I am working for, which is the voters and not my party,” he wrote.
Turner is one of the few MP’s in the House of Commons that appears to really get it. He works for the people, not the prime minister. Emerson should be working for, and listening to, his people, not the business elite of British Columbia.
April 4 (Neil Waugh, Edmonton Sun) It’s trouble all over
Yesterday, while Conservative MPs were filing back into the House of Commons, a wise guy rented an airplane with a banner that read “David Emerson – Call Home.”
Emerson has been hounded by his former Vancouver Liberal and NDP constituents since he crossed the floor. And the former forest company CEO got a cabinet job for doing it. My man Myron Thompson didn’t. There is no justice.
Meanwhile, Emerson stopped making public appearances when the heat started.
April 4 (Editorial, The Montreal Gazette) Honeymoon is over as Tories get to work
What can we say about the Conservative time in office so far? Nothing much, actually. New governments traditionally get a honeymoon with the public, if only because ministers are too busy learning their files to implement many controversial decisions. So it is with Harper’s lean cabinet. The surprise appointment of David Emerson was a nine-day wonder in the media, although it must be said that the anger will last much longer in the turncoat minister’s Vancouver riding.
On the Early Edition this morning former MLA‘s and now political pundits Rafe Mair and Moe Sihota talk briefly about Emerson. A very rough transcript:
Mair: First of all, it was a cruddy thing he did (you can almost hear the but coming). Secondly, some of our friends are a little hypocritical (goes on to cite other floor crossers). Thirdly its too bad that a man with this quality [be dragged down] because he couldn’t get elected as dog catcher in any other constituency in Canada now. (his own fault)
Sihota: He knows full well that he’s done like dinner.
Mair: The time comes when you let it go… he’ll never get re-elected in Vancouver-Kingsway, we know that.
No doubt Mair and Emerson both would like people to drop their opposition and protests, but it isn’t going to happen. People of all political stripes are fed up with allowing those who swear to serve us, screw us.
Note: Emerson will be on CBC‘s On the Coast this afternoon at approximately 5:10pm where host Priya Ramu will pose listener questions to the undemocratic Minister. Got a question? Leave a message on the show’s Talk Back line, 604 662–6979.