David Emerson: Media Watch
Media coverage of the Emerson Affair for Thursday April 6
Updates to come as the day rolls on
April 6 1:00pm (CFML) Interview with Kevin Chalmers
April 6 (Matthew Burrows, The Georgia Straight) Emerson tops 20K
Liberal-turned-Conservative MP David Emerson has garnered more protest-petition votes than he did official federal-election votes. In the January 23 federal election, then-Liberal Emerson won with 20,062 votesâ43 percent in the Vancouver Kingsway ridingâbefore crossing the floor to the Conservatives. NDP candidate Ian Waddell was second with 15,470 votes, with Conservative Kanman Wong collecting 8,679.
Now, in an on-line petition – www.RecallDavidEmerson.com – Emerson has amassed 20,602 votes as of the afternoon of April 4. (The count can be viewed at www.PetitionOnline.com/RDE.) Grand Bend, Ontario, resident David Campbell started the petition on February 8.
David Emerson sets another record. When was the last time a newly elected politician had that many people calling for his resignation within weeks? More people have called for his resignation than have voted for him in the first place. There’s no doubt in my mind at all – if we had effective recall legislation at the federal level, we’d already have the signatures required to oust Emerson.
April 5 (Jim Newton, Woodstock Sentinel-Review) It’s all about the power, period
Tory Cabinet minister David Emerson wonders why there wasn?t an inquiry into the defection of Belinda Stronach to the Liberals, when her vote was critical to former prime minister Paul Martin?s survival.
Why me, he asks, in reference to hue and cry raised by his Liberal constituents, who felt betrayed when he crossed the floor to take a Conservative cabinet post. The answer is simple. Stephen Harper ran on a corruption platform, promising to clean house in Bytown.
The bottom line is that Harper is at fault, furthering the long-held and widespread perception that politics is a shady business all about power. A politician must not only be above reproach but, more importantly, appear to be. This has the appearance of a man, once seated on the throne, thumbing his nose at the 30-something per cent of Canadians who put him there, notwithstanding his assertion that Emerson had sterling credentials for the job. It harms the party system, lending credence to the opinion of many that voting is simply the choosing of the lesser of two evils. Canadians deserved better…
April 6 (Paul Collier, Toronto Star) `Dangers’ not as great as disease
The editors (of the Thunder Bay Chronicle Herald) repeat yet another hollow argument in favour of the status quo. The “guarantee of regional representation” is worthless. Who believes the Prime Minister and his cabinet really pay any attention to their ridings between elections? And what do party hoppers like Belinda Stronach and David Emerson represent except their own ambition? It’s time to wake up to the fact that retaining the present electoral system is like rejecting therapy for cancer. Each treatment has its own “hidden dangers” but not nearly so great as the disease.
David Emerson believes he is serving his constituents, but there is no riding for “BC Business interests”. Like the land of Narnia, such a riding is mythical in nature, playing out only in the heads of Emerson and no doubt more than a few other politicians. What Emerson did is wrong, and clearly is a classic symptom of a chronic disease. Its time to excise this cancer.