Crossing the floor shouldn't be easy

On Thursday I wrote a brief piece on legislation India has put in place, effectively creating a prohibition on floor crossing in that nation.

Tomorrow sometime after 12:30pm I’ll be on-air with broadcaster Gurpreet Singh on Radio India KVRI 1600AM. In late February Mr. Singh wrote an opinion piece featured in The Now, a bi-weekly community newspaper delivered to over 110,000 doorstops in the Surrey, White Rock and North Delta area. That’s largely Conservative territory.

In the light of the controversy sparked by the defection of David Emerson to the Conservatives, Canada should follow the example set by India, the world’s largest democracy, to stop political turncoats from deceiving voters.

… In 2003, the Indian government approved an anti-defection bill that allowed automatic disqualification of the defecting legislators. This legislation met initial opposition as it asked the defecting legislators to resign from the house and face a byelection.

It faced criticism from seasoned politicians who had changed parties more than once. However, the Union Cabinet formally approved the bill, making it into a law that brought disqualification to the defecting legislators in different states. In January this year, byelections were held in three assembly ridings in the Maharasthra state of India after legislators changed parties.

Canada would do well to follow India’s lead in this area. Encourage your MP’s and party to support floor-crossing prohibition legislation, and encourage activists working for real democracy in Canada.

Mr. Singh’s article concludes with a comment that cuts to the real heart of the matter:

Voters are not as foolish as some politicians believe. In federal elections, they largely vote for parties and not the candidates. If political turncoats think they have a right to change their hearts, they should have courage to go back to the voters.

What Emerson and Harper did required no political courage; they instead banked on voter apathy and short memories. That’s not leadership anyone can be proud of, and history will show their judgement to be wrong on both counts.