Wally Oppal doesn't get it
BC’s Attorney General Wally Oppal doesn’t understand why citizens oppose the Emerson defection. In a chance downtown encounter on Monday this week, Oppal ran into De-Elect Emerson Campaign and Real Democracy volunteers staging a “sign-in” near the Vancouver Art Gallery. Oppal declined to sign the petitions to David Emerson and Prime Minister Harper.
Instead, he chose to lecture campaign volunteers on how good Emerson is for British Columbia, until, apparently realizing the foolish position he was taking, walked off smiling and saying somewhat condescendingly “keep up the good work”.
Oppal, despite being a former British Columbia justice, doesn’t get democracy. Government exists because the people will it. MLAs and MP’s are there to work for us, not answer to the bidding of some mythical riding called the “BC Business Community”. Whether the goals of business and the people are aligned or not is not the issue.
I’m a Conservative who believes in responsible business development and its my opinion that business will look after its own interests, whether or not Emerson sits on the government side of the House of Commons. Emerson’s appointment was simply unnecessary to move international trade, ‘gateway’ and Olympic files forward, but we can speculate that his appointment was nevertheless actively sought by highly-placed BC politicians and business people. Emerson is ‘their’ guy, after all.
What Harper and Emerson did further undermines public confidence in our system of government, very obviously is against the will of the constituency, and sets and reinforces bad precedents which further weaken the Canadian tradition of an elected and accountable cabinet. No Conservative, Liberal or NDP supporter, regardless of their views on business, can support this and claim to be a true democrat.
Canadian born, Oppal also seems to be out of touch with the sentiment of the Indo-Canadian community which is part of his own heritage. Perhaps next time Oppal has his name on a ballot, that community will send him a message. Chances are Oppal won’t be the only BC politician that pays a price for supporting Emerson.