Embarassed

One of the reports on yesterday’s pro-democracy protest highlights something I’m not sure has been noted before. News 1130 caught my frank admission:

One of the demonstrators finds himself in a very embarrassing situation. Mike Watkins has been a card-carrying Conservative for years and tells News1130 it’s time for Emerson to step down and face a by-election… He says for all those years the Conservatives complained about the poor ethics of the Liberals it’s time for the party to stand up and show that they have a little more backbone.

That’s absolutely correct. When I turned on the live coverage of the swearing in ceremony on February 6th I expected to be pleased with many of Harper’s appointments to cabinet. Instead I was shocked, angered and embarrassed that in our first act of governing the country, after over a decade of promising that we’d do things better, our new prime minister pulled off such an undemocratic and unprincipled trick on Canadians. The appointments of David Emerson and Michael Fortier are a permanent stain on the record of this government, and will cost us votes in the next election.