June 2006 Archives
6 entries filed this month:
At Collingwood Neighbourhood House this evening, from 7–9pm, residents of Vancouver—Kingsway will hold a Town Hall Meeting, because we all know that our member of parliament-in-hiding, David Emerson, will never hold one himself.
Tonight will be the first of many such meetings, and our goal is to listen to residents of the riding and document what the concerns, issues and priorities of the constituents of the riding are. A comprehensive report will be prepared and forwarded off to parliamentarians – even to Emerson.
Rumour alert: Heard everywhere, a persistent rumour that Emerson is planning on running in another riding – speculation points to one of the North Shore ridings, such as West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, John Reynolds’ old riding.
Such a move wouldn’t surprise anyone – Emerson hasn’t a hope of being elected anywhere in Vancouver, even in tony Point Grey, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the now-retired Reynolds pull out all the stops for one of his buds to try to get him re-elected elsewhere.
If true, this move will only serve to underscore how unseemly a politician Emerson really is, unable to face the music and his constituents at any level. If you’ve got any details to share, send me a note at info@realdemocracy.ca.
Stephen Harper made the Federal Accountability Act a cornerstone of the Conservative campaign in the last election. Unfortunately, when it comes to accountability, Mr. Harper is talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Bringing David Emerson into the Conservative cabinet, indeed, starting negotiations to do same the very day after the last federal election, proved to Canadians that our political system isn’t about accountability but power.
We all have a chance, right now, to help influence the situation. Let members of parliament know that Canadians haven’t forgotten what Emerson did on February 6th, haven’t forgotten the duplicitous dealing that started, with Harper’s knowledge and permission, less than 24 hours after the final ballots had been counted.
Bill C-2, the Federal Accountability Act, is now being discussed in committee, and the time to act if this incomplete legislation is to be improved is right now. Express your opinion by emailing ASAP all committee members. Ask them why floor crossing prohibition was not part of the original bill, and urge them to vote in favour of amendments that would bring a real prohibition into effect.
The committee is comprised of members from all parties and their emails, and those of the party leaders are:
cc2@parl.gc.ca, burkem@parl.gc.ca (Miriam Burke-Bill C-2 Committee clerk), Tilson.D@parl.gc.ca, Poilievre.P@parl.gc.ca, Lukiwski.T@parl.gc.ca, Moore.R@parl.gc.ca, Moore.J@parl.gc.ca, Petit.D@parl.gc.ca, Owen.S@parl.gc.ca, Jennings.M@parl.gc.ca, Tonks.A@parl.gc.ca, martin.p@parl.gc.ca, Sauvageau.B@parl.gc.ca, Guay.M@parl.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, harper.s@parl.gc.ca, Graham.B@parl.gc.ca, jack@fed.ndp.ca, ducepg@parl.gc.ca
For my part I plan to say that I do not favour the amendment put forward on behalf of the Liberal party by Stephen Owen, which calls for a limited and hamstrung “recall” procedure which puts the onus on voters to reject and recall a MP. I’d like to see the NDP motion supported and ideally taken even further, and shall comment more on each in due course.
Get your pens / keyboards out and write!
This evening a number of pro-democracy folks will gather outside in the rain in front of the tony Vancouver Club (corner of Hornby and Hastings) in order to demonstrate once more that politicians who toy with the votes of citizens will pay a price.
Inside, in warmth and substantial comfort, lumber execs and politicians will roast David Emerson as they hold him up as ‘lumberman of the year’. Outside in the rain, folks from all walks of life will foresake comfort in order to make a point.
We can guess what the invited guests will think of our protest. Been there, done that. Democracy for many of these people appears to mean very little.
Perhaps Jack Poole (assuming he’s invited), that beacon of fair play and justice who heads up the 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee, will laugh at us simple citizens, again.
Yesterday at City Hall, Sam Sullivan mocked our concerns. Again. On noting a protest sign which crticized slippery Sam’s approval of the duplicitous David Emerson, Mayor Sam remarked “oh goody, a sign for me too”.
Next election – federal, provincial or municipal – there’ll be a number of politicians who have their spoken and written record regarding the Emerson affair come back to bite them.
And if it doesn’t rain too hard, we’ll have appetizers and drinks outside… join us!
News of 17 arrests in Ontario resulting from a lengthy counter-terrorism investigation will dominate Canadian media coverage for most of this week.
I wonder how long it will take before any reporter dares to look at the real elephant in the room, the question of ‘why’?
Don’t hold your breath.
While various fans and critics of the proposed softwood lumber deal with the U.S. continue to dog it out, one industry group has seen fit to honour David Emerson as “Lumberman of the Year” at their annual roast, despite him having left the lumber business years ago.
No doubt an image consultant or spin doctor thought it would be a good idea to boost Emerson’s image.
The people of Emerson’s riding have another idea. A twin-roast will take place just outside the industry’s celebrations at the haughty Vancouver Club. June 8th – plan to be there!
Last week on CBC‘s Almanac show the former MP John Reynolds made a brief appearance, the day after he was lauded for his political career.
When asked about the Emerson controversy Reynolds dismissed continued protests as the work of just a handful of angry people, and, using the black-tie and tiara crowd who attended his dinner the night before as evidence, said that everyone else is behind Emerson. The Almanac host let Reynolds get away with this crass dismissal of reality.
Over the weekend in the neighbouring riding of Vancouver South we watched one of our sons perform with his class at the South Hill Festival. Like last year I ran into MP Ujjal Dosanjh, and cornered him on an issue.
Last year Dosanjh was in the news for his role in the distasteful Gurmant Grewal affair, where the former Conservative MP made an abortive attempt to defect to the Liberals (with a hidden tape recorder running all the while). No one, least of all Grewal, came out of that smelling nice.
This year I rather thought Dosanjh might redeem himself with voters and support legislation which would prohibit floor-crossing such as what Emerson has subjected voters to. His answer? No.
Dosanjh is leaning on the lame argument that a floor crossing bill would only result in giving party leaders even more power. This is nonsense. Any reasonable legislation can deal with this, and no leader is going to risk public outrage by forcing members out of caucus willy nilly.
MP’s ought to be accountable to their constituents first. They work for us, not for party leaders or prime ministers.
Why do only a handful of Liberal and Conservative MP’s appear to get this?