Matched Set of Unethical Bookends

Help yourself to the images.

On Friday January 5, 2007, Mississauga—Streetsville M.P. Wajid Khan flips the bird to his constituents, 45% of home believed they sent a member which supported the Liberal Party aims and goals. “Just kidding, kept you fooled”, we imagine Khan saying to no-one in particular.

One year earlier, on January 23rd, 2006, voters sent Liberal cabinet minister David Emerson back to Ottawa to represent Vancouver—Kingsway from the Opposition benches, expecting Emerson to live up to his election-eve promise to be Stephen Harper’s “worst enemy”. Despite riding electors overwhelmingly rejecting the Conservatives, before the ink on the election returns was even dry, the very next morning Emerson was in secret negotiations with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. His reward? A new cabinet position.

Vancouver—Kingsway constituents didn’t even get a t-shirt, much less a responsive member of parliament, out of the dirty deal.

These and other politicians have sold themselves during elections as standing for a set of policies and principles when in reality we’ve seen them deliver completely contradictory performances. The jaded will sigh and exclaim “its just business as usual”, but in reality we’ve been witnessing an escalation of the devaluation of the very meaning of our vote and democracy. Thankfully many Canadians were shaken from their slumber and are awake to the danger confronting our society.

The public reaction to the Emerson Affair proved that apathy no longer rules; that people will demand more than pithy promises and loose moral performances from their politicians. Just wait until the next election when voters across the country are reminded just how little some political leaders value their votes. After all, Stephen Harper has proven twice now in one parliament that if you don’t vote for him, Harper will not think twice about stealing your vote.

Its time to get tough on such crimes and put Harper behind bars.

Figuratively speaking there of course—a permanent electoral timeout will suffice.