Emerson: I never was a Liberal

Friday on CBC Radio's popular morning show The Early Edition as a parting question host Rick Cluff asked Emerson if he had any regrets. Emerson responded that he'd been a bit too partisan in the latter stage of the campaign.

One can understand why Emerson would say such a thing, since he's been trying in vain to portray himself as above partisanship, even as he continues to engage in partisanship.

On Cluff's show Emerson declared "I never was a Liberal".

Yet Emerson was twice elected as a Liberal having twice ran very partisan campaigns. In the 2006 election he used fear tactics claiming Harper had a right-wing agenda to slash social programs, and in his election night victory speech he vowed to become Stephen Harper's worst nightmare.

On election night 2006:

“We have got to look at this as Ground Zero for rebuilding a stronger, more vibrant, healthier, winning Liberal Party.” David Emerson

During Election 2006:

"It's now not just, 'Can Stephen Harper mount a credible campaign?' It's people now having to decide, 'Can we really live with what Stephen Harper will deliver?'

"And I have to tell you, I have never seen a right-wing government in all of my life, and I've been in government or near government for 32 years, I have never seen a Conservative government that didn't come in, in the first year or two and slash social programs, raise taxes and create an awful lot of havoc that they did not disclose before the election." (CBC News, February 6 2006)

Yet Emerson was not acting in a partisan manner only during Election 2006. Two years earlier during Election 2004:

“Either they’re going to take us into a big Mulroney debt or they will be slashing social programs,” said Emerson. “I’ve heard right-wing governments say for years they were going to save money by reducing inefficiency,” he said. “It’s a bunch of horsefeathers. It doesn’t happen. If you don’t cut programs, you don’t reduce expenses.” (Vancouver Sun, June 5, 2004)

In 2004 while addressing a convention of B.C. federal Liberals Emerson said:

They [British Columbians] have a sense of compassion for those in society who are vulnerable, through circumstances out of their control. British Columbians do not want people left behind. They believe in equality – equality of opportunity, equality of treatment, equality under the law… they believe in social justice. These are widely held beliefs, here in BC, and across Canada. I’m an optimistic Liberal because those are my beliefs. And I am Liberal because those are Liberal beliefs.

Restating the obvious, Emerson ran as a Liberal twice, was a sitting Liberal cabinet minister in the last election, and during both elections he played the partisan game as well as any other candidate. He warned Vancouver-Kingsway residents that Conservatives would destroy social programs and that Harper harbours a secret agenda. He said what people intuitively felt and what the Liberal party was promoting as a result was re-elected due to the partisan campaign he ran and the center-left leanings of this riding.

For Emerson to claim that he wasn't acting fully the role of a partisan Liberal is to revise history in a manner which is beyond the pale. Emerson has played the partisan Liberal role throughout his entire career as a Liberal politician, not merely during the final days of Election 2006 as he claimed on Friday. And now in his final act of self-preservation and image-rebuilding he's playing the Conservative partisan role to the hilt.

The man simply can't speak honestly.

A hat tip to A BCer in Toronto for the link to Emerson's 2004 speech, a copy of which is attached here in PDF form for your convenience. Have a read and see just how partisan Emerson was: