Ujjal Dosanjh Sweating Out Recount
Somewhere in down town Vancouver Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh will learn today if he has to look for a new job.
Update
Just after 5pm local time reports indicate Dosanjh will keep his seat with an even smaller margin - 22 votes. Apparently every vote does matter.
An automatic judicial recount applies to several close election races, but perhaps none is more interesting than the high-drama race in Vancouver-South between Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh and unknown upstart Conservative Wai Young.
With only 33 votes separating the two candidates as of election night, today's court-supervised recount is sure to be a nail biter.
In the end I don't think it matters much who wins. Dosanjh has not distinguished himself of late in my view.
Dosanjh is something of one-man floor-crossing exhibit. True, moving from one party to another, while not even elected, can't be equated with the infamous David Emerson affair. Yet I remember the former NDP cabinet minister and short-term Premier turned Liberal MP and cabinet minister less for his time in cabinet than for his anti-democratic performances including rejecting calls for legislation that would inhibit floor-crossing, and his involvement in the sleazy Grewal affair.
Ms. Young I do not know, but if she should prevail over Dosanjh, it might actually be beneficial in the long run for politics in that riding. Harper won't get a majority out of one more seat, so I'm open to the notion that a Conservative win - the first in the City of Vancouver in quite some time - might just convince those who would then wish to regain the seat (and compete elsewhere) to bring something more than an empty suit to the table. Vigorous competition is always a good thing in politics. We've not seen that characteristic in any recent Vancouver South race.
Years ago Ujjal Dosanjh once earned my respect. Before he entered politics Dosanjh had been a victim of a beating, so targeted due to his outspoken views on religious extremism in his cultural community. It seems to me we've not seen that side of Mr. Dosanjh in quite some time. If he should manage to hold his seat, I would hope he'd look both inward and back in time to rediscover himself. If he doesn't, there is no way he'll hold the seat in the next election.
Mr. Dosanjh should consider these 33 votes as his political wake up call.