On February 6 2006 David Emerson, elected a mere two weeks earlier as a Liberal, walked into Rideau Hall to be sworn in as a Conservative cabinet minister in Stephen Harper's government. Adding insult to infamy the country quickly discovered that Emerson, forever a parachute candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway, had been in secret negotiations with the newly elected Harper government to switch parties less than 24 hours after the last votes were counted.

Citizens of all political stripes turned out into Vancouver's streets in anger and protest. Canadians from across the country voiced their opposition to what Emerson and Harper had done. We rightly felt as if our votes, indeed the votes of all Canadians, had been disrespected and devalued.

There ought to be a law.

Yesterday Don Davies, Member of Parliament for Vancouver--Kingsway stood in the House of Commons and introduced a bill to that end. Bill C-446 (2nd Session, 40th Parliament) would have forced David Emerson to run in a by-election and earn the right to represent our riding as a Conservative.

Of note:

27.1 (1) Any person holding a seat in the House of Commons who becomes a member of a registered party as defined in subsection 2(1) of the Canada Elections Act is deemed to have vacated the seat and ceases to be a member of the House if, in the last election, the person was endorsed by another registered party or was not endorsed by a registered party.

I like this bill. It effectively prohibits floor crossing, which is one key measure we had sought during the Campaign to De-Elect David Emerson. If a candidate runs and wins under one party banner, or as an independent, and then switches to another registered party, the MP should lose their seat and be forced to go to the electorate to try to earn a fresh mandate.

Minutes of Mr. Davies' appeal to the House from Hansard:

Mr. Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, NDP) moved for leave to introduce Bill C-446, An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (members who cross the floor).

He said: Mr. Speaker, three years ago, in Vancouver Kingsway, a member of Parliament was elected as a Liberal and crossed the floor to sit as a Conservative two weeks after that election.

Our citizens were outraged. They regarded this as an act of democratic betrayal. It rendered their votes meaningless. People from every political persuasion joined together to demand the restoration of their democratic rights. People like Mike Watkins, Jurgen Claudepierre and Shannon Steele worked tirelessly for this noble goal.

I am honoured to rise today to introduce a piece of legislation that serves to restore respect for democracy in our country.

This bill would require any member who crosses the floor to resign and run in a byelection. It would put the actions of a floor-crossing member to the test of the will of the voters of his or her constituency, where it properly belongs. In a time when voters are increasingly cynical, I believe this would go some way towards restoring confidence in our political system.

I hope that all members of this House put their partisan interests aside and support this law. It is good for our democracy. It is good for our country.

See: Bill C-446

Bravo Don.

Post election wrap of of results and media references:

Party                      Candidate          Votes  % of Total
---------------------------------------------------------------
Communist                  Kimball Cariou       291         0.6
NDP-New Democratic Party   Don Davies        15,933        35.2
Libertarian                Matt Kadioglu        309         0.7
Marxist-Leninist           Donna Petersen       149         0.3
Conservative               Salomon Rayek     12,417        27.4
Green Party                Doug Warkentin     3,031         6.7
Liberal                    Wendy Yuan        13,134        29.0
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total number of valid votes:                 45,264

• Emerson legacy helps create NDP victory (Oct 14, Vancouver Courier) Standing in the expansive Golden Swan restaurant on Victoria Drive on election night, the sense of deja vu was overwhelming.
• Urban voters say no to Conservatives (Oct 15, Globe and Mail) Voters shut out the Harper government from two of Canada's major cities for a second consecutive election last night, with the Tories failing to secure a single seat in either Toronto or Montreal. Editor: Globe editors should note that Vancouver shut them out too. North Vancouver is not Vancouver.
• Davies reclaims Vancouver-Kingsway for NDP:Hard work credited for victory (Oct 14, 24 Hours Vancouver) Vancouver-Kingsway is back in the NDP's hands and Don Davies wants to keep it that way.
• In Vancouver-Kingsway, an NDP rookie replaces Emerson (Oct 15, The Tyee) Why did Don Davies become the only NDP non-incumbent to snag a seat in B.C. last night? He’s an authentic, regular guy who lives in his riding, unlike a certain David Emerson who preceded him. That and the fact that Davies campaigned like a demon for 24 months, building a polyglot base in one of Vancouver’s most diverse neighbourhoods, Vancouver-Kingsway.
• Don Davies makes lone victory speech at NDP party (Oct 15, Georgia Straight) The NDP crowd was hungry for a victory, so when Vancouver-Kingsway candidate Don Davies walked into Heritage Hall, it might as well have been Posh ’n’ Becks. The thick crowd pounded their applause, and chanted "Davies, Davies!"
• NDP takes a nail-biting three-way race (Oct 15, Vancouver Sun) After losing Vancouver-Kingsway to MP David Emerson in the last election, the New Democrats won a decisive victory there Tuesday.
• Vancouver-Kingsway: the Emerson Riding (Oct 15, The Province) Voters in Vancouver Kingsway never got their chance to officially "de-elect" David Emerson -- who took the riding as a Liberal in 2006, only to bolt to the Tories two weeks later. But last night, they did the next best thing.

A by-the-numbers view illustrating an unusual number of individual third party advertisers supporting a single candidate

This post will be updated as new information is obtained

Yesterday I wrote about concerns I have regarding the use of the race card in the local race in my riding, Vancouver-Kingsway. Without editorializing on the content of the advertisement I thought it would be interesting to look at the issue of third-party individuals running advertisements in this riding strictly from a numbers perspective.

If one trawls through the Elections Canada databases for riding and candidate contributions, and the list of third party advertisers, you can come up with the following by-the-numbers view of the issue too. What you'll find is that third-party advertising by individuals in support of an individual candidate is extremely rare. There are thousands of candidates country-wide yet it would appear only one has attracted the individual support of multiple individual third party advertisers.

These facts and numbers infer no wrongdoing, but the facts alone do cause one to ask questions and want to look deeper at third party advertising in general and in Vancouver-Kingsway in particular. The facts as they are known today include:

1. Of the 51 entities found within Elections Canada's national list of registered third parties as of October 13, only 7 are individuals as opposed to organizations, and of those 7 one is connected to VoteForEnvironment.ca which is a multi-candidate multi-party advocacy internet site.
2. Of the remaining 6 individuals, all are from B.C.
3. Of those 6, half or 3 of the B.C. individuals are supporters of Ms. Yuan. Each of the 3 are running Chinese language advertisements in her support. Another, apparently as yet unregistered individual, appears to be also running a supporting advertisement which would have a cost such that registration of this individual would be required under the Elections Act. Each of the four third parties have been identified by the required English language text at the bottom of advertisements printed in Chinese media. The three registered individuals are:

• Alan Deng
• Wu Zhi Dong
• Yi Xin Chen

The three registered individuals have authorized advertisements benefiting Ms. Yuan in the following publications:

As might be expected, certain of these names will be found in Elections Canada reports on donations to the riding association. Nomination donations for Ms. Yuan were not available on the Elections Canada web site at time of writing.

Of thousands of candidates running in 308 ridings across the country only one candidate - Wendy Yuan - appears to have multiple third party individuals running election advertising in her support. The by-the-numbers view looks like this:

• Number of ridings: 308
• Number of candidates across the country: more than a thousand
• Number of third party advertisers in total: 51
• Number of third party advertisers supporting causes rather than individuals: 45 (best available estimate)
• Number of individual third party advertisers not supporting multiple candidates or causes: 6 (best available estimate)
• Number of other candidates having no third party advertising support: all but a handful
• Number of other candidates having multiple individual third party advertising support: zero (best available estimate)
• Number of other candidates having multiple individual third party advertising support: zero (best available estimate)
• Number of registered third party advertisers supporting Liberal candidate Wendy Yuan: 3
• Number of unregistered third party advertisers supporting Liberal candidate Wendy Yuan that likely should be registered under the Elections Act: 1
• Number of third party advertisers supporting Wendy Yuan's campaign: 4
• Number of times Wendy Yuan's campaign or third parties have used a racial appeal for votes: many

Liberal candidate Wendy Yuan denies playing the race card (Oct 11, Georgia Straight)

Patrick Tam

A story in local press erupts over concerns raised by local political photographer, Patrick Tam, that the Yuan campaign is engaging in race-politics.

Such suggestions could be made about many campaigns across the country, and I'm not sure I would have looked carefully at this article except for the fact that Tam is the one that lodged the complaint. Tam covers political events for all parties, and in all my interactions with him, the strong impression made upon me by Patrick is that he is a man of fairness and integrity. Between Tam's involvement and the fact that it's playing out in my riding the story has naturally caught my attention.

Here is the advertisement which sparked the controversy. Note it's paid for by a third party. The campaign denies foreknowledge, of course.

Additionally, an official advertisement released by the Yuan campaign exhorts:

Please unite, on 10/14 cast a vote for your ethnic Chinese candidate, Wendy Yuan.

Patrick points this out as a racist appeal for votes and I agree. Candidates shouldn't be asking for the vote based on their race or skin colour, and nor should their supporters. Sadly this approach typifies much of campaign 2008 where the politics of attack and division have dominated over that of ideas and the future.

Here is the response by Yuan's principal challenger, Don Davies.

This article updated to include a more accurate translation of the quote attributed to the Yuan campaign as well as further coverage of this story:

• Critic accuses Liberal Yuan of prejudice (Oct 13, The Tyee)

Here's a round up of recent election information and news central to this riding.

Reporting in from the soon-to-be-Emerson-free riding of Vancouver-Kingsway, I give you my slightly tongue-in-cheek account of the most recent almost all candidates debate.

Conservative candidate status: no show (and no surprise)

Collingwood Neighbourhood House has a fine reputation of organizing a respectful and inclusive meeting. Perhaps a little too inclusive for some tastes, since other than the MIA Conservative, six candidates showed up. Still, a full house is democracy in action, although no doubt more than a few in the audience were wondering what differentiated the candidates from the Marxist-Leninist (MLPC) and Communist parties who shared the stage.

After the meeting concluded I spoke with the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) candidate, suggesting he should work out a deal with the MLPC gal to take over the leadership of their parties on a platform loosely labelled "I am not the merger candidate", and then proceed to merge the two parties almost immediately afterwards. You know, like Peter MacKay and Stephen Harper. As a combined force the CPC (Communists) and the MLPC's could be a super-pinko force to be reckoned with in this country. Kinda like that other CPC.

Moving right along, the moderator set the mood off appropriately, noting that our riding has had something of a tumultuous few years, what with David "I wanna be Stephen Harper's worst nightmare" Emerson deciding to negotiate a party switch with the Conservatives before the folks sweeping the polling places were done. For most riding residents that was the last time they saw Emerson.

Judging by the catcalls issued Emerson's way, and the cheers the crowd gave themselves in recognition, no one at the meeting seems concerned that we'll likely not have a cabinet minister representing the riding any time soon. While we may have inadvertently elected a cabinet minister in Harper's government, we certainly did not get representation. Not too many bridge and highway tycoons live in Vancouver-Kingsway it turns out.

I'm not going to report on the quality of the debate; for that one can visit Vancouver-Kingsway.ca for a full set of videos for most of the questions asked during the debate. I didn't take the video so please do not wish harm on me for editing out the Marxists and Communists!

I will however provide the results of my patented Applause-O-Meter (a metric "metre" version is on the drawing board). Objectively, and via the AOM, I'd have to say NDP candidate Don Davies received the most applause of the evening. Subjectively I will stray briefly to opine that he received the most applause for his articulate comments in response to one question on floor crossing where he reminded the crowd that his was the only party that fought for floor-crossing legislation in the last parliament.

A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another. Helena Guergis, Conservative MP for Simco-Grey

Ironic flashback: Helena Guergis, in her first posting as a Parliamentary Secretary to newly minted in blue David Emerson, forever won title to both the Irony Award and the Applied Hypocrisy In Action trophy. In the parliament prior to David Emerson double crossing 46,168 voters, Guergis had signed on to a private members bill seeking to restrict... floor crossing. As they say, hypocrisy loves company.

At this point in our tally Mr. Davies continues to lead in the Applause-O-Meter, pushing his tally higher having noted to the audience that he's been a resident of the riding for over a decade unlike any other candidate and certainly unlike the last three members of parliament (Emerson-pick a party of convenience; Leung-Liberal parachute candidate; Waddell-NDP also lived elsewhere). It turns out that Davies will have to share the finally-running-a-candidate who lives in the riding mantle with fairly recent riding resident, the earnest and also well spoken Doug Warkentin.

Since this is my awards ceremony (and none matter but the October 14 tally) I've awarded Doug the coveted "first time the Green Party has run someone comfortable in a suit here" award. He also did a fine job with his answers. Sadly for him its not a very environmentally concious riding at all, but he's in politics to shift opinion for the long haul we are told, so I don't feel sorry for him. Applause is earnest but the AOM indicates Mr. Davies still winning that score.

Liberal candidate Wendy Yuan has her own bone to pick with David Emerson. While I don't recall seeing her pounding the pavement for months and months with over 1,000 other De-Elect David Emerson marchers and volunteers, I accept that she wasn't happy with the turn of events or how it may affect her at the doorstop in this election. The applause meter reads polite-but-generally-perfunctory.

I have to issue a special award to the Libertarian party candidate, Matt Kadioglu, for taking the least amount of time to respond to questions. Such dedication to the public good was warmly, and sincerely, appreciated by the crowd including your reporter. I did note however that for a Libertarian Matt seemed to be off message as there was in some cases a decidedly interventionist twang to some of his responses.

I guess that just goes to show that when people believe the end of the world as we know it has arrived, politicians of all stripes will tailor their messages. This is probably a good thing, as long as they mean it.

Lets talk about the sign war. Depending on your particular vantage point in the riding, its virtually a three way race, although I detect Mr. Davies has an edge overall. While main streets sometimes lean red, blue, or orange, the lawns within the neighbourhoods of this incredibly diverse riding seem predominantly orange.

Yet lately I must say the Conservative candidate has been doing a bang-up job of getting his signs up on main streets. You'd almost think we were in Calgary West given how much blue is out there. Its all an illusion of course - Mr. Rayek is simply working his tail off to prove to the powers that be in his party that they can in the future trust him with a more winnable riding than what we affectionately like to call our home, The People's Republic of Vancouver-Kingsway.

The race? One upon a time I'd have said it was the Liberals to lose but in this election the race has probably significantly tightened between Ms. Yuan and Mr. Davies. While the MIA Conservative won't be a real factor, he'll probably steal some votes that might otherwise head Yuan's way, and that, in addition to lingering resentment over the Emerson debacle, will favour Davies.

The organizers of the meeting are to be commended for running an informative and respectful meeting which was, as usual, very well attended. I'm sure the Conservative could have shown up and not be lynched. But the Conservative Party of Canada doesn't really believe in representative democracy or exposing candidates to the questions and observation of pesky voters, who are, after all, quite disposable as Harper has shown.

Whatever the result in this election is, I urge readers to think ahead to the next race, due to be called in about a week and a half. My prediction for the electoral contest after this one is an upset victory for the hammer and sickle. Yes, that's right, in the next election I predict we'll see a far more powerful merged Communist and Marxist-Leninist Party at the dais, and we shall all march as brothers and sisters into glory together I am sure. That is if they don't revolt on either other first. Long live the revolution my brothers and sisters!

De-Elect Emerson

Voters don't want Liberal to 'do an Emerson' (John Bermingham, The Province)

The Emerson factor is alive and well in Vancouver-Kingsway. The shadow of Liberal-turned-Tory cabinet minister David Emerson looms over the fight for Vancouver-Kingsway. "It's still coming up frequently," said Michael Watkins, spokesman for the De-Elect Emerson Campaign. "The people who were upset before still are."

"Having Emerson as our representative really means that we had no representative," he said. This time around voters will want to know their X on the ballot actually means something, he said.

In the 2006 election Emerson received 43.5% of the vote; Ian Waddell (NDP) 33.5%; Kanman Wong (Conservative) 18.8%. Not one of them lived in the riding, by the way.

Judging by the progress of the sign wars, it looks like it'll be a tight race between Wendy Yuan and Don Davies. Its my unscientifically arrived at perception that Mr. Davies has far more signs out in total, with signs not only on busy thoroughfares but also dotting the landscape within neighbourhoods.

Less than two weeks to go and so far the most visible indication there is an election under way in Vancouver-Kingsway is the sign war. Or maybe best label it a fierce skirmish up to this point. Lets have a quick look at the primary candidates, beyond their resumes. If you want the official propaganda click through to their individual websites for that. Alphabetically then:

CONSERVATIVE: Sure, they've got signs up for their last-minute expendable candidate, but that's as close as many of us will get to him.

The stand-in candidate from the Conservative Party, Salomon Rayek , has no connection with the riding (he lives in Richmond and is the president of the Delta-East Richmond Conservative riding association) and won't participate in any debates or open public meetings. In other words, he's a Conservative Bubble Candidate or CBC. Oops, not that CBC. In related news:

Conservatives duck debates in run-up to federal election : A long-time political organizer thinks candidates don’t have a responsibility to show up to all-candidates meetings or speak with the media. Bob Ransford, who was the cochair in B.C. for the Conservatives in the 2004 federal election, noted that time and money are limited during campaigns, and candidates must make choices.

Hey Bob, that's a helluva choice - hiding a virtual unknown away from the public he pretends to want to represent. No matter, here in Vancouver-Kingsway we are used to politicians remaining in hiding: David Emerson has been evading constituents ever since February 6, 2006. We know what to do to such people.

LIBERAL: Wendy Yuan is no stranger to the riding, but like the Conservative candidate she doesn't live within it, either. Ms. Yuan famously stepped aside two elections ago to allow Paul Martin's hand-picked candidate to run in the riding. His name? The infamous David Emerson.

I'm not a fan of hand-picked star candidates being plunked down into a riding by the party bureaucracy. Democracy needs to start at home, at the local level. I want to see parties respect democracy at every level otherwise how can they be trusted to respect democracy when things get a little more complicated or difficult?

Earlier this week former prime minister Paul Martin was in the riding doing duty as the keynote speaker at a fund raising luncheon. Noted in the community press, Fiona Hughes, a Vancouver-Kingsway resident and reporter for The Vancouver Courier, wrote yesterday why she's voting for Dion with a Liberal checkmark on her ballot.

GREEN: While I've yet to see a Green Party sign, I've been assured there is indeed a candidate. Readers with long memories will recall that Kevin Potvin, a local independent media publisher and writer, was dumped from the Green slate last year.

Doug Warkentin will take up the party's banner in this contest. I'll be meeting Mr. Warkentin for the first time at a weekend coffee talk event and shall report back any unusual and obvious abnormalities and grooming quirks.

NEW DEMOCRATS: Don Davies of the New Democrats is busy with his campaign (take that Bob Ransford) but one can't help but run into him everywhere. From dance floor to a rain soaked venue to talk about the seismic safety issue in Vancouver schools, Mr. Davies has been active in this community he's lived in for many years.

I first met Don at an event the De-Elect David Emerson campaign put on. Despite lots of loud (but great) music going on, we chatted about politics in the foyer of the hall for far too long. A lawyer, Don is earnest and serious yet approachable. I sense he's filled into his role well since we last spoke.

This race is very clearly between the Liberals and the NDP. I don't have a good read on how badly l'affair Emerson will hurt the Liberals but there must be some impact felt at the doorstep since I continue to hear people in the riding talk about he who shall not be named.

Joke of the day: Emerson says he could have won in Vancouver-Kingsway

Yesterday we had a first look at Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Kingsway Salomon Rayek.

While doing some research I'd run across Google's cache of a few letters to various local papers but didn't find anything of sufficient interest to include. After all, a conservative toeing the party line on the InSite safe injection site isn't exactly news. Whatever their personal opinion may be, a junior candidate or MP isn't going to be contradicting big boss Harper or the even less inspiring Tony Clement. Career limiting.

Sean Holman of PublicEyeOnline.com also had a look at Mr. Rayek and did include full copies of Rayek's letters on InSight and other topics. One I was still wrestling with: he'd commented on the Tsawwassen First Nation treaty which is wrapped up in Emerson's "gateway" initiative. I'm not a fan of Gateway but I can't blame the TFN for wanting to seek a deal.

But being president of Delta-Richmond East, Mr. Rayek has also spent some time with its slightly more maverick MP, John Cummings. Cummings has a track record of being critical to many aboriginal policy decisions, particularly those concerned with fishing rights. I make no judgement on these, but its certainly valid to wonder about Mr. Rayek's views and to what extent he may share those of Mr. Cummings.

In another article Holman unearthed a letter to the Richmond News I'd not seen previously. Apparently Mr. Rayek had some, er, communication difficulties in conjunction with a strata townhouse he owned:

[F]or Salomon Rayek, who emigrated from Mexico in 1998, the decision to hold the meeting primarily in Cantonese was offensive. "I've been in Canada for about 10 years, and I have never felt so discriminated against," he said." I was really upset by the situation."

I can empathize with the root problem - after all those pesky political strata councils can be as tricky to navigate as a House of Commons ethics committee. Yet Rayek's public response might have been more measured, or for a seemingly ambitious young politico, perhaps better held in check. After all, almost one half of Vancouver-Kingsway voters are Chinese.

Its not confirmed on the party web site as yet but according to a 24 Hours report the Vancouver-Kingsway Conservative Electoral District Association has selected a candidate to fill David Emerson's shoes.

When or if Stephen Harper signs the nomination papers, Salomon Rayek will officially represent the Conservatives in Vancouver-Kingsway. According to other sources the nomination was unanimous. That probably means he ran unopposed since no one else wanted to waste their money or effort running as a Conservative in this riding now that Emerson has poisoned the air here. This was Rayek's second shot at obtaining a candidacy this year. Earlier he made an unsuccessful run for the candidate nomination in Burnaby Douglas.

One supposes Rayek is paying his dues now in Vancouver-Kingsway so he can later go after a winnable seat elsewhere.

Who is Rayek? For one, the self-described small business owner is not a resident of Vancouver-Kingsway, nor of Vancouver, nor even of Burnaby. He's a Richmond resident and as of August remained the president of the Delta Richmond East riding association. Rayek is also named as the president of the Jewish Advocacy for the Conservative Party (JACP).

Update: This evening Mr. Rayek shows as the candidate on the CPC website, albeit with his name spelled incorrectly.