February 8, 2006

Hi Warriors.... there is so much to comment on it's hard to know where to focus but I think for the moment we should be hammering away at the enormous hypocrisy of Harper re: Emerson and Fortier, the two outsiders he put in cabinet. There is tremendous anger and cynicism out there as there should be and it is important to make this anger and the charge of cynicism stick to Harper. The more heat they take on this important democratic issue the more difficult it will be for Harper to pursue his policy agenda.

You don't need a lot of background or quotes to do this and many of you probably have already written letters. The broad theme:

It took Stephen Harper less than a day - basically an hour - as prime minister to break a promise and demonstrate enormous cynicism. This is what we can expect from now on - a man who would do anything to get power (including moving to the left on many issue) and once in power express complete contempt for democracy. This is the real Stephen Harper.

Part of every letter should demand that these decisions be reversed in the name of democracy or at the very least these two men be obliged to run in by-elections.

Some specific arguments and a few quotes:

• Just two days before the federal election, Liberal MP David Emerson offered this warning to voters who were tempted to vote Conservative:
  
  "Just mark my words. If they get elected, they are going to begin a massive review of programs and a massive set of cuts. ... And people are going to say, 'We didn't ask for this. Mr. Harper didn't say this is what he was going to do.'" (Tor Star)



• When Belinda Stronach crossed the floor to the Liberals the Conservatives were nearly hysterical - attacking her for weeks. Saskatchewan Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott even claimed Ms. Stronach was prostituting herself. But at least Stronach's defection had been preceded by very sharp and public disagreements with Harper over policy. Emerson's move is pure opportunism.



• Harper's behaviour is even more offensive than Emerson's. He was the one who stated over and over during the election that he would do politics differently; that the Liberals' were hypocritical, cynical and suffered from the arrogance of power.



• Vancouver-Kingsway, the riding that Emerson represents has not voted Conservative for decades. In fact, the governing party only came in third with 18 per cent of the vote in Vancouver-Kingsway - far behind the Liberals and NDP.



• 39 Conservatives supported an NDP resolution in the last parliament that would have required defectors to run in a by-election. What will they do now?



• Harper has for years attacked the unelected Senate and has stated he would not make patronage appointments to the Senate. Yet this is exactly what he did with Michael Fortier - a political operative and co-chair of the Conservative campaign.



• Fortier just doesn't get it. He blithely stated that he didn't want to be bothered having to run in the election. Apparently it is beneath him - he'd rather just go straight into the cabinet. According to Canadian Press (Feb 7) "I didn't run in the election because I didn't want to run in the election," said Mr. Fortier, who was the Tories' campaign co-chair. "I had a great career, five young kids, and so it wasn't the right situation for me to run when the election came around. That's just the simple truth." [http://tinyurl.com/bnllr]
• This move not only shows contempt for democracy but for the voters of Vancouver Kingsway who voted in good faith for the Liberal Party.



• This just makes Canadians even more cynical about politics - especially about joining a political party. The local Liberal riding association has demanded that Emerson pay back the nearly $100,000 they raised for his election campaign. [source: http://tinyurl.com/bnllr]



• This cynical move demonstrates what happens when you put CEOs in the house of commons - they believe they are not subject to the same rules and ethics of "ordinary" people. The appointment of Emerson in particular is a sign from Harper to Bay Street that he knows who he has to please.



• It usually takes years for a political party in power to become arrogant and abusive of that power. It took the Conservatives just one day: According to the Canadian Press (Feb 7th) "Party stalwart John Reynolds first approached Emerson the day after the election, and was crowing about his talented recruit. He dismissed complaints in Mr. Emerson's riding as sour grapes. "I'm sure a great percentage of the NDP people in his riding are yelling and screaming today. But everybody else is happy," MR. Reynolds said."

Additional quotes from Emerson:

Still, Mr. Emerson proved adept at attacking the Tories, telling the Vancouver Sun last November "they're uncomfortable with ethnic minorities."

On Jan. 24, the Vancouver Province quoted Mr. Emerson's vow "to be the Conservative Party's worst nightmare if they stray into areas where I think their policies are not serving the interests of Canadians and British Columbians." (see link)

ALSO... More quotes in the following article in theTyee.ca

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