The big question now is whether Billy C., Mike W, Roy B. and the rest of the MRO frat boys will follow Emerson into the Conservative ranks. It's either that or unemployment for that bunch.

If you were Steven Harper, why would you want this bunch?? Hill Billy Cunningham could not even win his nomination which resulted in the "Tony Who" controversy after Hill Billy was appointed the candidate. Roy B. has an infamous brother, i think that says it all for him. As for Mike W., the jury is out on him.

Who would want any of them? The only good thing I see about an election loss is that we got these scum out of government offices.

The real question is who would want to go work for a traitor like Emerson? Better to remain faithful to what you believe in and remain out of a job for 18 months than to sell your friends down the river.

These guys are committed Liberals. I would never see them go off and work for a Tory. It is absolutely outrageous to suggest that they would. They also don't have millions of dollars to help them feel comfortable in their betrayal of the party that rolled out the red carpet for him. What a disgusting slimeball David Emerson is.

Some people got fairly upset when TDH strategies questioned David Emerson's integrety several weeks back. Now TDH seems downright prophetic. Only time will tell where Billy, Roy and Mike will find their next jobs.

The Honeymoon is Over

Monday morning you could have been forgiven for believing that Stephen Harper's honeymoon with the press might last for at least a couple of months. The media knows we are all sick of political negativity from a very long election campaign. But by Monday lunch a better guess, as to how long the media honeymoon will be, was just two weeks .

Monday February 6th 2006 showcased the first executive decision by Stephen Harper as the new Prime Minister. Then the media gloves came off as the Canadian press flatly accused Mr. Harper of blatant hypocrisy. The new Prime Minister campaigned on the premise that the Liberals are corrupt but he then appoints a senior Liberal to the new Conservative Cabinet. If that's not hypocrisy it certainly is a flip flop. And, Stephen Harper appoints a conservative to the Senate for no less reason than political expediency - something Mr. Harper said he would never do.

Oh my!

The press caught Harper's obvious hypocrisy and called it out. The public was enjoying the political quiet of the last two weeks but now Mr. Harper gets to wear the prize for ending it. The honeymoon with the press is over, which means the media ruckus of a minority parliament begins again - now.

*** Doug B is going to work for DE again ***

Is that the same Doug B who, at his young age, has been a Liberal since the last decade? The same one who gave up countless volunteer hours to the party since before David Emerson's political career was but a gleam in Paul Martin's eye? You think he is going to turn his back on the party to which he gave his sweat, blood & tears for something as small as Emerson?

*** Moron ***

What a sad state of affairs. The Emerson appointment is a matter for his constituents to deal with (he really should resign and re-run), and the Fortier appointment is just pathetic in light of Harper's rhetoric regarding both elected senates and having to be elected to serve in his government.

At least this dispels some of the Liberal mythology that a vote for the NDP is a vote for the Conservatives!

It's a sad day all around.

It shows there is no loyalty anywhere. Given a right price, anyone is for sale, Scott B, Brelinda S, David E.

So much for Paul Martin’s star candidate in BC. May be Sophia Leung is not that bad at all, right, Mark M?

I cant balme Emerson --he was getting direction and working with a bunch of spoiled kids like Elmhirst and Marrisen. The Liberals in BC need to clean house get rid of Bassi Boys and Marky Mark and the crew. Bring back some of the old Chretien camp and start building with new ideas and get a fresh start. Otherwise you will see more small c liberals jump ship. The Conservatives are smart moving a litlle each day to the left and will hold on to this majority for over two years GUARANTEED!!!!

Emerson has disenfranchised the people of Vancouver who voted for him. He has lost his democratic mandate as an MP, misled his electorate, and should be recalled. His Constituency address is
2148 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC
V5N 2T5
Go there Wednesday February 8th at 4pm to stage a sit-in, demanding his resignation

As an NDPer I have been really amazed at the some of the silly stuff coming from voters interviewed by the media over the Emerson Move. The types who say, "I voted strategically for a Liberal to stop the Conservatives", are just not prepared to learn anything from this development.

They are stubbornly sticking to the viewpoint, contrary evidence in hand, that there is some great and enduring philosophical chasm between the Grit and Tory parties, and that it was David Emerson who PERSONALLY tricked them. They just will not grow up and realize that all Emerson did was recite the Liberal national vote strategic line in his riding, and that it was the federal Liberal organization AS A WHOLE that was systematically deceiving them, just as it has in every election since 1993. It's really the political equivalent of an addict in denial, saying with a perfectly straight face that he hasn't had a drink it two weeks, as he stands there with a drink in hand.

These people tend to think of themselves as urban and urbane sophisticates, people who are concerned about all the neat issues du jour, as long as they all have something to do with fashionability, sexuality, or something else that's exciting! Not for them some dreary treatise on the sale of Terasen Gas or the state of federal labour relations, that's waaay too boring, and don't bother trying to lecture them about Liberal corruption, they're not dumb you know, they realize that all politicians and parties are corrupt, so it really doesn't matter a damn one way or the other on that basis who you vote for. Except of course that this Emerson Move (the one that makes them look kind of stupid) well, that is rather crooked of him, personally, isn't it?

I think Alan Gregg had it right many years ago when he coined the phrase "urban stupid" to describe these rootless, uniformed, TV generation voters.

I am a Liberal. A federal Liberal, and a BC Liberal.

Here is what Gordon Campbell has to say about the new cabinet:

"British Columbia is no longer on the periphery. We are of growing import in Canada, and I think we've done very well [in the cabinet]."

So, BC was "on the outs" with the previous cabinet?

You know, the one with David Emerson in it?

You know, the one that showered BC with maga projects, and did pretty much whatever Gordon Campbell ever wanted?

With friends like Gordon Campbell, I am sure that Paul Martin could use a few enemies.

Let's see how BC fares under Harper.

Budd,

Respectfully, don't blame the voters for Emerson. What is to be learned here is about Emerson and the Harper Conservatives. The voters do the best they can with what they are presented with.

Kindly,

Eugene Parks

Eugene, it's pretty obvious that you, rather like the Globe's Gary Mason and the streeters in the TV news spots, are determined to learn nothing of substance from this episode. Your complete intransigence is really kind of remarkable.

Many voters are very poorly informed, and political parties and the commercial mass media will manipulate them when they can. It's the voter's duty to wake up and smell the coffee, but when they stubbornly refuse to do this even when the evidence is right there, ... well, you do begin to wonder about them.

All you sit-in protesters probably voted NDP anyway....

Budd writes: "Many voters are very poorly informed, and political parties and the commercial mass media will manipulate them when they can."

The above is not unlike the point I just made. The voters do the best with what they are given.

Can the voters learn more, do more, see more, and would that change how they vote? To a point.

Keep in mind that voters have lives to live and cannot follow everything nor research everything, which is not their fault. For every point there is a counter point (often manufactured or just noise) that gives the voters little of real value to work with.

So I say again, place the responsibility on those who break trust and provide the misinformation, which is not the listener nor the voter.

For the moment - Stephen Harper on a very short leash, with the liberals in a "time out", and the NDP with "more voice" - was the best judgement of the Canadian people. But be sure, they will re-evaluate that judgement given what they hear and see... and they saw something yesterday that caught everyone's attention.

What I want to know is why a guy like Emerson who just two weeks ago was slamming our party is suddenly in cabinet but an obviously talented MP like James Moore who has served the party for SIX YEARS is out? That's wrong.

Conservative, for once you are absolutely right.

And Harper said that Flaerty is ok to represent Toronto -- and he lives way at the outskirts of Toronto, and James Moore lives way closer to downtown Vancouver than that guy lives to downtown Toronto.

James would have been a good advocate for the Greater Vancouver area. Emerson will now just be an advocate for China and India -- not Greater Vancouver.

James would have been a good advocate for Vancouver? Hardly. I have never seen such an over-hyped politician. All slick, no subtance. Clearly, Harper is smart enough to know that this guy's not-so-distant past would make him more of a liability that an asset in cabinet.

I wonder what will happen to the $1.75 of each person who voted David Emerson. That should at least go to the Liberals. I think David Emerson is a very capable person, but I still believe the switch looks like pure opportunism. In addition with the amount of screw-ups Harper is making, the Liberals have an excellent chance to be back in power in 2 years so he should have helped re-build the Liberals and then he could have gotten his cabinet post back when the Liberals return to power. Hopefully next time people will vote based on values, not ethics since no party ever has or ever will have ethics. If we voted for which party's philosophy was closest to our own we would have the best government. I am beginning to miss the Liberal government since despite all their woes, at least I was comfortable with the general direction of the country.

Not likely says:

"Harper is smart enough to know that this guy's not-so-distant past would make him more of a liability that an asset in cabinet."

Please explain.

The Conservatives are completely hypocritical, psychotic social reformist, fiscal bafoons, and what they have always been: power hungry, and willing to do anything to attain it, including misleading the public. The shocker for me is that it took so little time for the hypocrisy to be revealed. WOW!

Voters get ready, because the next to go is our fiscal standing, which will be quickly followed by an attack on the very cultural fabric which makes our country great, and different from the Bush U.S.A. (everything). While the Libs are looking for, and choosing, a new Leader, the Cons will be busy fcuking up the country in the name of their "conservative holier-than-thou-so-we're-entitled to an-entitlement".

*shaking head*

Why is it that people think that just because you call yourself "conservative", that you actually are anything other than socially conservative? Because the Cons have never been fiscal conservatives: The only politician that HAS been a fiscal conservative in the last 30 years, just resigned as leader of the Libs, with a fiscal record that saw Canada sit atop the G-8 economically.

And as for Emerson: What a disgrace.

If the Libs want to clean house...they better get at it, starting with "Blog" Elmhirst (a brilliant strategist that was moronic enough to thing that ANYONE gave a crap about his opinions to the degree that he decided to put them onto a Blog...during an election. Idiot)

"with the amount of screw-ups Harper is making, the Liberals have an excellent chance to be back in power in 2 years so he should have helped re-build the Liberals "

Well, maybe in his own way, Emerson is contributing to the rebuilding of the liberal party, by blackening the conservatives "ethical supermen" self-mythology.

What I want to know is why a guy like Emerson who just two weeks ago was slamming our party is suddenly in cabinet but an obviously talented MP like James Moore who has served the party for SIX YEARS is out? That's wrong.

Posted by Conservative on February 7, 2006 12:43 PM

Conservative, if you are a Conservative, you know the answer to your question. BC business and the Gordon Campbell administration both wanted it this way. Business types would have been on the phone to Reynolds election nite or early the following morning, telling him, "John, we need this guy, do what you have to do, just make it happen, OKay?"

James Moore got left out in the shuffle, that's all, but he may be in later if the Cabinet is expanded. Or if Stockwell implodes.

Budd Campbell posted this elsewhere:

(so to eastern canada you make Emerson and his ilk look like they know what they are doing???? - but to us shmucks out here you have a different message?

People in Eastern Canada need to understand that Emerson's background in BC is with the Grit-Tory Coalition politics. He was the Dpty Min of Finance under Bill Bennett during the Restraint Program of the early 1980s.

So for Emerons, ignoring the purely cosmetic distinctions between Red and Blue paint jobs is really perfectly normal. And besides, the BC business community probably asked for this, they probably called Reynolds first and then he called Emerson. What's more, labour is not unhappy with Emerson, and at his fundraising dinner last year both BC Fed Pres Jim Sinclair and former BC NDP Premier Glen Clark attended.

BC is showing the rest of Canada a bit of serious leadership here in the field of "dynamic adjustment". Shutup and watch a while, and you might learn something useful. The only problem is it would ruin your enjoyment of TV generation, information free politics.

Term wrote, "Shutup and watch a while, and you might learn something useful. The only problem is it would ruin your enjoyment of TV generation, information free politics."

Is this the Harper Conservative response to the public mandate of a vey weak minority government... "Shutup and watch"?

Harper made a mistake on Monday. He should not only be listening to the near universal shock, he should be learning from the response.

Harper Conservatives, don't believe your own spin.

Mr. Harper made a mistake on Monday. He should, as should all Harper Conservatives, be paying attention to the near universal shock resulting from his cabinet games.

If the new prime minister is going to earn the public's trust, he must respect how the public is likely to judge his actions rather than believing his own spin that serves his own agenda.

As usual, Eugene, you are intentionally " ... ignoring the purely cosmetic distinctions between Red and Blue paint jobs ... ". Please, get serious, will you?