Posted on 03/20/2006 10:59:32 AM PST by Daralundy
OTTAWA -- The ethics commissioner said Prime Minister Stephen Harper broke no rules when he persuaded David Emerson to switch parties and join the cabinet.
Bernard Shapiro said he's satisfied that Harper didn't offer Emerson any special inducements to leave the Liberals and join the Tory cabinet.
Shapiro said he accepts Emerson's explanation that he thought he could best serve his constituents from the cabinet table, rather than the opposition benches.
Three opposition MPs asked Shapiro to investigate whether Harper violated the rules when he invited Emerson, a former Liberal minister, to join his cabinet.
Shapiro said that while no rules were broken, the incident has left many people angry and feeling that votes were devalued.
He said the whole question of switching parties should be debated.
ping
Of course the "liberals" actively recruit others to switch. But, it's not Kosher for it to go the other way. They must be pretty desperate if they want those that don't want to be with them in the party...
He and Belinda had both taken a run at the Conservative Party leadership, before they left.
Belinda Stronach , who had a pretty good position in the Conservative Party, switched overnight (literally), on the eve of a vote that might have brought down the government, receiving a Cabinet Post for her treachery.
The Liberals and the Canadian press are just lifting a page from the American left's playbook here - trump up anything and everything they can about Harper and his government as a major scandal, no matter how trivial and unsubstantial. This is just the very start of a campaign of constant drum beating and carping about phony corruption which is meant to erode the Conservatives' support, and to wear down the public with non-stop scandal-mongering, to the point where they'll put the Liberals back into power just to shut them up.
IOW, there will be lots and lots more of these stories, and at some point they'll start drawing blood. That's when the endless blitzkreig of polls showing Harper's support "plummeting" will start to appear.
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Her move across the floor was designed to take place at just the most damaging moment for the Conservatives.
Shapiro is 'ti Jean's pick and the office was designed as a Liberal party whitewash device. Shapiro tried to use Emerson's crossing the floor to convert the office into a tarbrush.
The plan started to come unstuck when the NDP publicly asked that Stronach's crossing the floor also be looked at thwile he was examining the Emerson issue.
Harper was quite right to refuse to co-operate with Shapiro. It was a kangeroo court. Ehe was also quite right to abstain from answering the Emerson issue by pointing at Stronach.
Crossing the floor has several historical precedents, including Winston Churchill.
That's right.
I think Belinda is willing to be anybody who is anybody's bimbo!! No morality encumbers this woman.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Harper did induce him to leave!!! He simply pointed out the qualities of Canadian Moon Bat Liberals and the fact that they are dinosaurs with no future.The liberals couldn't believe it was that simple and ASSUMED Harper bribed him. They got the inducement right but there was no necessity to bribe him, Emerson being of intelligent Scottish decent. ( LOL)
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