Oh my goodness gracious. We had an election here in Canada last month, and the Conservatives (“Tories” for short) threw out the Liberals, to the general satisfaction of an irritated populace, but failed to get a majority in Parliament, to the general satisfaction of a cautious populace. My own riding, Vancouver Kingsway, had been held by Liberal David Emerson, a seasoned private and public sector executive who’d been parachuted in but won it fair and square, and has always been in the cabinet; he held the seat for the Liberals last month. This morning, we awoke to the news that he’d “crossed the floor”, joined the Tories, and been rewarded with a senior Cabinet post. This change subtly shifts the combinatorics of power in parliament and will be very useful to the government. The country in general and my neighborhood in particular is pretty flabbergasted. I got my jollies when I picked up my morning coffee and some TV news crew was waiting outside asking passers-by what they thought. I spluttered, telegenically I hope, if they run it and anyone sees it, let me know. Canadians in search of some political snickers and a historic but imperilled document can read on for more.
Andrew Coyne has some fun with the event, too.
Here’s my little contribution: below is the front page at KanmanWong.com; Kanman Wong was the actual candidate that the Tories actually ran in the riding, you know, the one the people could have voted for if they’d wanted to be represented by a Conservative? And he wasn’t a bad candidate either, had a successful business career, obviously a smart guy, an education activist, an immigrant who’s made good, really a plausible potential Member of Parliament.
I kinda suspect this web site will be taken down before too long, so I snagged a copy.
He ran third, 11,383 votes behind Emerson (out of 46,442 cast).
Parliamentary democracy; really unmatched in its opportunities for duplicity.
