Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson passed through Kelowna this weekend “looking relaxed in his role as Conservative cheerleader, relieved to not be running in the election himself, but happy to help boost a caucus colleague who is. He showed up at a pancake breakfast in support of Kelowna-Lake Country MP Ron Cannan, pressing the flesh and happy to chat,” writes Adrian Nieoczym in The Tyee.
Emerson was elected to Parliament in 2004 and 2006 as a Liberal and drew a recall petition and cries of betrayal in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding when he defected to the Conservatives after his last win. Emerson tells The Tyee he only ran as a Liberal as a favour to Paul Martin, and didn't intend to run a second time in 2006, but Martin talked him into it. “Paul said, 'No, no David, you've got to run, we don't want you jumping off a sinking ship,' so I said 'OK, I'll do it for you.'"
After Martin decided to step down as Liberal leader “it basically left me dangling there. I got a phone call from Stephen Harper and the rest is history."
But you wouldn’t have guessed Emerson’s affinity for Conservatives based on what he said about them when he was a Liberal MP. Samples from a previous Tyee story:
"Mr. Speaker, I can confirm to the house that those people's thinking is so inconsistent, they should just sit down." February 4, 2005
"Mr. Speaker, I have not been in this House for long, but one of the things I have learned is that the members opposite are blatantly opportunistic, partisan and misleading the Canadian people." -- April 18, 2005
"Mr. Speaker, for several months in this house I have watched the political chicanery and skullduggery from the other side.” -- May 13, 2005
"If we make a deal, we keep a deal." -- November 21, 2005
Tuesday's Tyee story replays one more Emerson classic, uttered on the eve of the last election: "I would like to be Stephen Harper's worst nightmare."
David Beers is editor of The Tyee.
