Phendrana Drifts

If the Globe and Mail is correct, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Emerson will not be running in the next federal election scheduled for October 2009 but will actually be held next month. And I think that is too bad, as by all accounts he did a fantastic job in both the Harper and Martin cabinet and our government will inevitably miss his experience, regardless if it is a Harper or Dion government. Of course, he likely is better known for crossing the floor than for his work in solving the softwood lumber trade dispute and cleaning up after Maxime Bernier.

I like crossing the floor - of course it shouldn't happen too often but I think it adds a healthy dose of excitement to politics and offers the smallest hint of independence from a party's leadership to an individual politician. I cheered when Solberg, Strahl, Grey and et al. formed the Democratic Representative Caucus, liked when Belinda crossed the floor and even secretly thought it was neat how Garth Turner, Walid Khan and Blair Wilson have turned their poorly dealt hands from their parties into fortunes in others. Admittedly I was happy for the genuinely great guy but sad for the Conservatives when Scott Brison left to become a Liberal cabinet minister in 2004.

Many don't like the idea of switching parties - in our party dominated system it seems disingenuous and so often opportunistic. And I would agree if it happened so often that every day was dominated by a floor-crosser, but when looking at the list of those MPs who have switched the past decade it seems that the majority of circumstances were in the country's best interest as well as the MP's, and I hope it is a possibility that doesn't die.

So thanks for the hard work Minister Emerson, and I wish you the best.

Labels: federal politics

Twitter Updates

0 Comments: