That wacky Stephen Harper

[miir]

New parliamentary secretary to Francophonie can't speak French

I thought there was a requirement that all MPs must be bilingual.

[miir]

Oh and I guess his campaign promise of an elected senate (err - Michael Fortier) was just typical political bullshit.

[miir]

I also remember the outrage and insults that were thrown at the liberals and Belinda Stronach when she crossed the floor.


I suppose it's fine for David Emerson's constituents who elected a Liberal that he cross the floor to join the Conservatives and be given a juicy cabinet position.

He's a man of great intelligence, a man with a stellar record in the private sector who is clearly committed to public service... I asked David Emerson to join Canada's new government and he accepted.

We don't go out of our way to romance MPs to get them to cross the floor. Liberals will do anything to win...


We are trying to create a principled party where people act in a principled way, and obviously we're fairly cautious about encouraging party jumping, because that's the kind of thing that generates cynicism.


And frankly, when someone jumps, once you're not sure you can trust them the next time, so I would always handle that with an extraordinary degree of caution

Oh the irony.

[Funkmasterr]

I'm sorry, I screwed up the one-man thread

[Aabidano]

New parliamentary secretary to Francophonie can't speak French

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Animalor]

He's made some quiestionable decisions that's for sure.

The justifications for having Fortier and Emerson were that he wanted an cabinet member for every major city in Canada yet there isn't anyone from Toronto Present(Closest cabinet member to TO is Niagara I believe).

If you believe the talking heads, Fortier will resign from the Senate at the next election and run for office and Emmerson, if he isn't forced into another election as a conservative in the coming months, has his political future tied into solving the Softwood Lumber issue.

Paul Martin gave Harper a free ride to make these decisions when he announced his stepping down from power election night. The liberals will not force the government's hand until they have someone at the helm that can seriously contend in an election.(It's too bad McKenna decided against running. That might've convinced me to vote Liberal.)

Frankly, I don't see anything outrageous in the few points/posts that you made above.

I also remember the outrage and insults that were thrown at the liberals and Belinda Stronach when she crossed the floor.

The difference as explained by the talking heads was that Stronach approched the Liberals with her offer of a jump in exchange for a cabinet post whereas Harper was the one that offered the job to Emerson. I'm not sure how that is somehow different but ambition is also a part of canadian politics. I thing situations like this serve nothing more but to show how truly similar both parties are.

[Animalor]

New parliamentary secretary to Francophonie can't speak French

I thought there was a requirement that all MPs must be bilingual.

The parliamentary secretary is going through french immersion to learn the language. The Minister herself however is a french MP from Quebec City. I don't dispute that he was most likely nominated on political grounds alone but if he's willing to learn the language to a functional level, then all the more power to him.