Political Staples

A. Suspect you are wrong.

A couple of thoughts on this issue…

1. Harper stated in the campaign that he doesn’t object to floor crossing. Was he aware of this possibility? Was Emerson the Liberal mole who leaked Liberal platform and strategy during the campaign? Is this his reward?

2. Both of these appointments are designed to corner the Liberals. It will be dangerous for the Liberals to attack appointments made in B.C. and Quebec. Perhaps that is why the NDP seems to be doing the attacking.

Greg, I know where I stand:

1. For C-251 which would have banned this.

2. For the CPC, although only a few dozen MPs supported the C-251 ban.

3. For Harper, even though he said during the election he did not favour a ban on this.

4. For anyone who feels they don’t want to donate to a party that doesn’t support C-251, even though I am happy to donate.

5. Against anyone who want to use CPC constituency offices to attack the party for breaking a non-existent promise.

6. For anyone who wants to bring forward a ban on this to the next policy convention.

That wasn’t hard.

Greg, you’re correct - he won’t be taking questions in the house. There is question period in the senate and it will be up to the opposition members of that chamber to pose questions.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that Stephane Dion came in under the same appointment process as Fortier did. The only difference being, he wasn’t appointed a senator and he was brought in to deal with the Quebec file.

I believe he sat in the commons and answered questions. I do believe that a senator can sit in as long as he is in cabinet.

Like I say, I could be wrong though?

From Wikipedia:

Dion has the prenomial “the Honourable” and the postnomial “PC” for life by virture of being made a privy councillor on January 25, 1996, when he was sworn in as President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, a position he held until December 12, 2003.

So since he was elected in March 25, 1996 in a by-election, that means he must have sat in cabinet from Jan.25th to Mar.25th as an unelected cabinet minister and president of the Privy Council.

I do believe he was on record answering questions in the House of Commons from Feb-Mar ‘96.

And since Fortier has been sworn in as a member of the Queens Privy Council and cabinet, he can sit in on QP and answer questions as well.

But he will probably defer to answering questions in the house and remain in the senate, unless the opposition demand that he be present and accountable to questions in the green chamber.

From Wikipedia:

Dion has the prenomial “the Honourable” and the postnomial “PC” for life by virture of being made a privy councillor on January 25, 1996, when he was sworn in as President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, a position he held until December 12, 2003.

So since he was elected in March 25, 1996 in a by-election, that means he must have sat in cabinet from Jan.25th to Mar.25th as an unelected cabinet minister and president of the Privy Council.

I do believe he was on record answering questions in the House of Commons from Feb-Mar ‘96.

And since Fortier has been sworn in as a member of the Queens Privy Council and cabinet, he can sit in on QP and answer questions as well.

But he will probably defer from answering questions in the house and remain in the senate, unless the opposition demand that he be present and accountable to questions in the green chamber.

The appointment of a senator to cabinet was quite common in the 70s and 80s, when the government was typically very short of representation in either the West or Quebec. I suspect that if a Montreal area seat became vacant, Fortier would run in a by-election. Harper can’t promise that, because his party holds no Montreal area seats.

Maybe Harper is expecting a certain ex-PM to resign in the short term?

I’m not sure where I stand on this either; more information is required, although my ‘gut-check’ is negative.