Desjarlais - Conservative
I'm... not overly surprised, but that someone could go from socialist to conservative upon being offered a job as a Conservative is really a good indication of how principled she is.
posted by Ryan Ringer @ 3/16/2006 03:37:00 p.m.
4 comments
4 Comments:
Well, I guess she has to pay the bills.
Actually she hasn't joined the party and won't say she plans to vote Conservative. Thought I am still skeptical of her position. That being said, I wish our ministry staffers were less political, preferably not members of any party as we would have more professionally run ministries.
At least not as bad as Emerson. As I've written elsewhere, I would have been fine with Emerson joining Harper's cabinet if he had stayed as a Liberal since it is not unheard of to have opposition members join cabinet. In fact in the US it is normal to have at least one cabinet member from the opposite party, currently there is one Democrat - I think Transportation while under Clinton has chief of defence William Cohen was a Republican. I am against Emerson crossing the floor though to join the Conservatives. I would have also been okay with him sitting as an Independent and joining the Harper cabinet.
[i] I would have been fine with Emerson joining Harper's cabinet if he had stayed as a Liberal since it is not unheard of to have opposition members join cabinet. In fact in the US it is normal to have at least one cabinet member from the opposite party[/i]
That's in a presidential system. In a parliamentary system (ours, especiall), it is quite unheard of. The Liberals are the opposition, and to have a Liberal MP sitting in Cabinet is tantamount to declaring a Coalition government.
IslandLiberal - Its true Emerson would have had a tough time staying as a Liberal and being a cabinet minister, but he could always sit as an independent and be a cabinet minister. I also think it might not be a totally bad thing just in general to have people from other parties serve in cabinet. I think there are many who would argue the British parliamentary system is out of date. Now I am not suggesting moving to an American presidential system, but even in most European countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, opposition politicians are members of the cabinet. Canada and Britain are really the only countries I can think of in the Western World where all cabinet members are from the governing party.
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