Dump the politicians who defect and desert

Dahn Batchelor's Opinions

The following is a presentation that will be given at a public meeting on Jauary 23, 2007 in Toronto in which the issues being discussed at that meeting are related to elections in Ontario.

Let me say right from the beginning; I do not like politicians. They are one of the mysteries of Canadian life. They comprise of a bundle of paradoxes, they are shrewed as a fox, naïve as a schoolboy and sometimes, as crooked as Al Capone. Notwithstanding that, we need them so we vote them into office in hopes that they just might be interested in our best interests more than they are of their own.

I am not here to denounce politicians per se as a Canadian entity as I don’t have the time to do that. Rather, I am here to make a recommendation as to how we might solve some of the problems constantly facing Canadian voters.

One problem I am speaking about is the one where politicians desert the political parties that they were voted into by the citizens in their ridings thereby creating an electoral problem of having to have an unnecessary and expensive by-election. This is a common problem in both provincial and federal politics. It is referred to as a defection.

Unscrupulous, deceitful, nefarious, unprincipled, repugnant, underhanded, scheming, unconscionable, disgraceful, and dishonourable. Those are just a few of the words that came to mind of many people in Belinda Stonach’s riding when she deserted her party and made her surprising move to the Liberals. Of course, Belinda Stonach was no different then the male members of parliament that have crossed the floor to another party in the past.

Scott Brison a Nova Scotia MP deserted the Progressive Conservatives to join the Liberal party when the PCs and Alliance parties merged.

Just recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper added a Liberal backbencher, Wajid Khan to his Conservative caucus in a move that could provide a buffer against the threat of his minority government's defeat in the coming months. The additional Tory seat in the House of Commons gives the party 125 MPs, and means that all three opposition parties will likely have to gang up to defeat the minority Conservative government and force an election. Liberal Jim Karygiannis (Scarborough-Agincourt) said Khan would do whatever he could to get ahead, and had never let political affiliations get in the way. "This is his style," he said, adding that Khan became friendly with provincial Tories before latching on to Martin's Liberal leadership bid. Khan's riding office manager Stefano Pileggi said he had no advance warning of the switch. He said, "We came in this morning, turned on the TV, that's how we found out,"

Khan was first elected as a Liberal MP in 2004 and he was re-elected last January. His move to the Tories proved unpopular among people in the vicinity of his Queen St. S. riding office in Mississauga's west end. Norm Scherb, a Khan volunteer campaign worker in the last election said angrily, "I feel my vote has been stolen today." I think Anthony Bischoff from Streetsville said it best when he said upon hearing of the defection; “You don’t vote Liberal because you like the Conservatives.”

They were speaking for the majority of Canadian voters. We elect people to office for two reasons. The first is because they will serve the political party in which we hope will protect our collective interests and the second reason is that we feel that the candidate we vote into office is the best person for the job.

For that candidate to switch political parties during his or her time in office is in effect committing a fraud on the voters who elected that person. The defection, irrespective of the motive, is a betrayal of trust that the electors had for the person they voted in.

The second problem that voters are facing is one of desertion. I am speaking of those politicians who decided to desert their political office to enrich their prospects by running for another office.

I remember in the late 1970s, a municipal alderman in our area was running for office again. I learned that he also was planning to run in an upcomming election as a member of the Ontario Legislature in two years time. At a public meeting I asked him if he was going to desert us in the middle of his term as our alderman if he got elected as our MP. He replied and I quote, “There is no law that says I can’t run for two offices at two diffcerent times.” He lost both elections.

On September 8, 2006, Liberal MP Joe Fontana announced that he would run for Mayor in London against current Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best. On September 20, 2006, he formally resigned his seat in the House of Commons in order to run for Mayor. The good news is that he was unsuccessful, losing to Mayor DeCicco-Best. The bad news is that his desertion necessated a by-election.

In the 1999 and 2003 general elections, Gerald Kennedy was elected to represent the new district of Parkdale-High Park. Following the latter, he became province's Minister of Education in the Liberal Party of Ontario government of Dalton McGuinty. In 2006, he resigned his cabinet post in order to seek leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Now the citizens in his riding will have to have a by-election.

These practices have to stop. Canadian voters are constantly reminded that they should vote. It is the civic thing to do. How many are going to vote in the next election if they believe that it is possible that the person they choose to represent them will either defect to a party that was not their first choice or alternatively desert them in the middle of their term, thereby leaving them to face a by-election?

The Americans have to their credit, partially solved these problems. Everyone running for office in the United States runs for office at the same time. This means that if a politician is going to desert his office to run for another office, it will happen near the end of his or her term in office.

Giving Ontario voters the right to recall MPPs who defect to another party during their term in office between elections will further ensure that politicians are more accountable to the people they serve. They will risk being defeated at the by-elections that will follow their defection.

I think watching a politician who chooses to defect at the risk of being defeated at the inevitable by-election that will follow his defection and subsequently gets defeated at the polls will put a gleam in the voter’s eyes that are not unlike the gleam in the eyes of a young child who has just opened a toy at Christmas.

I believe the way to stop politicians from deserting their posts in mid-term so that they can run for office again in a different setting is to make them pay for the by-elections that invariably must follow.

There are honest politicians who will remain at their posts and will serve their constituents faithfully. They don’t need to be written about. Their deeds speak for them. I am writing about the bad ones who defect and desert. They are the ones we have to be protected from.