Always good to see someone not turn out to be a party hack. Especially interesting to see someone representing my old hometown of Truro NS take a stand like this:
Mr. Casey said he and Gerald Keddy, another Nova Scotia Conservative MP, have met repeatedly with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in an effort to resolve the impasse. They also appealed directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa Monday. "We have tried to build bridges between the government and provincial governments. We've got legal opinions. We have done everything we can do and last week it was obvious to me that we weren't going to get the Accord restored. I told the Prime Minister I was going to vote against unless it was restored and I did," said Mr. Casey. "I just think the government of Canada should honour a signed contact and if they don't, we haven't got much to work with."Hard to argue with that argument. Interesting to see the reference to the legal opinions - who is the "we" he is referring to? The government? A dissenting group?
Comments
Gordo - June 6, 2007 10:22 AM
As was inevitable, he was shown the door. There's only one acceptable sort of loyalty in the Reform Party: to the party.
Temujin - June 6, 2007 12:00 PM
This is hardly the "Reform Party". They are looking more and more like the Liberals every single day :-) When you go about bribing people with their own money you'll never be able to meet the demands of everyone.
If Bill Casey really was as principled as he is currently being portrayed, wouldn't he have left the Conservatives on his own accord ages ago? Chastise the Conservatives all you want (they certainly deserve it), but don't get caught up anointing Casey as some kind of principled hero amongst rogues. He isn't.
Oh, and I feel it necessary to point out the big come-from-behind win by the Jays last night. And the Red Sox three game losing streak seems important to note also ;-)
Alan - June 6, 2007 12:35 PM
Yes, the TOBJs are out from under a double digit shortcoming today. Congrats!
Jay Currie - June 6, 2007 5:56 PM
While I completely disagree with the provisions of the Atalantic Accord, I agree that Casey behaved very well. If more MPs were willing to break party ranks we would have a much healthier democracy. Perhaps not quite so efficient but healthier.