Another David Emerson?

According to Mark Dunn of the Toronto Sun, it’s perhaps a reality. He speculates that a Stevie Spiteful may well have dangled a cabinet post to a Liberal in exchange for a floor crossing. Yes, I know, Mark Dunn wrote a rather deplorable column earlier (not linking to it).  And yes, I generally take whatever Sun Media produces with a grain of salt, but this is not the first I’ve heard of this.   Also to be noted that while Dunn’s article speculates that a Liberal was made an offer by Stevie (it also says that pit-bull Baird is going to health when everyone else says he’s going to Foreign Affairs),  it doesn’t necessarily mean the Liberal in question took it. However, if true,  I’m speculating at this point that the would-be floor crosser could be Mount-Royal’s Irwin Cotler.  Allow me to explain why I think this.

However, before I do, I just want to make this comment.  Cotler is 71, and has said that this was to be his last election, thus, probably near the end of his career.  Surely, Cotler must be smart enough to realize that joining team Harpercon would not exactly be ending a career on a high note.  Yes, it would be on an even lower note than remaining with the now shell shocked Liberals.  If he really wanted to join team Harpercon, he should have run as one in the last election.  He preached democracy during his campaign. Crossing the floor to the Harpercons, thus giving Stevie Spiteful that coveted Montreal seat that would be the cherry on his sundae, is hardly democratic. Same would go for any Liberal or any other newly elected or re-elected MP crossing the floor so soon after the election as Vancouver-Kingsway’s David Emerson did in 2006.

First off, an article by Mike Cohen, a columnist at The Suburban, in the Jewish Tribune last week set off alarm bells.  Yes, Mike Cohen is also another writer, in my humble opinion, who should also be taken with a grain of salt, given his right winged bent.   While Cohen doesn’t exactly come out and suggest that Cotler would be offered a cabinet post in exchange for a floor crossing outright, he does suggest that perhaps, Cotler would be appointed by Stevie Spiteful into some plum post. At the very least, it appears that some  members of the Jewish community would like Stevie Spiteful to appoint Cotler to something.

Sources tell me that there is also a movement afoot by some members of the Jewish community to have Cotler given a high-profile appointment where he can carry on his human rights work and do so more effectively backed by Prime Minister Harper.

Clearly, with only six MPS in all of Quebec, the Tories need to bump up their presence here. With two openings in the province for Senate appointments they will probably take that route. Perhaps a Jewish personality could be in the mix.

Hmm, that would definitely free the riding up for a by-election which would more than likely see the Harpercons prevail, but that would be a crapshoot for Harper, nonetheless. I’m not talking about the Liberals maintaining the riding. If a by-election were held within the next few months, odds are it would be next to impossible to find a heavyweight to take on the Harpercons.  Apparently, according to Cohen, many in the Harpercon riding association have asked defeated Harpercon candidate, Saulie Zajdel to stay on as candidate.  No, the risk is that Jeff Itcush could also potentially run in a by-election for the NDP again. He raised the NDP vote count in the riding by over 10%. While Saulie Zajdel (or any other potential harpercon candidate) continues to woo and sway the Jewish pro-Israel vote, Itcush can concentrate on the rest of the constituents who were overlooked because of the Israel obsession.  Mr. Itcush, wisely, didn’t play the “I luv Israel best” game in his campaign.  No, it’s still somewhat of a crapshoot and would involve actual campaigning yet again.

Also, last night on Twitter, @Atlantic_Frank tweeted this:

Frank hears Harper will award defecting Irwin Cotler with a cabinet post.

I think the floor crossing for a cabinet post makes more sense.  Stevie,  who just thinks democracy is too much of an inconvenience, would get that coveted Montreal seat without working too hard for it.  Why Cotler, in particular?   Because, to Stevie Spiteful, the biggest dragon for him to slay, would be the Mount-Royal seat, not only because it would be his breakthrough in Montreal, but this particular seat used to belong to Pierre Trudeau, a man who Stevie Spiteful has such a pathological hatred for.  If anyone has read Harperland,  or anything else about Stevie,  the main reason for his Liberal derangement syndrome is Pierre Trudeau.  Taking Trudeau’s old seat would be, in my opinion, the final insult. Oh, no question the victory would be nothing short of hollow, given Stevie wouldn’t have to work too hard for it, but  hey, since when has winning anything fair and square ever mattered to Stevie Spiteful, given all the nasty tricks he’s pulled the last election?

According to everything I’ve heard and read post-election, Stevie expressed the obligatory ‘regrets’ about losing all those Quebec seats, but I didn’t get the feeling he was particularly as attached to any of them. Not even to Loose Larry Cannon’s in Pontiac or Josee Verner’s in Louis-St-Laurent.  Hell, I don’t think I heard much outrage when the final results of the judicial recount in Montmagny-L’Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere-du-Loup took away another seat and giving it to the NDP by a hair.  Even Senator Touchdown seemed more upset at his third place finish in Lac-St-Louis than Stevie was.  However, I always sensed from everything I’ve heard and read that Stevie needed Mount-Royal to feel complete and that he would stop at nothing to accomplish that.

Unlike Vancouver-Kingsway, where the constituents were none too happy about Emerson crossing the floor so soon after the 2006 election, the constituents, particularly the Jewish community might well be ecstatic if Cotler crossed the floor to team Harpercon. Many have said, basically, that they like Cotler, but think he’s in the wrong party, or that Cotler’s a nice guy, but, hey, Stevie Spiteful loves Israel best, so we must return that love.  Such a floor crossing gives those constituents the best of both worlds; an MP they like, in the party they want representing them.

We shall see tomorrow after Stevie Spiteful unveils his new cabinet whether Mr. Cotler (or another Liberal for that matter) has indeed pulled a David Emerson or not.  At the very least, I do believe that Stevie Spiteful may have offered something to Cotler in exchange for vacating his Mount-Royal seat.

If any of this is true, it would not only be another blow the Liberals don’t need, but it would also be another blow to democracy and no one will care.