Ratting Is Still Ratting

PLEASE NOTE: Frequently I screw up. I did so in the post below. I was under the impression that Persaud was himself also an MP. My apologies. The post still is valid for Khan though.

Let me be the first one to extend a warm welcome to Persaud.
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"Anyone can rat [change parties], but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat." - Sir Winston Churchill

"It is easy for an individual to move through those insensible gradations from left to right, but the act of crossing the Floor is one which requires serious attention. I am well informed on this matter for I have accomplished that difficult process, not only once, but twice."-Sir Winston Churchill

With the election of Stephane Dion, many Martin Liberals are jumping ship.

With a new leftist leader, the guard has changed. The balance of power has shifted and obviously some people don't feel so comfortable anymore.

And no doubt many of my fellow Tories will be pointing to the fact that Ol' Churchill himself not only defected once but twice in his political career. That being the evidence that many will offer that these defections could in fact be genuine and moral.

I wonder though if the loudest critic to that line of thinking would be Churchill himself. As he said, it's one thing to change political ideologies, it's quite another to change parties, and even more to cross the floor of the Commons in mid parliamentary session.

It isn't something that should be common, or entered into lightly.

If these new insta-Tories were really genuine I wonder why they didn't resign their seats the moment they started to seriously question their commitment to the Liberals?... What were they doing continuing being Liberals while they seriously considered joining the Tories?

Of course that's assuming that such a period existed to begin with. Bolts of lighting knocking sense into people is possible - just like conversions on the road to Damascus have a habit of happening.

There will be endless debates about whether this was a moral act. People will shout and scream. There will be small protests of less than a half a dozen Liberals that will somehow garnish the same attention that a crowd of hundred Tories would.

Let me sum up my opinion for you surrounding this: This was a WRONG.

I don't believe these MPs had pressing reasons to not do the honorable thing, resign their posts , and run in a bi-election. We are not at war. We are not in a state of crisis.

Tories in those ridings did not nominate these knuckleheads. They fought against them in general elections. I don't care what change of hearts these people had. Their future nominations should not be guaranteed. They should have to win the hearts and minds of local Tories just like anyone else would in those ridings.

Further, people elected these MPs as Liberals not as Tories. They've been cheated. The right thing to do would have been for Khan and Persaud to resign and run again in a bi-election after being dually nominated by local Tories.

Now we welcome to the fold people of questionable judgment, and questionable loyalties.

If I were Harper I wouldn't trust these idiots with a nickel of money or a shred of paper.

I'll give Lapierre credit on this one - at least he did the right thing. He resigned and didn't try to extend his stay unnaturally.

Winston Churchill may have crossed the floor twice, but it wasn't something he thought others should enter into lightly. Also when Churchill did switch parties, he was de-selected from by his own seat before crossing the floor the first time, and ran as an independent before becoming a Tory the second time he defected...

That's a far cry from what Khan and Persaud just did.