I really need to remember not to read the comments section on news stories.
This morning, Eve Adams, the Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Brampton South crossed the floor from the Conservatives to join the Liberal Caucus under Justin Trudeau. Now, I have no idea what kind of MP Ms. Adams is, although I have heard that she has had questionable dealings in and with her former party during the nomination processes in her former and neighbouring ridings. Apparently she broke some party rules, however from past experience I know that that can be a murky mess too. Brandon-Souris had its own nomination irregularities in the last by-election which still seem questionable to me. But that’s another topic.
Just like any time that someone crosses the floor to another party, or leaves the party to sit as an independent, you start to hear people saying how dishonest the floor-crosser is, how they should resign and run again. The idea is that the representative ran under the party banner and got a bunch of votes from people who voted for that party. That’s what I saw in the comments section, except with more name calling.
One problem. We don’t vote for parties in Canada, we vote for candidates. I really wish that people would catch on to this when they make these assertions. When you vote for a candidate, you vote for that person to represent your constituency. You do not vote for a party to represent your constituency. If that was the case, when Merv Tweed resigned his seat, then the Tories could have appointed someone to “their seat”. They were not allowed to do that, there had to be a by-election, because the person who held the seat vacated it. I really wish these commenters would learn how our system works before they comment. Eve Adams has the right, perhaps even the responsibility, to cross the floor if she thinks that the party she represents no longer represents her constituents. I don’t know if that is what has happened in this case, perhaps she is just an opportunist who jumped ship when she had pretty much been tossed overboard. Time will tell.
However, the right to “cross the floor” is one of the few threats that an MP has against their party, especially a party in government. It is something that is an integral part of our system.
Personally I would go further. I would like to see the removal of party names from our ballots. To me, the party name is a form of advertising for the candidate. Political advertising is forbidden by law inside or within so many metres of a polling place. Some will say that the party name beside the candidate lets people identify who they want to vote for. I would argue that if you have not been able to figure out who is the representative of your favourite party before you go into the polling place, then perhaps you have not done due diligence in researching and knowing the positions of the candidates in your area. If you cannot even identify the political affiliation of someone that you want to represent you, perhaps you don’t know them well enough.
I would hope people would put more thought into their vote than just picking a colour.
