determined not to forget

Anti-Emerson drive continues
Irate constituents can neither forgive nor forget defection
Vancouver Sun,March 18, 2006

OTTAWA -- David Emerson is about to face a rude shock if he thinks the six-week public campaign to cast him out of the federal cabinet is going to blow over any time soon.

Today, those who can neither forgive nor forget the cabinet minister's overnight metamorphosis from Liberal to Conservative will begin hammering as many as 1,000 signs into lawns throughout his Vancouver Kingsway riding. All say the same thing: "De-Elect David Emerson."

And the mailboxes in the embattled minister's riding will soon be filling up with 10,000 pamphlets urging constituents to take part in protests calling on constituents to "support future rallies to de-elect Mr. David Emerson . . . . Sound your car horn to support the rally folks . . . . Recall MP David Emerson."

They are being mailed out by Michael Pan, who is on a one-man mission to recall B.C.'s most famous cabinet minister. He claims no connection to any political party and used about $2,000 of his own money to print the brochures, in Chinese and English, and pay the postage.

"I just think what he did is wrong," said Pan, an artist and businessman who voted for the Green party. "I don't belong to any political party. I'm spending my Mexican vacation money, but I think it's worth it."

It is true that these anti-Emerson protests are the work of a few dozen people at the core of the protests, many using the Internet and their experience in dealing with the media to keep the issue in the headlines. But most insist they act as individuals. Pan, for example, was alone at the post office, other than the half-dozen TV cameras that followed him.

But a real test of Emerson's claim that the attacks against him are from a clique of "partisan zealots", or has a deeper, grassroots anger that crosses political lines, will come on April 2. A "democracy walk" is being called in Emerson's riding, just a day before the new Parliament begins.
Organizers are bravely predicting up to 1,000 at the march. Conservatives, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have dismissed the protests as part of a sophisticated campaign by Liberal and NDP political operatives to manipulate the media and essentially stage-manage an apparent grass-roots revolt. ... more