1  2  Next

I beleive that they should be forced to have a bye-election in their riding if they want to switch parties, and only after consulting the riding constituents.

   

I'd agree. It's not fair to the voters.

   

How about keeping this CIVIL, and sticking to the question at hand? Is that too hard for you to understand? Do you need instruction on how to be civil?

   

They should definitely have a bi-election, before of after the fact. It should be at the latest within 30 days of defecting.

   

MP's should be able to leave their party at any time if they feel the party is not holding to the values of the MPs constituents.

However, they should have to sit as an Independent until the next election is called, at which point they would be free to join another party if they so wish.

   

I would be thrilled if my MP crossed the floor. He's a conservative, well, a Reformer.


I think you have to elect someone and just hope they do there best to protect your interests. By crossing the floor, Belinda has gained significantly more political power and will be better able to protect her consituency's interests. She was always a fairly Liberal minded person, with economically conservative thinking. That is what people voted for and thats what she still is.

   

Yes.

MPs should be free to do what they feel is in the best interest of their constituents and the nation. It also helps keep the leadership of the parties on their toes and listening to their MPs.

   

I think you should be able to vote however you want whenever you want. You should do what is best for the people who elected you and not the party you belong to.

   

It's probably the one thing that pisses of the electorate the most and only serves to foster the cynicism of voters towards their elected officials. Right now you folks are applauding it but if some back bench Liberals left the fold, pissed off when someone outside the party gets appointed to cabinet, you'd all start whining.
Typical hypocrisy that puts the party before the public.

   

When US Senator Phil Gramm went from Democrat to Republican he resigned and ran for re-election as a Republican.

And won re-election.

If the people support the decision to switch parties they'll re-elect the politician who did so.

   

Everybody:

The reason that Senator Phil Gramm stayed in the US Senate is that the States practice people politics more than that of party politics. The party is always in the back of the peoples minds, but in most situations the person that the people think will get them what they want, get's the vote.

In Canada, we have party politics. Just besause you like the person that is in your riding dosn't mean that you will nessesarily vote that person in. In the majority of the voting populus we vote for the leader of the party, therefore voting in the party. We don't vote for the person that we nessesarliy like the most.

Back to the topic at hand. Any member of the house of commons sould not be alowed to just up and switch side on a wim. How would we controle the defection issues. 1. They must be frist asked to do so by a majority of the voting constituance in the riding. 2. They must sit as an independant for a period of no less than 2 months or the time it takes to have a bielection. Then they may be able to join another party.

   

Also, in the case of the sponsorship scandal and the CA/PC merger, some people no longer felt comfortable being in those parties. They should have the right to leave parties that no longer reflect there views.

Hypothetical:
Bush starts another war, a bigger one. Martin wants to follow him in, as do other major liberals. The rest of the the liberal party opposes. The conservative party agrees with the war. The NDP & Bloc oppose the war, but don't have the numbers to do anything about itt. If the Liberals who opposed the war are forced to remain liberals and vote with the party, they would be screwed. Under current rules, they could leave there party, join the NDP or at least vote with them, and keep Canada out of the war.

   

What about this hypothetical situation instead:

Long time Liberal back benchers get so frustrated when Paul Martin appoints someone, who just joined the party to a cabinet post, that they leave to be independants or Tories.

That's probably more likely than you're imaginary boogy-men

   

1  2  Next