Crossing the floor is a kick to the teeth to southern Albertans

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Sunny South News

To be blunt — politicians crossing the floor from one political party to another is a slap in the face to constituents, especially those who voted for said floor-crossers in the first place.

Last week, Little Bow MLA Ian Donovan made the switch from the Wildrose to the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) and Lethbridge-East MLA Bridget Pastoor, once a representative for the Liberals, crossed the floor — also to the PCs a few years ago.

Do the PCs have some sort of pied piper leading political party members astray? It kind of stinks when politicians decide during their elected seat to change teams — just like that. What if a Calgary Stampeders player decided to switch to the other team during a play? What if a player from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, in the middle of a game, grabbed the other team’s jersey and put it on and started shooting on his own net? What if the rock band KISS decided to put demon makeup on Canada’s prodigal son Justin Bieber to replace Gene Simmons? What if Luke Skywalker decided to join the darkside? Darth Vader would have been tickled pink.

If a politician switches teams halfway through a term — shouldn’t there be an election? What about those voting for so and so during an election? Doesn’t crossing the floor technically cancel out all the votes? Shouldn’t the same thing be in place for the premier? There’s a new one, Jim Prentice. The province didn’t vote, just select PCs that cared and were part of the club voted him in.

In Alberta, many Albertans voted for the Wildrose during the last election for change, others didn’t. Many voted for Donovan, as a Wildrose rep. Since Donovan is no longer a Wildrose rep shouldn’t Albertans go back to the polls? Shouldn’t have southern Albertans gone back to the polls after Pastoor decided to switch teams too? This type of political whiplash is sketchy at best and should be examined province-wide, as well as Canada-wide.

Prentice, was elected by his peers, not by the province. Does the province still want a PC government in place? Albertans will have to wait until the next provincial election to find out but in the meantime what about the voters who voted Wildrose locally? Is it thanks for nothing? It shouldn’t be that politicians can just decide to switch teams and change party affiliation without a consequence. Instead, maybe those politicians wanting to switch should wait until the next election and/or resign until the next election — and then throw their hat into the ring, as a candidate for the other team.

The political system in Canada is flawed. It needs to be re-examined and then re-examined again. No wonder non-voters could care less about politics. Voting doesn’t give the voter the warm and fuzzies anymore, rather an unexplainable rash. Voters need to hold their elected officials accountable for their actions. But they don’t. Instead of voters complaining about the political system over coffee at some fast food establishment — why not write a letter to an MLA or MP to voice discontent. Politics need an overhaul — an enema, if you will. Isn’t crossing the floor a conflict of interest for the political party one is crossing the floor to and vice versa? 

Could you imagine if Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper of the PC party decided one day to come out of the Liberal closet and wave a Liberal party flag? Would Canadians just say OK — let it be? Would Canadians allow Harper to be Prime Minister, as a Liberal?

What an alternate universe that would be. That is what crossing the floor is similar to. It is similar to a pop culture cross-over without the entertaining factor. It’s like Archie from Riverdale in “Afterlife with Archie” during a zombie apocalypse or Peter Griffin from “Family Guy” visiting Springfield in “The Simpsons” or “A Nightmare on Elm Street’s” Freddy Krueger battling Jason from “Friday the 13th” or “The Avengers” meet “The Justice League.” The latter are similar in design. The Wildrose and PCs have many similar attributes, much like the aforementioned animated hits, horror movie slashers and superhero groups. They have no business being in an alternate universe without the consent of voters, or so it should be. Sure fans love cross-overs but if the fans (voters, if you will) didn’t buy into the change, the studio responsible for said change would be knee deep in fan discontent. In this case, voters didn’t have a chance to buy in, they were left stranded to fend for themselves.