{"id":21741,"date":"2018-09-27T12:41:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T16:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21741"},"modified":"2018-09-27T12:41:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T16:41:16","slug":"brocks-banter-a-sense-of-urgency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-a-sense-of-urgency\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: A sense of urgency"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

They \u2013 that all-elusive \u201cthey\u201d \u2013 say that a week is a long time in politics. Well, it seems here in Aurora, two months can be the equivalent of two millennia.
\nLast Monday was not your typical Monday.
\nYou might have started the week thinking that it was a Monday unlike any other. Your might have been woken up by an alarm, hopped in for a quick shower, thrown on your clothes and jumped into your car for the long, slogging commute. Maybe you had to get up, race downstairs to make lunches for the kids and get them off to school before starting your own routine for whatever lay ahead.
\nAnd, so, the routine went on as it should have.
\nIf you live on the south side of Wellington Street, however, the day might have taken a turn just before the midday mark.
\nOkay, if you\u2019re a partisan, this probably shook down one of two ways.
\nIf you bleed blue for the Conservative Party of Canada, you were buoyed with an elation that carried you well beyond your lunch hour as you contacted all those who lean in your particular direction to share in the euphoria.
\nIf, on the other hand, your blood is a shade of Liberal red, that same blood likely started to boil until you needed to lie down under your desk. Rocking back and forth cradling your knees would, of course, have been optional.
\nI\u2019m talking, of course, about MP Leona Alleslev\u2019s shock decision to cross the floor of the House of Commons from the Liberal Government to take a place among the Conservative opposition.
\nIt was a decision few people saw coming and the word \u201cshock\u201d is not used lightly here, and her reasons for crossing the floor were voiced later that afternoon.
\n\u201cToday, I stood in the House deeply concerned for the future of our country,\u201d Ms. Alleslev told assembled media in the foyer of the House of Commons, joined by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. \u201cI asked the question, \u2018Am I doing everything I can to serve my country and work for real change for Canadians? The answer is no. The citizens of my riding and all Canadians need a government that delivers foundational change for the things that matter. The world has changed dramatically in the last three years and we find ourselves in a time of unprecedented global stability. We\u2019re seeing fundamental shifts in the global economy while trade relationships, international agreements, and defence structures are under threat. Canada faces a perfect storm of serious challenges at home and abroad. This is not a strong economy and our country needs strong leadership.\u201d
\nMs. Alleslev went onto say that Canadians must recognize that foreign policy, trade, defence and economy are interdependent and, as such, can\u2019t be viewed separately. She also said, \u201cstrong Federal leadership\u201d is needed to \u201crebuild\u201d our nation\u2019s foundations, including modernizing our military \u201cto reassure our allies and defend Canada\u2019s interests at home and abroad.\u201d
\n\u201cMy attempts to raise my concerns with this government were met with silence and, as I said in the House, the Government must be challenged openly and for me to publicly criticize the government as a Liberal would undermine the government [and that], according to my Code of Conduct, would be dishonourable.\u201d
\nThe world may have indeed \u201cchanged dramatically in the last three years\u201d but it seems change equally dramatic has played out here at home in a pretty narrow window.
\nJust 58 days before, on July 20, Ms. Alleslev was standing at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s side at a Liberal fundraiser held at the Royal Venetian on Industrial Parkway South, where she touched upon many of the same issues she highlighted in her September 17 remarks.
\n\u201cThe greatest thing about being a Member of Parliament in this Prime Minister\u2019s Government [is] that we, each and every one of us, is valued for the contribution that we bring to the team,\u201d she said to a packed house, moments after the PM made his remarks. \u201cWe each have our strengths, we\u2019re valued for it, and we lean on each other. And you have a great team, if I do say so myself, with Members of Parliament here in York Region.
\n\u201cI swore an oath to serve and defend this country when I was granted my Queen\u2019s Commission to become an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces and I decided about four years ago that I really was worried about what my country was becoming and it was getting more difficult to represent this country. That is why I decided to become a Member of Parliament. Last week, when I was in Brussels, at the NATO summit and the Prime Minister was there, you would have been truly amazed, proud and overcome with the power of the remarks this Prime Minister made, not to Canadians, but to Members of Parliament for governments, for social organizations, from all over the world. He set the example for what our NATO allies and other countries can become.
\n\u201cI would like to thank this Prime Minister for creating the country I am honoured to serve and defend, not only for what he is doing here at home, but for how he is representing us around the world.\u201d
\nSpeaking to The Auroran after her floor crossing, Ms. Alleslev once again mentioned the oath she took to Queen and Country. Taking this oath to heart, she said she has to ask herself every day whether she is doing everything she can so she can look both her constituents and herself in the face at the end of the day. Being elected, she added, creates a \u201csacred obligation\u201d to represent them.
\n\u201cI needed to exercise a sense of urgency,\u201d she said, but, again leaving the specifics of her decision off the table.
\nI do not begrudge Ms. Alleslev\u2019s decision to cross the floor. There is no reason to doubt she did what she felt was best, but I think she has a duty to explain her decision in detail to her constituents well before the next Federal election. That is the most sacred obligation between a MP and the people she or he represent.
\nThere is a significant contrast between her words on July 20 and those made on September 17 and 18; that, in itself, is alarming. Ms. Alleslev said her decision was cumulative and came at a \u201ctipping point\u201d but residents need to know what transpired within those 58 days to turn the tide.
\nIt is the only way voters in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill can make an informed decision next fall.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir They \u2013 that all-elusive \u201cthey\u201d \u2013 say that a week is a long time in politics. Well, it seems here in Aurora, two months can be the equivalent of two millennia. Last Monday was not your typical Monday. You might have started the week thinking that it was a Monday unlike any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5EF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 14:15:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}