The media frenzy to track down federal politicians with separatist backgrounds has found fresh meat in a current Conservative cabinet minister with a Bloc Quebecois connection.
Transport Minister Denis Lebel held a seven-year BQ membership starting in 1993 until he turned Tory in 2001.
Gosh. Big deal.
The raised eyebrows over interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel’s flirtation with the BQ and provincial Quebec Solidaire party have, in my view, been easier to justify.
But howls from the NDP over Mr. Lebel’s decade-old BQ membership sound desperate and are curious because the party was silent when the precedent was set.
That happened when the Liberals recruited Bloc Quebecois founder Jean Lapierre to sit in, ironically, the Transport portfolio during Paul Martin’s reign.
Mr. Lapierre, who appears on Power Play as our expert eyes on Quebec politics every week, didn’t last long sitting with the BQ in the early 1990s before electing to return to his Liberal roots in 2004.
While Lapierre’s changed stripes rated occasional mention and he was forced to repledge his federalist loyalties periodically, it was never condemned with any NDP enthusiasm.
Yet the Dippers are out there today blasted the Conservatives as double-standard hypocrites after Prime Minister Stephen Harper dared to express concern at Turmel’s earlier separatist party favours.
It’s true Mr. Lebel sits around the powerful cabinet table, something Ms. Turmel will likely never do.
But MPs and MP wannabes have always had the flexibility to switch sides if their current party becomes intolerable to themselves or local voters.
Never mind conflicting party memberships, 17 MPs have switched party sections in the House of Commons since 2000 -- and most went on to be safely re-elected under a new political banner.
But party leaders, even interim types, are held to a higher standard which is beyond quibbling, particularly in the area of national unity. Nycole Turmel held three party memberships -- two of them with separatist sympathizers -- until earlier this year. That remains a legitimate source of consternation until Jack Layton takes back the party reins.
But for low-key Denis Lebel to shake loose from the separatist Bloc, which was extremely popular when he quit in 2001, to join what appeared to be the lost Conservative cause in Quebec is worth commending, not condemning.
Don Martin hosts Power Play on CTV News Channel, highlighting the people and players that dominate the political scene in Canada.
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