Meet Sharon Smith - currently mayor of Houston B.C. and soon to be “liaison to the federal government” for the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley. Now I know what you are thinking: didn’t the people of that riding elect their own liaison to the federal government, traditionally known for lo these past 140 years as a Member of Parliament? Why yes, they did, and his name is Nathan Cullen. But Mr. Cullen has commited the egregious sin of - please brace yourself again - not being a Conservative. In fact, he is a member of the NDP. Apparently, not being a Conservative means you can no longer represent the people of your riding. Welcome to the world of one-party rule.

Dr. Dawg adds his own commentary to this issue and nicely documents the growing blogswarm right here. And thanks heavens for the blogs, because as the good canine doctor notes, there is virtually no coverage of this is the major media. Maybe it will become a story when the media realizes it is not only happening in B.C.

Meet Brendan Bell, the North’s very own right winger in residence. He is currently an MLA in the NWT assembly, but he is not running for re-election in the upcoming territorial election this October. And why is that? Well, he’ll be running for the Conservatives against Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington in the next federal election, but in the meantime he will be named - you guessed it - special liaison to the federal government for the people of the Western Arctic.

If it wasn’t so fundamentally anti-democratic as to be sickening, you could almost admire the whole scheme. Their candidates get to play MP prior to being elected. Then, when the election comes around, they can tout their experience representing “their” constituents as a special liaison to the federal government.

Peace, order and good government eh?
Dr. Dawg has a good blog round up and succient commentary