Assessment of Power in Key Individuals
During Canadian national vote of 2006, the Conservative party won the vast number of polls and parliament seats. This election results indicated that a minority government, which was the smallest ever since confederation had won: the party garnered about 40 percent of the seats in parliament. It served for a longer term and its long-term rule became the second in minority governments. Stephen Harper became the prime minister while David Emerson was elected as the trade minister, although he was from the liberal party.
The voters from the Liberal riding association became angry of Emerson claiming that he was an opportunist and was out to make money and have a well paying job, at the same time ignoring his party and those who voted for him. Curman, the president of the riding party association and those who voted for Emerson demanded his resignation. The other MPs from the liberal parties such as Maria also asked him to resign since he had crossed the floor to the conservative party (DuBrin and Young 251).
Assessment of Ethics
Since ethics encompasses a set of rules of the moral standards of what the society expects, president Curman, Mp Maria, and the followers of the liberal government demanded the resignation of Emerson. However, according to Emerson, he had not done something illegal because President Harper elected him. Emerson believed that he was not political and his work is to support his people.
People referred to Harper as a hypocrite because he had campaigned on practicing of ethics in the government. In these cases, the parties had to decide on the right course of action because the society had no authority that controls individuals’ desires. Belinda who was an MP in the conservative party had also decided to move to the liberal party. All the MPs and presidents from these parties decided to act on what according to them was somehow right since they did not follow any rules (Krauss 1).
Assessment Impression Management
In this case, Emerson has participated in making an impression to people from British Columbia by claiming that he will be more helpful as a cabinet minister than being on the opposition because he said that he was not a politician. He did so to change people’s negative perception about him. This made him get 28 percent of support from people of British Columbia. Stephen Harper also wanted to create a positive image to people when he said that the appointment of Emerson was make people from British Columbia have a voice in the Cabinet.
Conflicts in the Case
There are many conflicts in this case, and the first one occurred when the minority government won the elections: there were conflicts between supporters of the two parties. However, Harper, the newly elected president of conservative party tried to resolve it by electing the MPs from liberal party such as David Emerson who became the trade minister. Instead of resolving the conflicts, it created more anger, especially to Emerson’s followers and Ivan Curman, the leader of Kingsway liberal Party.
His case has not been resolved because despite the people from British Columbia supporting him, a large group insisted on his resignation. Another conflict arose when MP Belinda who was a conservative follower joined the liberal party. These criticisms came from James Moore who was an MP from Conservative party, but the case was not resolved.
Works Cited
DuBrin, Andrew and Jeffrey Young. Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior. Canada: Thomson Nelson, 2006. Print.
Krauss, Clifford. “Liberal Party Loses Vote of Confidence in Canada.” New York Times. 2005. Web.