The ongoing saga of The Man Who Crossed The Floor continues to play out in Canadian politics. David Emerson, elected as a Liberal member of parliament in the election of January 23rd 2006, only took two weeks to decide that he ran for the wrong party, and switched sides so that he could join the winners in the Conservative Party of Canada and become a member of Cabinet.

Well, after a month or so of opposition members of parliament saying something is not quite right, and the people who voted for Mr. Emerson based on the fact that he might actually stand for something demanding that he immediately resign and run as a member of the party he's decided to join, Federal Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro has decided to launch a preliminary inquiry as to whether or not Prime Minister Steven Harper ran afoul of conflict of interest guidelines by proffering the bait of cabinet minister to entice Mr. Emerson to defect.

In the same letter that he sent to three opposition members of parliament outlining his plans he also indicated that he would be looking into the conduct of Mr. Emerson as well:

"Although the subject of this inquiry is the prime minister, given that the actions of Messrs. Harper and Emerson in this incident were intertwined, questions will no doubt be raised during the course of the preliminary inquiry on the conduct of Mr. Emerson as well." The Globe and Mail Saturday March 4th/06

In the past year, Canada has seen two floor crossings, people switching parties, and one attempted sting to entice an offer of a floor crossing. It is the last incident that opposition Member of Parliament (M.P.) Peter Julian claims set the precedent for this investigation.

A Conservative M.P., Gurmant Grewal, attempted to get a then Liberal cabinet ministers to offer him a position in cabinet if he agreed to switch sides prior to a key vote. He taped the conversation in the hopes of being able to make it look like the Liberals were trying to bribe opposition Members to switch parties.

Mr. Grewal eventually found himself caught in a firestorm, when he released an edited transcript of the tape that made it sound as if he were being lured, but the actual tape recording showed him fishing for the bribe and the Liberal minister not making any promises. At the time, Mr. Shapiro said that if a benefit is offered to entice a M.P. to switch sides, than it is a conflict of interest.