When Honour left the House

Have you ever read something and the sheer unmitigated gall of it just takes your breath away? I had one of those moments when I was reading Margaret Wente’s column from the Globe and Mail yesterday (subscription required)Wente quoted a statement made by Independent MP, The Right Honourable, David Kilgour:

Behind the scenes, Mr. Martin is furiously bribing stray MP’s. Last week, he met with David Kilgour, who’s upset over Dafur. Now the government says it plans to send 150 Canadian troops there. This announcement is purely coincidence, and has nothing to do with buying Mr. Kilgour’s vote, which is a good thing in that Mr. Kilgour (who voted with the government on Tuesday) has declared that in order to stay bought, he might have to up the ante. "If something doesn’t happen quickly, the next time it’s pure confidence vote, I will vote according to my conscience" he said ominously.

It is a tradition, in our parliament that all elected members of the House of Commons are referred to as the Right Honourable Member but implicit in that tradition is the concept that our members are honourable and will act conduct their affairs honourably at all times. I suppose that I do long for the days when honour was a traditional Canadian value that united us as a people rather than our place on the healthcare waiting list. All of which leads me to speculate how Right Honourable Members like David Kilgour or Jack Layton would answer the biblical question; What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole word, and lose his own soul?"