Lapierre was expected to leave, and Khan always a Tory, Liberal leader says as he presses on with recruitment drive
Mr. Khan was no loss, I knew he was a tory the minute he took that job to do that Mid East report Harper refuses to release.
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has lost two MPs in the past seven days but his more pressing concern this week is outside Parliament Hill, on the ground, where he's readying the troops to fight an election – and perhaps a snap by-election in the Quebec riding of Outremont.
Dion is portraying yesterday's resignation of Jean Lapierre, the former transport minister, as widely expected and yet another reason for Liberals to be election-ready.
Lapierre, who had already signalled he would not run in the next election, is going to resume his career in broadcasting.
"We knew that it would happen," Dion said while travelling in Alberta yesterday, refusing to get drawn into speculation about whether Justin Trudeau, son of the former prime minister, would be trying to fill the newly vacant seat.
As for Wajid Khan, the GTA MP who turned Conservative a week ago and hosted Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his Mississauga-Streetsville riding yesterday, Dion said that loss was inevitable, too. "Mr. Khan, was in fact a Conservative ... I don't feel like I lost a Liberal."
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Former Liberal executive member joins Mississauga MP in moving to Conservatives
What is Harper smoking??????
The second defection of a former high-ranking Liberal to the Conservative party in less than a week illustrates that the Tories are winning over ethnic voters across Canada, and particularly in the Toronto area, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
Harper told a crowd of party faithful that the support of former Mississauga-Streetsville Liberal MP Wajid Khan and now of Mark Persaud, a former chair of the federal Liberal party's multiculturalism committee, shows people are realizing the "failure of the Liberals to match talk with action" when it comes to new Canadians.
"There's a place for everyone within the new Conservative Party of Canada," Harper said. "The news is getting out and the party is continuing to grow."
Persaud, standing on the stage with Harper, Khan and Jason Kenney, the secretary of state for multiculturalism, said he was at first reluctant to speak publicly, but then launched into a tirade against the Liberals.
Persaud said the Liberals have taken a "pedestrian approach" to multiculturalism and shown "disrespect and glaring contempt" for ethnic Canadians.
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