Turncoats Don't Wear Red

Being a Liberal turncoat (either switching from the Liberals to the Conservatives, or vice versa) makes you a lot of things. But being a party defector does not make you a red tory. In fact, it excludes you from consideration.

By very definition, tories are loyalists. Through thick and thin -- in opposition or in government, in cabinet or in the backbenches, in victory and in defeat -- they stick by their principles and leaders, and act with responsibility when it comes to representing their constituents. They innovate and bring about change within their parties, like Duff Roblin and Robert Stanfield. In bad times, they go down with the ship, like Joe Clark and Bernard Lord. They live to fight another day, like John Diefenbaker and Peter MacKay. To turn a phrase, they don't "cut and run".

Somewhere along the line, the media confused party colors with true colors. Let's set things straight: Belinda Stronach, Scott Bryson, and Garth Turner are opportunists -- they are not red tories. The same goes for David Emerson and Wajid Khan, for that matter. Merely wishing you are a tory does not make you one. You have to earn your true colors.