David Emerson joins the Conservative Party and Cabinet (2006)

What the record says

David Emerson changed from Liberal to Conservative and entered Cabinet on February 6, 2006. The Ethics Commissioner found no Code breach and no special inducement while recognizing the episode’s democratic controversy.

Participants

1. David Emerson

   CTF-EP-000073-01

   Liberal Party of Canada→ToConservative Party of CanadaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   February 6, 2006

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not recorded

   What happened afterwards

   Recorded outcomes only. An absence here means nothing has been recorded, not that nothing happened, and no causal link to the affiliation change is asserted unless a source establishes one.

   • cabinet appointment — Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics

     February 6, 2006 · result: yes · causation: official finding no special inducement · influence access, compensation, office

     David Emerson entered Cabinet on the same day as his Conservative affiliation began. Cabinet carried additional salary and benefits; the Ethics Commissioner found no special inducement and no Code breach.

How rare is this?

Claims and the sources cited for them

Every statement this record makes is stored as a separate claim with its own review state and its own citations. A claim with no citation is shown as such rather than omitted.

1. David Emerson changed from Liberal to Conservative on February 6, 2006.

   Supported

   Field:

   affiliation_change

   Confidence:

   High

   Signed by:

   Official-source deterministic verifier

   Concerns a living person

   • Wikipedia: David Emerson

     UND

     Legacy record-level citation; claim-level locator pending review.

     Archived copy — August 9, 2026

     CTF-S-000049 · Reliability tier: tertiary · Rights: link only

   • Prime Minister announces changes to the Ministry

     Government of Canada · June 25, 2008 · record David Emerson appointed Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics on 2006-02-06 · EN

     The official biography confirms the ministerial appointment date.

     Archived copy — September 1, 2026

     CTF-S-CANADA-EMERSON-BIO · Reliability tier: primary official · Rights: link only · Accessed: August 1, 2026

   • The Harper–Emerson Inquiry

     Office of the Ethics Commissioner · March 2006 · page Executive summary pp. 3-4; findings pp. 13-14 · EN

     The inquiry identifies the party change and appointment date.

     Archived copy — January 26, 2023

     CTF-S-ETHICS-HARPER-EMERSON-2006 · Reliability tier: primary official · Rights: link only · Accessed: August 1, 2026

2. David Emerson entered Cabinet on the same day as his Conservative affiliation began. Cabinet carried additional salary and benefits; the Ethics Commissioner found no special inducement and no Code breach.

   Supported

   Field:

   cabinet_appointment

   Confidence:

   High

   Signed by:

   Official-source deterministic verifier

   Concerns a living person

   • Prime Minister announces changes to the Ministry

     Government of Canada · June 25, 2008 · record David Emerson appointed Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics on 2006-02-06 · EN

     The official biography confirms the appointment.

     Archived copy — September 1, 2026

     CTF-S-CANADA-EMERSON-BIO · Reliability tier: primary official · Rights: link only · Accessed: August 1, 2026

3. The Ethics Commissioner found no special inducement and no Code breach. The report also says the additional salary and benefits of Cabinet, by themselves, are not an improper inducement.

   Supported

   Field:

   causation_status

   Confidence:

   High

   Signed by:

   Official-source deterministic verifier

   Concerns a living person

   • The Harper–Emerson Inquiry

     Office of the Ethics Commissioner · March 2006 · page Executive summary pp. 3-4; findings pp. 13-14 · EN

     The inquiry supplies the compensation analysis and official finding.

     Archived copy — January 26, 2023

     CTF-S-ETHICS-HARPER-EMERSON-2006 · Reliability tier: primary official · Rights: link only · Accessed: August 1, 2026

4. The inquiry said the episode created a public sense that votes were devalued and warranted rigorous political debate, while finding no Code breach.

   Supported

   Field:

   democratic_context

   Confidence:

   High

   Signed by:

   Official-source deterministic verifier

   Concerns a living person

   • The Harper–Emerson Inquiry

     Office of the Ethics Commissioner · March 2006 · page Executive summary pp. 3-4; findings pp. 13-14 · EN

     The report distinguishes legal findings from democratic debate.

     Archived copy — January 26, 2023

     CTF-S-ETHICS-HARPER-EMERSON-2006 · Reliability tier: primary official · Rights: link only · Accessed: August 1, 2026

5. Complaints alleged that the Cabinet appointment was an inducement. This records the allegation, not its truth; the official inquiry rejected a special-inducement finding.

   Supported

   Field:

   reported_allegation

   Confidence:

   High

   Signed by:

   Official-source deterministic verifier

   Concerns a living person

   • The Harper–Emerson Inquiry

     Office of the Ethics Commissioner · March 2006 · page Executive summary pp. 3-4; findings pp. 13-14 · EN

     The report describes the complaints before resolving them.

     Archived copy — January 26, 2023

     CTF-S-ETHICS-HARPER-EMERSON-2006 · Reliability tier: primary official · Rights: link only · Accessed: August 1, 2026

Corrections to this record

• Permanent citation address did not resolve

  The permanent URI published for this record was https://crossingthefloor.ca/en/crossings/david-emerson-2006. This site has never served a language-prefixed route and has no /id/ route, so that address returned HTTP 404: any citation made against it did not resolve to the record. The permanent URI is now https://crossingthefloor.ca/crossings/david-emerson-2006, the canonical record address. The record's facts, dates, parties, participants, sources and public identifier (CTF-E-000073) are unchanged; only the stored address was corrected.

  September 1, 2026 · material correction · CTF-COR-URI-000073

Machine-assisted proposals awaiting a human

A proposal listed here has changed nothing. It names exactly which steps a machine performed and waits for a person to accept or reject it.

• outcome research approved

  Machine assistance: research entity matching and translation draft

  AI-assisted source discovery, entity matching, and French drafting produced this private outcome candidate. A human editor must open every source and verify the affiliation date, ministerial titles, exact locators, and translation before promotion. Promotion still does not publish an outcome.

Editorial review passes

Which checks have been run against this record, and what each one concluded. A review that has not happened is shown as pending, never as passed.

• fact checkapproved · August 1, 2026

Revision history

Every change to this record is appended here. Nothing is edited away.

1. r3 corrected

   Corrected the stored permanent URI. It pointed at /en/crossings/david-emerson-2006, a path this site has never served, so the citation target returned HTTP 404. It now points at /crossings/david-emerson-2006, the canonical record address. No fact, date, party, participant or source in this record was changed.

   September 1, 2026

2. r2 expanded

   Added exact chronology, cabinet outcome, and the official ethics finding.

   August 1, 2026 · Official-source deterministic verifier

3. r1 created

   Imported from the legacy archive as an unpublished research lead. Historical narrative, motive labels, and benefit scores were not treated as verified claims.

   July 31, 2026 · Crossing the Floor project maintainer