Same old story: Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean edition

La Presse reports on the past party loyalties of the Libs and Cons in the Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean by-election. And if we needed another indication of how interchangeable the parties can be, it appears that the star candidates from both parties have switched their affiliation from one to the other within the last two years:

L'élection partielle du 17 septembre dans la circonscription de Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean donne lieu à d'étranges rebondissements. Depuis le 24 juin, Louise Boulanger, candidate du Parti libéral dans ce bastion souverainiste, est en effet membre en règle du Parti... conservateur.

Selon ce qu'a appris La Presse hier, Mme Boulanger, femme d'affaires de Saint-Félicien, a acheté sa carte de membre le jour même où le premier ministre Stephen Harper est venu fêter la Saint-Jean à Roberval en compagnie de son candidat Denis Lebel...

Mme Boulanger a aussi affirmé que M. Lebel, son adversaire conservateur, est membre du Parti libéral. «Il a sa carte de membre du Parti libéral et je peux vous le prouver», a-t-elle dit. Mais chez les conservateurs, on a indiqué hier que M. Lebel n'a jamais renouvelé sa carte de membre, échue depuis 2005.

The article goes off on a couple of other interesting tangents, including an attempt by Boulanger to minimize her Con involvement, as well as an inexplicably anonymous statement of Con spin which blissfully ignores the Con-to-Lib conversions of both Boulanger and Bernard Potvin (who apparently wanted to challenge for the Con nomination until Lebel's candidacy was announced). But while the Libs fight a losing battle arguing about timing and reasons and the Cons try to spin the game of musical supporters as proof of their own momentum, the more important lesson lies elsewhere.

Namely, there's little enough principled distinction between the two parties that high-profile backers see no problem in jumping back and forth without an apparent second thought. And when the actions of the parties' own supporters show so little difference between the two, there's all the more reason to doubt that voting for one will do anything to avoid the problems with the other.