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VANCOUVER — Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson may be leaving parliament, but he will remain a key backroom figure in the Conservatives' re-election campaign.
Mr. Emerson said today he had no regrets jumping to the Conservatives from the Liberals two years ago.
Mr. Emerson says he informed Mr. Harper a year ago that he likely would not run for re-election in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding, but didn't make the decision until last weekend after consulting his family.
The former business executive and top B.C. bureaucrat says he's agreed to be one of the national co-chairs of the Tories' election campaign.
Mr. Emerson says despite being recruited by then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin in 2004, he now believes Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives are best equipped to lead Canada.
If he had decided to run for re-election, Mr. Emerson said it would have been in his local riding, despite the anger raised by his decision to jump to the Tories just days after being elected as a Liberal in 2006.
