Turncoat MP David Emerson said if he could have done one thing differently two years ago, it would have been to stay out of public life.

But for now, Emerson claims he can serve both his Vancouver-Kingsway riding in particular and British Columbia in general as a cabinet minister with the Conservatives.

"I'm continuing with the opportunity Prime Minister Harper has given me to pursue the very initiatives we were putting so much priority on when I was in Mr. Martin's Liberal government," he told CTV Vancouver on Wednesday.

Emerson won re-election as a Liberal in the Jan. 23 federal election. The Conservative candidate finished third.

However, he shocked everyone Monday morning by showing up at the cabinet swearing-in ceremony of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday. Emerson was named minister of international trade, minister for the Pacific Gateway and minister responsible for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics.

Since then, Emerson's been under fire from angry constituents and partisan Liberals alike in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding, which last elected a Conservative MP in the 1950s.

Ivan Curman, president of the riding's Liberal association, sent Emerson a letter dated Monday in which he asked the former Liberal to repay $97,000 in donations and to resign and run for election as Conservative in a byelection.

Emerson said he wouldn't be resigning and submitting himself to a byelection.

"The reality is I was elected. Once the election was over, I was faced with a decision on how to best serve the people of the riding, and that's all the people of the riding ...," he said.

"I concluded that I could better serve them, I could get more done, I could get more results for British Columbia if I was in the cabinet than if I was not."

As to the money, Emerson said: "That's a ridiculous claim. The reality is I raised a tremendous amount of money for the Liberal Party of Canada.

"I left a substantial balance in the riding, and that riding is one of the financially strongest of the Liberal Party in British Columbia."

While people have been angry over Emerson's actions, a protest outside his constituency office in the working-class, East Vancouver riding drew more media than protesters.

However, CTV Vancouver's Rob Brown said when you talk to ordinary people on the street in the riding, they are still outraged at what they saw as Emerson's opportunism.

One self-described businessman said that Emerson's move was similar to the bait-and-switch techniques used by some electronics retailers.

On open-line shows in Vancouver, people criticized that kind of political behaviour. An online petition has also started up asking for a byelection has also started up.

"I hope that there is a growing storm over this and that he faces that pressure (to resign), because he should. We should change the system," said NDP MP Libby Davies of the adjacent Vancouver East riding.

Last fall, former NDP MP Ed Broadbent released an ethics package that would have required floor-crossing MPs to resign and then try to regain their seat in a byelection.

While the Conservative Party heavily pushed the theme of improving government accountability, there's nothing in their platform about regulating floor-crossing MPs.

Harper also appointed Michael Fortier, a Montreal-based Conservative official, to the Senate and then the cabinet on Monday, even though the party has a policy of electing senators.

The Conservatives failed to elect a single MP in the cities of Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Rob Brown