CBC reported today that popular former Conservative M.P. Garth Turner, an independent since last fall, has joined the Liberals. A former Progressive Conservative, he cited P.M. Stephen Harper's "mindless disciplinarianism" and said that "The progressive part of the Conservative party is gone." Of course, Betty Hinton played a role in making that happen – she was elected here originally for the Canadian Alliance, the short-lived party whose leader Stockwell Day is now a
laughingstock from Penticton to Ottawa. Turner also expressed hope that P.M. Stephen Harper will "show some integrity" by calling by-elections in the ridings represented by now-Conservative floor-crossers like David Emerson and Wajid Khan, as well as unelected office-holders like public works minister Michael Fortier, saying he himself "would gladly run in a fourth byelection." Let us hope that our M.P. is at least ethical enough to be ashamed to be in the same party as these people.Please view this video by Garth Turner about his decision.
Cited article unattributed
Published February 6, 2007
Copyright © Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2007
9 comments:
I know both Garth Turner and David Emerson. The difference between them is that David settled the softwood lumber dispute and Garth did.....uh, nothing.
quote anonymous "David settled"
could not have said that better myself!
There are two ways to settle a dispute: put in the commitment and effort to win, or give up. Emerson and the Conservatives gave up, and Canada didn't get as much as it deserved. Garth has done nothing? He's a pioneer in Mps listening to their constituents, he's stood up for his beliefs, he's started a whole new era in participatory politics with his blog and MPtv videos.
Will be interesting to see how much standing up Garth will do now that he's sitting down on the Liberal backbenches.
And it probably takes a little more to start a "new era" than to join the myriad bloggers out there.
A settlement is where neither party is happy but the lawyers stop making money.
Its nice to see Liberal lawyer Tony Merchant is Saskatchewan is holding up millions of dollars of settlement to First Nations abuse victims because he wants his $49Million if legal fees and wont open his books to the government to prove he represents "10,000" claimants before the government writes the cheque.
The partisanship of this blog is becoming more and more apparent. No mention of the most scandalous floor crossing of this generation, that of Belinda Stronach- oh, right, because she became a LIBERAL.
Turner is nothing but an exhibitionist who likes the undeserved spotlight. And Stockwell Day is a laughing stock? Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Mr. Day has been receiving accolades for his hard work on the Public Safety portfolio, even from his old arch-nemesis Warren Kinsella.
Ask Turner this:
What is the difference between the native Reserve system in Canada and apartheid policies in pre Mandela South Africa?
Turner, Stronach, Emerson, Wahid, and now our own homegrown (but not elected) Patch...they all pulled the old switcheroo and no one party can claim the moral high ground. It was even true Nelson Riis tried to negotiate a switch to the Conservatives many many years ago when he was a sitting NDP MP.
Patch will run for the Liberals.
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