Conservatives punt Garth Turner from caucus

Garth Turner, a Conservative MP with a record of being openly critical of his own party’s actions, has been kicked out from the Conservative caucus and will sit as an independent in the House of Commons.

Caucus chair Rahim Jaffer said that Turner was ousted on the unanimous recommendation of the party’s Ontario caucus for violating caucus confidentiality and being too critical of the prime minister. Jaffer said Turner was disclosing information on his Internet blog that was inhibiting his colleagues’ ability to function behind closed doors.

“The theme of confidentiality was not being respected in their opinion and it restricted the ability for members to operate in a confidential way.” (CP Tories suspend MP Turner)

Whether Turner failed to respect confidentiality or not is an unknown. I prefer to wait for Mr. Turner to speak up. (Update: Turner says he was kicked out for his views, not because of confidentiality concerns)

Many here in Vancouver—Kingsway will remember that Turner was openly, and instantly, critical of Stephen Harper and David Emerson back in early February when Harper brought Emerson, then a Liberal, over to the governing Conservative benches.

Beyond that one issue, I appreciate that Turner speaks his mind plainly and critically, in a thoughtful manner. He is a big proponent of connecting citizens to the government and has been working actively on various measures. He’s one of the few MP’s that truly seems to get it – that they work for us. Government, and Parliament, ought to have more Garth Turners, not less.

Since Mr. Turner’s weblog is now off the air, ironically brought down from the onslaught of visitors today, I’m going to post what was his last entry, available courtesy of Google’s cache, here in full:

Now I have had four Town Hall meetings in the riding this week, with two more next weekend. When this round is done, residents of Halton will have had 13 opportunities to come out to talk with their MP and their neighbours since January – and every occasion is worthwhile, insightful, challenging.

In Milton on Tuesday, then Oakville on Wednesday then again yesterday in Campbellville there were three main topics covered in two hours: Same-sex marriage, Afghanistan and the environment. On SSM we took a vote, once all the talking was done, and 80% of the people there told me to vote against re-opening the issue, which is exactly what I’ll be doing.

On Afghanistan there was no such near-unanimity, even without benefit of the news that two more Canadian soldiers had been mercilessly cut down. Some argued passionately that Canada has a role to uphold freedom, to fight terror and to help rebuild a shattered country, while others see Harper as a Bush clone and this conflict as a final desecration of our legacy as a peace-keeping nation.

Only on the environment did it seem the room consistently spoke with a single voice. There is a rapacious appetite for government action on climate change, energy conservation and environmental leadership. It could be because in this community most people live in paved-over subdivisions where cars are necessities, commuting is a fact of life and personal choices seem limited. To them, it is government that must lead and take the bold actions necessary to secure a common future.

Some might think that’s a cop-out (and I did give everyone a copy of my Citizen’s Guide to the Environment with 487 things they can all do at home), but it is also a growing political reality in this country. A green plan with gonads is now at the very top of the public’s wish list – and rightly so. It has been a long, long time since Canadians were this attuned to their natural surroundings, and politicians have a rare moment of public encouragement within to act.

While many coming to this blog disagree, my position on Tuesday – when the Harper Administration releases its plan – will be that climate change is the greatest all-round threat this country faces, and that my nation’s government should not let us down with half-measures, a curtsy to junk science or a sell-out to the tar sands.

Apparently that’s what my constituents want, too. So, there you go.

It will be an interesting day, tomorrow.

posted by Garth Turner on 10.16.06 @ 5:53 am

Here in the abandoned riding of Vancouver—Kingsway we can and should be forgiven for looking longingly at MPs like Garth Turner. Its been 9 months since David Emerson violated the trust of his constituents, and Emerson still hasn’t held a single town-hall or otherwise public and open meeting for constituents. Not one.