Halton MP Garth Turner said party officials have made him feel unwelcome in the caucus and party, and have caused him to reconsider sitting in the Commons under the Tory banner.
"Right now, I do not feel I'm allowed to do what I want and say what I think," Turner said, adding he'll decide whether to stay in the caucus after talking to party officials this weekend.
"It's a fairly intensive time at the moment."
Turner, former business editor at the Toronto Sun and a cabinet minister during Kim Campbell's brief administration, said he would continue to sit as an MP and represent Halton if he does decide to bolt the Tory caucus.
The more I think about it, the better this looks in the long term. The Conservatives gain one of the most accomplished and capable members of Parliament in exchange for losing a shameless self-promoter with a wounded sense of amour-propre .
I never thought I'd say this, but Garth Turner's antics are making me reconsider some of my earlier criticisms of the Emerson defection. Especially since it appears that Turner's complaints about Stephen Harper's supposed hypocrisy may be tempered by a little hypocrisy of his own.
Nowhere has he suggested that if he leaves the Tory caucus, will he consider resigning and running in a by-election. The voters of Halton did elect him to sit as a Conservative, after all, not as an independent.
As poorly as Turner may have been handled, there may have been no good way to handle him. Better, perhaps, to have him leave early for the obscurity of the backbenches than to have him remain a constant source of trouble for the party.
Source: Calgary Sun
2 comments:
"a shameless self-promoter with a wounded sense of amour-propre"
Thanks, that pretty much sums up the impression I've had watching the gazillion interviews dear ol Garth's done this week. (his blog’s another unfortunate story)
Are people really as gullible as they seem?
Regards, Mark
OTTAWA — "I would like to be Stephen Harper's worst nightmare … I'm going to be in his face."
Trade Minister David Emerson on election night.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to hand a cabinet job to Liberal turncoat David Emerson and a Senate seat and cabinet job to party official Michael Fortier has become not only a public relations disaster but is creating quite a strain on his caucus.
As many as eight MPs have either expressed reservations or openly criticized the new appointees publicly.
And on Thursday, few MPs or cabinet ministers were willing to discuss the new cabinet ministers with reporters, as they rushed past them on their way into a caucus orientation and then snuck out the back at the end of the day. (Read it all----http://www.politicswatch.com/emerson-feb10-2006.htm)
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