Garth Turner, MP
Make no mistake – MP Garth Turner is a hypocritical politician. The best example is when he slammed Liberally-elected David Emerson after he crossed the floor to the Conservatives a week after the election, saying Emerson should resign and run in a by-election. Subsequently, Turner was turfed out of the Conservative party and went independent for half a year, until he crossed the floor himself to the Liberal party, without resigning for a by-election.
Turner is the only MP in the House of Commons that actively writes on a weblog – I enjoyed reading his weblog when he was a Conservative MP since he was quite critical of his own party and quite non-partisan about issues (which eventually resulted in him getting kicked out). When he became a Liberal, all he wrote was hyper-partisan stuff and I stopped reading.
One of the political “problems” with having people like Turner around is that he’s actually brave enough to write what he’s thinking and is not afraid to write inflammatory remarks occasionally – in the ultra-disciplined party system we have in Canada, this is a big no-no since MPs are supposed to act like mindless drones that only adhere to communication protocols issued by party headquarters and the Prime Minister’s office. Former PM Pierre Trudeau had it correct when he classified MPs as “trained seals”, trained to stand up to vote the the party at the right time.
Having an MP say something contrary to the party line is the best way to get kicked out of the party – after all, the party doesn’t want to have a perception of having any disunity since 100+ people will always have the same opinion on issues without disagreements!
That said, Turner posted about (presumably Quebec, but potentially Albertan) separatists the following:
… self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing.
There was a predictable “outrage” over presumably “insulting all of the Quebec nation”, etc. The NDP (leader Jack Layton) called for the Liberals to enact disciplinary actions on Turner, while the Conservatives (via Environment Minister John Baird) said it highlighted a “hornet’s nest of past unity problems.”
This, of course, is political theatre and Turner’s comments, in the grand scheme of things, are completely irrelevant. Except in political theatre, where everything you say will be used against you.
Oddly enough I support Turner for sticking to his guns and not doing a 100% backpedal on his comments – he backpedaled somewhat, but not all the way.
Even though Turner is a hypocrite and political opportunist, oddly enough the political system in Canada is better (and more entertaining) with people that are willing to stick their necks out. Unfortunately, such people always, without fail, get culled out of the system by either getting kicked out of their party, or by pissing off enough people to lose the next election.
And Turner, very likely, is going to face a very difficult re-election campaign in 2009. But oddly enough, despite being a jackass, I’d probably vote for Turner if the other candidate didn’t show that he/she had equivalent balls to take on the establishment. One of the rare cases where the candidate’s personality overrides the party banner he’s carrying.
I have to dis-agree with you about Garth’s post being different since he became a Liberal. I think you are blinded by your parisan views. As for him insulting Quebec in general with his comment, … self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing. There was a predictable “outrage” over presumably “insulting all of the Quebec nation”, etc.
I think you’d better clarify this properly. The line he used was for the separatist movement & if you put your blinders down, you would see that.
It is obvious that if the majority of Quebers were separatists, they would no longer be part of Canada & this article would be a non-issue. As for him insulting all of the Quebec nation, you are dead wrong. Go ask them.
Regards
The quote you are using from Garth, the guy with the balls as you call him, was altered by Garth and left out a few important words. Here is the original.
“He stood up once to the self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing separatist losers in Quebec. I guess he can do it again in Alberta.”
Garth conveniently left out the words after balkanizing in his follow up post on the subject. Why? I do not know, but maybe Mr.Balls could answer why he left those words out and then improperly used quotation marks to imply that nothing was altered.
“Separatist losers”… doesn’t change the context of the quote too much, but thanks for the clarification. I guess Garth didn’t want to compromise what little Liberal vote the party has left outside of Montreal.
As for the first comment, obviously Marie never read the paragraph before the quote saying “That said, Turner posted about (presumably Quebec, but potentially Albertan) separatists the following:”
Jack Layton certainly thought the words were an insult to all Quebecers, at least if you read what he said – he didn’t distinguish between separatists or not.
Does it surprise anyone that Garth would doctor his blog posts — it’s the usual Liberal tactic: cover your tracks and then deny, deny, deny and hope that voters will be stupid enough to fall for your lies and corruption again and again.
I think the Libs are finished, especially with such “fine” specimens as Dion and Turner.