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The Exlusion of Garth Turner
Garth Turner and I have a history.
He was my MP for a while — I met him once during that time — and he now represents my parents’ riding. Turner was doing his mutual fund advice while I was covering the sector. And a month-and-a-half ago, at BarCampEarth, I had some heated discussion with the man helping with the Turner Report blog.
I never voted for him and find some of his personality traits a bit grating, but what I have come to respect about Garth Turner is his bold efforts at political transparency. His aforementioned blog is well-written, candid, and opinionated — everything a political blog should be, but normally isn’t. Turner’s willingness to critique the Conservative government he helped form and talk intelligently with opposition members was a refreshing change from his tight-lipped colleagues.
Given his “maverick” behaviour, his dismissal from the Conservative caucus today probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. But it was as he admits himself in the latest of his self-made MPtv videos and the aptly-titled blog post, “Holy smokes!”.
As I write this, that post has garnered 163 comments, and The Globe and Mail’s article about it has 217 comments. Most are critical of the Conservative party’s action, and many are urging him to join the Liberals. (He’ll be taking reader questions tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET on the Globe’s Web site.)
The Prime Minister may have hoped to weaken Turner with the expulsion, but the reverse may happen as a thousands of curious Canadians flock to the Turner Report and MPtv to see what all the fuss is about. What they’ll find is a whole lot of blunt commentary from a politician not afraid to speak the truth about the political system. In other words, someone completely unlike Stephen Harper.