Thursday, October 19, 2006

More on Garth Turner's Eviction

If, as I suspect, Turner's eviction from the CPoC caucus is the religious wingnut faction beginning to flex their muscles and purge from the party any remnants of the old "Progressive Conservative" party, there's an intriguing dynamic that could emerge.

On Garth's blog, I've seen a few comments suggesting that he join the Green Party.

Intriguingly, this could be a viable option for people like Garth Turner who are long time PC's, and find themselves pushed out by hardline, radicalizing ideology. Much of what the Green Party's platform contains reflects pre-Campbell era PC party policy. (After Campbell's disastrous 1992 election, the party changed rather dramatically)

[Update 18:40]
Following up on anonymous commenter who mentioned Dianne Haskett parachuting into a nomination race in London Ontario.

Most interesting, indeed.

H/T - Anonymous - whoever you are.

[/Update]

[Update 09:10]
Garth Turner did a Q&A on The Globe and Mail yesterday Here it is.

[/Update]

6 comments:

Neo Conservative said...

The other day I received an email from a fellow blogger, asking me what I thought about the Garth Turner situation. I replied as follows...

"I only know what I see in the papers, but I think Garth is all about, well... Garth. He obviously feels his own needs, whether it's just ego, or a totally separate agenda, are more important than the party line."

Do I think he was unfairly booted out of caucus? Lemme put it this way... if he was an outlaw biker, he'd be lyin' in a shallow grave with a small hole behind his ear.

MgS said...

I'll agree that Turner hasn't exactly "toed the party line", and that plays into the events of the last few months to be sure.

Given that theocons have been pushing out "social moderates" in that party since its Reform/Alliance days, and the recent attempt by McVety to push Turner over, I have to suspect that there's more at play here than "caucus discipline".

Anonymous said...

The former mayor of London, Diane Haskett has returned to run as the CPoC candidate for London North from Washington, D.C. The request for her to run came from someone in Ottawa and the local CPoC chapter didn't even know about it till she showed up yesterday and registered, and to say the local chapter is not totally thrilled about it is an understatement. She was fined for not proclaiming Pride Day in London a few years ago and was heavily supported by the Theocons. She also attended prayer meetings where Muslims were castigated. All of this is being reported in the London Free Press, http://www.lfpress.com.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I am totally amazed at how blatant the Theo Con movement in the CPoC has become. With any luck the Canadian Public will figure this out before the next election and toss them out. Thankfully blogs like this and others are getting the word out, albeit to a bit more of a focused group than the general public. Now it is up to the blog readership to get this information out.....

SB

Anonymous said...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today that by-elections will be held on Monday, November 27, 2006 in the riding of London North Centre (Ontario) and the riding of Repentigny (Quebec).

Okay, so he parachuted Theocon Dianne Hasket into London North, who's the Religious Political Extremist he's got running in Repentingny?

MgS said...

From what little I could gather from the Globe and Mail story, it doesn't sound like the CPoC is too interested in Repentingny - it's apparently "solidly separatist", so my guess is that the CPoC will run a low profile "obligatory" campaign there, and let the Bloc have their seat back. The candidate will be a "nobody".

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