Heart of Garthness

The core of a good politician is someone who can freely speak their mind and voice the concerns of their constituents in the process. Garth Turner certainly is the first one. He likes to speak his mind. More often than not though, it's total garbage that comes out of his mouth, or appears on his blog. He recently referred to people in Quebec as "separatist losers" on his blog. The exact quote according the Canadian Press refers to Turner defending Stephane Dion's environment policy against the Conservatives' attacks. "You might not agree with everything the man says, but you have to admire this about him," Turner wrote. "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."

All this would be more shocking if Turner hadn't done this before, but he has, many times. He claims he has a "sad history of doing that". In fact, Turner was ejected from the Conservative caucus after undermining the authority of the cabinet and the Prime Minister. He briefly sat as an independent and assured his constituents in his Halton riding that he would remain. This would be in compliance with their wishes expressed at various "town hall" meetings he held. Shortly there after, he joined the Liberals. Were the Liberals foolish enough to think they could keep him on a short leash when the Conservatives couldn't. After all, Harper has a lot more control over his caucus than Dion does. Consider that the Liberals already have problems in Quebec. As Jack Layton correctly pointed out, they don't need people like Turner making comments like that after the Sponsorship Scandal and the collapse of faith in the party in that province. While I do enjoy any hits the Liberals take, I think Turner is turning into more of an embarrassment for Canada as a whole and not just the party he belongs to. While he is free to speak his mind, his comments were highly unprofessional and as I said, it's not the first time he has done this. How did this man go from a once respected journalist to laughing stock? He may have apologized but you cannot keep repeatedly kicking people in the nuts and still think "I'm sorry" is going to cut it. When asked what he'd do, Dion noted Turner needed to explain himself and he did that. However, I feel that stronger action needs to be taken against him.

Garth Turner, to me, seems like a bitter man who wants to go out in a blaze of sour grapes. He has ignored his constituents and ignored the parties that he represents. So what's left for him? He only remains for himself. I think the Liberals would be wise to make an example out of him. He is the classic example of the selfish politician. He should either be expelled from the Liberal caucus or pushed into resigning as a MP. The Liberals don't need that garbage right now and neither do his constituents.