Garth Turner, the MP for the Ontario riding of Halton, was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative, was turfed from that caucus, sat as an independent, and is now a member of the Liberal caucus. As a Liberal, Turner was behind closed doors (with BlackBerrys ordered shut off) last night as that group weighed their options on Afghanistan. Turner has an illuminating post at his blog about the differences between what life is like at a Liberal caucus and what life is like across the hall in the Conservative caucus room:
Every voice was heard spontaneously within this national Liberal caucus. To speak, one needed only raise a hand. In the Conservative caucus, advance permission to rise must be granted in advance by a subordinate caucus group. In this caucus, the leader is among the first to enter and the last to leave. In the Conservative caucus, Stephen Harper makes an entrance and MPs must stand. In this caucus, policy is formulated, changed, vetted by the representatives of the people. In the Harper caucus, elected people are told, often by PMO staff, what they will do, say, support and believe.
Unfortunately, Mr. Turners words have to be taken with a grain of salt.
He famously said “That MPs who defect to another party should have to run for re-election under their new party in a byelection.
“If you want to be a Liberal, be elected as a Liberal. All those things have honour but the honour is bestowed by the people, not by the individual.”
and then completely went back on his word. Obviously he was lying when he made this statement and is probably lying now.