Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Here are the rules
1. You may vote freely as a Conservative backbencher, even if doing so causes you to vote against government policy (except on confidence votes).
2. Criticizing any element of government policy - even criticizing what you fear might be found in government policy and publicly urging the government in a direction that it does not appear to wish to go - is grounds for suspension.
As for allegations about violating caucus confidentiality, I read his blog. If there was anything there that violated caucus confidentiality (which is a concept for which I have little to no respect in the first place), then caucus confidentiality was too strict.
Hopefully this will expose the lie that genuine Parliamentary democracy is reconcilable with partisan politics as they now exist in Canada.
(Errors in the CTV story, incidentally:
1. Rahim Jaffer isn't government House Leader. Rob Nicholson is. Jaffer's caucus char, for reasons that elude me.
2. Turner is alleged to have been disappointed to have been left out of cabinet. From reading his blog, I never got the impression that he thought there was any possibility of his inclusion, even though he was the only member of the newly-elected Conservative caucus with prior federal cabinet experience.
3. Turner is called a "small-C conservative", which is certainly debatable. I suppose in absolute terms, being a Conservative, he is a conservative, but he's also on the left flank of his caucus.)
UPDATE: Now there's speculation that Turner might join the Green Party, which would be hilarious. I confess that it was among my first thoughts as well - he's had some kind words lately for Elizabeth May, and used to work for the Sierra Legal Defense Fund - but his policies wouldn't be a good fit at all for the party, especially after its recent leftward shift.
UPDATE #2: According to Turner, the subject of caucus confidentiality did not come up in this morning's Ontario caucus meeting.
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1. You may vote freely as a Conservative backbencher, even if doing so causes you to vote against government policy (except on confidence votes).
2. Criticizing any element of government policy - even criticizing what you fear might be found in government policy and publicly urging the government in a direction that it does not appear to wish to go - is grounds for suspension.
As for allegations about violating caucus confidentiality, I read his blog. If there was anything there that violated caucus confidentiality (which is a concept for which I have little to no respect in the first place), then caucus confidentiality was too strict.
Hopefully this will expose the lie that genuine Parliamentary democracy is reconcilable with partisan politics as they now exist in Canada.
(Errors in the CTV story, incidentally:
1. Rahim Jaffer isn't government House Leader. Rob Nicholson is. Jaffer's caucus char, for reasons that elude me.
2. Turner is alleged to have been disappointed to have been left out of cabinet. From reading his blog, I never got the impression that he thought there was any possibility of his inclusion, even though he was the only member of the newly-elected Conservative caucus with prior federal cabinet experience.
3. Turner is called a "small-C conservative", which is certainly debatable. I suppose in absolute terms, being a Conservative, he is a conservative, but he's also on the left flank of his caucus.)
UPDATE: Now there's speculation that Turner might join the Green Party, which would be hilarious. I confess that it was among my first thoughts as well - he's had some kind words lately for Elizabeth May, and used to work for the Sierra Legal Defense Fund - but his policies wouldn't be a good fit at all for the party, especially after its recent leftward shift.
UPDATE #2: According to Turner, the subject of caucus confidentiality did not come up in this morning's Ontario caucus meeting.
