A Pox On Both Their Houses

You would think elected officials could find better ways to spend their time but I would ask Garth whether he would expect to stay in the spousal home if he decided to divorce his wife. The local constabulary would be there in 15 minutes and turf him on to the street.

Outspoken MP defies Tory eviction notice
'It's a waste of time,' and taxpayers' money, argues Conservative-turned-Liberal
Mike De Souza
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, February 26, 2007

Maverick MP Garth Turner is planning to stage a sit-in at his own Parliament Hill office to defy an eviction notice he says is spearheaded by Conservatives who want to punish him for joining the federal Liberals.

"I'm not about to spend my time packing boxes instead of doing my work," Mr. Turner, the MP for Halton, Ont., said in an interview.

"If they want to move me, they're going to have to snap on their latex gloves, move in there like CSI Miami and pack me up. I'm not doing it. It's a waste of my time."

The office battle is the latest in a series of public spats between Mr. Turner and the Tories since last year, when he criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for appointing an unelected senator and a floor-crossing Liberal to his cabinet.

Although Mr. Turner, an ex-revenue minister in the short-lived government of former prime minister Kim Campbell in 1993, was elected as a Conservative, the caucus voted to get rid of him last fall, accusing him of leaking details of their private discussions.

Mr. Turner has suggested he was silenced for being too critical of Mr. Harper a few days before the government unveiled its plan to fight climate change and air pollution.

Conservative MP Jay Hill, who assigns office space for Tories as part of his duties as the government's chief whip, says Mr. Turner is to blame for the eviction because of his decision to join the Liberals.

In a letter sent to a constituent last week, Mr. Hill said the Conservatives didn't bother Mr. Turner when he sat as an independent, since they held out hope he would eventually return to the party fold.

"Mr. Turner was allowed to remain in a Conservative office during his brief tenure as an independent MP because there was always the possibility he could redeem himself with his Conservative colleagues and be allowed back into our Conservative caucus," Mr. Hill wrote in the letter obtained by CanWest News Service.

"Effectively, when Mr. Turner chose to change political parties and sit as a Liberal member, he chose to change offices. The choice was his and he made it."

Mr. Turner, who joined the Liberals a few weeks ago, calls it a "petty, partisan" attack from an "evil" man.

"I think he's evil to the extent that he's doing something without point, and it seems to be just to mess around a political opponent," Mr. Turner said.

Mr. Turner also noted the Liberals didn't try to push Wajid Khan, the MP for Mississauga-Streetsville, out of his current office when he joined the Tories.

He added that the move could waste thousands of taxpayer dollars, along with the cost of replacing thousands of pages of letterhead and business cards.

The episode has sparked a flood of e-mail complaints over the past week from readers of Mr. Turner's personal website, www.garth.ca .

But Mr. Hill insisted in the letter that taxpayers wouldn't have to pay anything extra for the move, nor for the cost of moving electronic equipment used by Mr. Turner to broadcast interviews and commentary on his website.

Security on Parliament Hill was asked to move Mr. Turner's office equipment and staff within weeks.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2007