Not the "bombshell" that was billed, exactly, but Garth Turner announced that notwithstanding his being named by the local district association as the Conservative canddate in the next federal election, Turner's papers will not be cosigned by Stephen Harper -- meaning he can't run as a Conservative. As a result, he's quit the Con party and will sit as an independent.
He's not joining the Green Party -- not yet, anyway -- but will campaign for Green Party leader Elizabeth May in her bid for the currently vacant seat in London.
In his press conference, Garth pointed to the fact the Conservatives as they have evolved into have become the very antithesis of the bottom-up Reform movement it began as; that MPs have become party hacks rather than the representatives of their constituents. No surprise there, except it's as if those who have been with the party from the beginning forget there ever was a Blue Book.
It's one thing to flip-flop on an election promise, such as the one on income trusts, because they're sometimes made in the heat of the moment. It's quite another to abandon the core principles of your party and to govern exactly like the opponents you defeated -- in fact, become even more secretive and less accountable. If people want to know why cynicism in Canada is at an all time high, the Conservative Party of Canada only needs to look at the man in the mirror.
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