Entries from May 2006 ↓

As you may have noticed, I am in God’s crosshairs. After being critical here of the motives and tactics of a Christian coalition group led by Dr. Charles McVety – who I met in a TV debate just days ago – the prime minister is now being urged to punish me for my “grossly ignorant and bigoted” views. Just what I need, eh? At least two weeks without getting into trouble, and now this…

Actually Reverend McVety and I had a long chat tonight. He says he doesn’t mind me calling him a sanctimonious blowhard, but he definitely does not think kindly of my references to the Taliban. He also, as I learned, used to live in my sweet garden riding of Halton, and actually worked against me a year ago when I won the Conservative nomination there. That was interesting.

Now his group, as you can see in the post below, is after my political head since I trashed their stated plans to swamp nomination meetings of Tory MPs who support gay marriage and are otherwise morally deficient. I said I disagree with any special interest candidates who are foisted on a party or a riding in a stacked nomination meeting, especially when a sitting MP – electable and experienced – is the victim of a one-night hijacking.

Here’s what McVety told me: “The whole process of nomination is for people to get out and vote, and support people who reflect themselves. Garth Turner was not apolitical when he ran for the nomination. He was not a sponge that just soaked up people’s views. You stood for something.

“The messaging from your article was that we, on the other hand, represent just a tiny amount of people and that we should be compared as a result to some kind of evil. It is very evident from your bloggers that this is how they read it.”

McVety also took exception to some of my more colourful language. And when I referred to special-interest candidates as “single-issue monochromatic militants”, he read that as code for people with skins of a different colour than mine. Of course, it was not. Low blow, Rev.

In any case, I did agree with the guy on one thing: Political debate is best when it does not involve name-calling. “This is not a fight Iwish to engage in,” he said. “I will debate you, but I do not want to fight you.”

So, in that spirit, I will turn the other cheek (although I am running out of them). Charles McVety is naturally free to exert influence over the political system – like he did a year ago organizing for my opponent. He can exort his flock to get out and vote. He can support a candidate. Better yet, he can be a candidate. He can go on Mike Duffy and whip up the winds of vengeance against “legalized prostitution and drug use and changing the definition of marriage.” He can form and lead institutes and coalitions and movements. And he can preach against politicians who follow reason rather than faith. He can attempt to lobby, cajole, influence, counsel and guide any elected official he wants. He can use every tool available to any of us to promote an opinion or point of view, to use the media as effectively as he does and to issue Garth-bashing press releases.

But he cannot, in conscience or the spirit of democracy, work to dump an MP with busloads of insta-Tories at a nomination meeting, overturning the will of the broader spectrum of voters in a riding. Nine times out of ten, that begets a one-trick Conservative candidate, and we end up electing one of those godless fornicating Liberals.

He calls it direct democracy. I call it theft.

But, let me say, Charles McVety was a model of gentlemanly decorum when we chatted tonight. Witty, reasonable, personable, convincing and engaging.

Just hope you never meet him in the cloakroom at your nomination meeting.

For Immediate Release

Institute for Canadian Values calls on Harper to discipline MP Garth Turner for ‘bigoted comments’
May 31, 2006

OTTAWA – The Institute for Canadian Values is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discipline Conservative MP Garth Turner for what it calls “bigoted comments” he made on television and on his online blog.

“Last week Garth Turner attacked so-called ‘ethnics’ on television, complaining about their impact on nomination meetings for political parties,” said Joseph Ben-Ami, Executive Director of the Institute for Canadian Values. “Now he is targeting people of faith on his blog, especially those who support the traditional definition of marriage, calling them ‘taliban’ and accusing them of an ‘agenda of hate’.”

“Grossly ignorant and bigoted comments such as these are unacceptable in any civilized society, especially a multicultural one like Canada, and Turner should be held accountable for them.”

Turner’s ethnic comments were made during a televised debate last Friday on a CH TV station in Hamilton.

“When Garth Turner arranges to bring his family and friends to a nomination meeting on a bus he calls it democracy, but when a challenger who happens to be brown-skinned, or perhaps a member of the local church or synagogue, does the same thing for their family and friends, he calls them taliban and accuses them of ‘taking over’,” observed Ben-Ami. “It’s actually quite pathetic.”

“Garth Turner’s behaviour is a sharp illustration of the vicious and deep-rooted bigotry lurking just below the surface of the secular-left in our society,” continued Ben-Ami. “People like him claim to be champions of tolerance, but when their own ideas and positions are challenged, they resort to name-calling and fear mongering, laughably invoking the principle of tolerance to justify their bigotry. What really shocks is that so many are gullible enough to believe them.”

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For more information contact Joseph Ben-Ami at 613-866-7313

Garry Breitkreuz and I sat at a picnic table beside the Centre Block in the stifling heat and humidity of an Ottawa afternoon. Beside us, at the next table, about ten guys were chatting in French – all of them drivers of the limos lined up a few feet away – waiting to chauffer their minister bosses off the Hill. In the background was the historic West Block, with those two new shiny black GM Suburbans driving by that the RCMP have just added to the prime minister’s motorcade.

A few feet in front of us was the wrought iron fence that rings the lawns of the Centre Block, and just beyond that, the Cat Guy. Parliament Hill has been a home for stray cats for years, and there’s a little cat village in the bushes on the other side of that fence. There the Cat Guy tends to them, and in the heat today, a dozen of so felines were splayed out on rough boards laid down in front of their compound, with a roof fashioned to look like Parliament itself.

So, Breitkreuz is that rare kind of MP (his riding is Yorkton-Melville, in Saskatchewan), who comes to this place and actually ends up knowing more about one single issue than anyone else alive. His issue is guns. That includes handguns, shotguns, the gun registry, gun crimes, gun collectors, gun legislation, gun enforcement, gun owners and gun control. Right now the government is in the process of trying to clean up the Liberal gun registry which cost a stunning $1 billion and which most police say is useless. And, as that happens, Breitkreuz and others work to ensure this does not mean more guns on the street.

He is intense and passionate as we talk. I explain that in Halton, where half the riding is urban and half rural, the suburban people believe anyone with a gun is a criminal, while the farmers think anyone without a gun is probably crazy. How can any government make sense to both groups?

Well, to find out, you’ll have to tune into MTV on Thursday night at 7 pm, where this exclusive and revealing interview will be aired. Also on the show – a candid talk with the Speaker of the House of Commons, the man who stands between orderly debate and juvenile chaos; a visit with the federal minister of justice just days after a street-racing murder in Toronto; and some other surprises.

So, you ask, what is MPTV?

In short, this week marks the start of a noble experiment in Parliamentary webcasting. I was able to talk the visionary people who run the IT department at the House of Commons into partnering with me, opening up miles and miles of bandwidth. Then I bought a mess of used TV equipment (at my own expense). Then we built a webcasting studio in my lavishly expansive and embarrassingly opulent Hill office (well, at least there are no rats), and this week we are firing up the old encoder and the mixer and flicking on the lights to go live with some programming. It is the prototype of a regular show you’ll be able to watch this fall called “Answer Period.”

The live stream will be available here at garth.ca, and all you have to do is log on, select your connection (dial-up, or high speed), and watch. You can also interact, of course, sending me an email question at any point during the show, which I will get and attempt to answer. This is a noble experiment, and the first use of a new whack of gear, so some viewer latitude may be required. In any case, have a look and let me know if you think this whole thing has potential.

Of course, it is a further attempt to bring digital democracy to this pile of stones on the Ottawa River. By using interactive webcasting, I’m hoping lots of MPs will come to the studio and be able to reach out and touch their constituents in a unique way while being stuck here doing government work and hanging around for votes. I also hope citizens will feel this makes their MPs more accessible and accountable. And I really hope our webcasting of daily life around the Hill will show we don’t just sit around smoking cigars and visiting freebie receptions featuring great wines (well, not every night, anyway).

To me, it’s a natural extension of the interactive blog, and I’d like to thank the Commons propeller heads who shared the vision. There are a lot of people around here who actually understand what communication is all about, and also that this is the backbone of politics. Hopefully, the effort will prove worth it.

But to ensure that happens, you have to watch. And I promise a feature-length interview is coming soon with the Cat Guy.

MPTV’s “Answer Period.” Thursday, June 1st, 7 pm Eastern. Live at www.garth.ca