Tories Show They're No Different

With the expulsion of Garth Turner from the Conservative caucus, the Tories have shown that they are indeed no different than the party they replaced. Now looking at Garth Turner's blog many Tory apologists seem to be stating that he had it coming and that the party has the right to kick out people who don't toe the party line. This is true and is true in most parties. The difference with the Tories though is that they claimed that they were more open and grassroots than the other parties. This action shows that the opposite is true.

The Conservative platform promised free votes for ordinary MP's on all votes except "budget and main estimates". This is clearly not the case for what has happened in Parliament. The expulsion of Garth Turner is just further evidence that the Tories had no intention of implementing this promise, or have any intention of doing so in the future. Again, evidence that the Tories are no different than the Liberals.

It is also interesting to note that the same campaign document states that a Conservative government would "Ensure that party nominations and leadership races are conducted in a fair, transparent, and democratic manner." Apparently the Conservative definition of democratic is to simply disallow anyone from running in the race except the candidate the leader wants. As the nomination controversy in Calgary West shows, this too was a hollow promise.

Admittedly the Tories are different in some policy areas than the Liberals, but other than that, they seem to be showing that, as a political party, they're no different. Any MP that tries to represent their constituents is out, The supposedly open nomination process is anything but and the government itself is rising to new levels of secrecy and hiding from the media. I suspect that non-Albertan Canadians are starting to see the Tories for what they really are, and will probably shift their votes accordingly next election.