Garth's Been Ousted

Today, Garth Turner was evicted from from the CPoC caucus, and is now sitting as an independant MP.

Superficially, this comes as little or no surprise. Garth Turner has been a vocal member of the party that often has spoken at odds with official party dogma, so it shouldn't really be a shock that eventually the party would toss him. Unlike Carolyn Parrish, Garth seemed to have his wits about him, and was at least speaking sensibly about issues - just not necessarily quite saying what Harper and his handlers wanted said.

However, I'm going to put pretty high odds that the Conservative nominee in Turner's riding (Halton, I believe) will be a strong theo-con, likely with connections back to Charles McVety. Why do I say this? Well, last summer, we discovered McVety was trying to oust Turner by undermining his riding organization. That combined with a lot of evidence coming to light over the past year or two that link the CPoC to all sorts of hardline religious lobby groups is painting a picture of a party where the power is in fact firmly rooted in "evangelical politics". Previously, I had thought that the party simply had a sizable, vocal minority that was voting "faith" but now it appears that in fact the minority is the remnants of the old PC party. (This will be explored in more detail in coming essays related to Harper and the TheoCons)