To the Honourable Mr. Turner

(Cross-posted at Centrerion)

To the Honourable Mr. Turner:

Thank you so much for your service to Canada. In only five days as an MP, you have done the principled thing as opposed to the easy thing. For disclosure’s sake, I am a Liberal, and am thus extremely disappointed that a Conservative is now representing my riding (replacing the Hon. Peter Adams). However, if you were my member of parliament, I would not feel nearly as disappointed - in fact, every member of the riding of Halton should feel proud that they have an MP who has already earned the title of “Honourable”, Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green, Independent or any other.

I will admit that your committment to popular democracy is not shared entirely by me (I am a skeptic when it comes to “the people”); I also respectfully disagree with you on floor-crossers. That being said, what I do admire is the fact that you campaigned on honesty and integrity, and unlike 99% of politicians who do so (of all parties), you are actually showing honesty and integrity.

I hope that you are not browbeaten into submission by your party, and I pray that you continue to be one of the few MPs in the House of Commons that I truly respect. Unlike some Liberals, I will not invite you to join our party, because if you did, I think I would be disappointed. Not that I would be unhappy to have a principled, honourable man in the Liberal caucus (to replace Mr. “If the Liberals have won I’d still be a Liberal” Emerson), but your joining the Liberals would sort of defeat the purpose… unless you resigned and ran in a by-election… so on second thought, how do you feel about getting a hero’s welcome to the opposition benches? Just (half) kidding.

Keep fighting the good fight, sir.