Stephen Taylor – a blog on Canadian politics

Stephen Harper
Danielle Smith
Election Maps
Auditor General
Townhall

September 16, 2008

Turnergate synopsis

It all started quite innocently enough. CPAC, the Canadian parliamentary channel which provides an incredible service to Canadians by providing a unbiased tracking of politicians on the campaign trail, was trailing Progressive Conservative-turned-broadcaster-turned-Conservative-turned-Independent-turned-Green tease-turned-Liberal MP Garth Turner door-to-door as part of a hustings profile they were making for the riding of Halton.

As I’ve alluded above, Turner is a controversial figure who has been forced to shop around for a party that would take him after – the governing Conservatives allege – he violated caucus confidentiality by posting private discussions on his blog. There is no doubt that Turner and his Halton seat are being specially targeted for re-capture by the Tories.

As part of the CPAC profile, reporter Martin Stringer followed Turner door-to-door to get a snapshot of the typical candidate experience. The report was produced, taped, cut and aired on CPAC a short while later. As it aired, conservative blogger Matt McGuire snipped the video from CPAC showing Turner trying to sell Dion’s Green Shift to a constituent. McGuire wanted to make the point that Turner lacked confidence in pushing the plan.

An eagle-eyed viewer of this video noticed something else, however. The random constituent that Turner was door-knocking was the son of Esther Shaye, Garth Turner’s right hand and current campaign manager. The viewer emailed popular Conservative blogger Steve Janke and Janke got to work.

This caused quite a stir in the blogosphere and enraged the good people of CPAC. This supposed random door-knocker was the “last person” CPAC wanted to film because they wanted to show a typical constituent, not someone with a direct or indirect involvement with the campaign. CPAC’s reputation was on the line. The cable network prides itself on telling the story as straight as it can and here was this photo-op that it presented as non-staged. Looking for answers, CPAC’s anchor Peter van Dusen caught up with Turner on the phone while he was campaigning and pressed him to explain himself and why his campaign set up CPAC. Turner was taken by surprise and squirmed during the call as he was prompted to explain why his campaign offered a family member rather than a random sample for CPAC to film.

CBC reporter Susan Ormiston is tracking how the internet is shaping this election campaign and to her this story had relevance since Steve Janke busted Turner’s campaign. Ormiston produced a story for The National and, to her credit, provided some balance not immediately apparent in the Conservative blogosphere: the Halton Conservative candidate took CPAC to a friend’s store. As Garth Turner tried to explain himself on his blog he lashed out at Ormiston and the process by which she took to produce the story. Ormiston hit back at Turner expressing that his accounting of the story’s production wasn’t accurate.

This story, of course, goes to credibility. In the age of the blogosphere and pushback on unfair reporting, the mainstream media is now very sensitive to demands that their reports are unbiased and fair. CPAC alleges that Turner manipulated what was supposed to be a typical day in the life of a candidate. CBC alleges that Turner’s accounting of their process was untruthful. If nothing else, this shows the MSM’s intent on showing their effort to fulfill their new contract the blogosphere to go that extra step to report accurately. However, as far as credibility goes, Turner has run into trouble before with those that have cried foul to his recounting of events. If he is re-elected, as the Canadian public we may have more opportunities of witnessing such incidents as they unfold on the national stage and within the blogosphere.

This entry was authored by Stephen Taylor at 03:10 PM | Tweet this | Comments (13)

Feedback | #

bob

“the mainstream media is now very sensitive to demands that their reports are unbiased and fair”

Ahem, have you been watching Neil MacDonald and Allison Smith CBC coverage Sarah Palin lately and the CBC spokesman Keay defend the gossip and smears?

As far as Garth goes: It's all for one and Garth for Garth!
http://returnofthetory.wordpress.com The Trusty Tory

It's funny, the media isn't as biased as it was, say, in the 1800's or 1900's, and they try so hard to be neutral, but it's still blatantly obvious. Kudos to CPAC for actually sticking to it's word and being unpartisan.

Turner's behaviour remind me of when he became so defensive over his “meathead” comment during the 1993 election. The more he talks, the more he digs himself deeper.
http://svenskacanuck.blogspot.com The Hammer of Thor

The Garth hasn't come to grips with the wise proverb “when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging”

But it is fun to watch, in a train-wreckish sort of way..
John G

Turner should resign his candidacy immediately. He is a pathological liar who cannot be trusted.
In every way this goes to the heart of his credibility. He knew exactly what he was doing. He represents the lowest in
politicians.
anon

From the HEADLINES section of Garth’s web page, I found this entryto be quite amusing…

Globe columnist: Halton Tory candidate caught in ‘fraud’

Note to Garth: Have you forgotten? You’re running as a Liberal this go around!
simon

Stephen:

Re:” the Halton Conservative took CPAC to a friends store”
I know this has been covered on a fellow blogsite, so I won't lay claim to it though I do heartily agree with the poster.
The two incidents are as different as night and day in that a store is a public place of business where the public go to do business…Esther shaye's son's home is a private domicile.
The fact that the store was a friend's doesn't play into the optics unless the friend/proprietor was interviewed in the capacity of a random choice ,as was supposed to be the case in the CPAC/Turner incident.
I am almost positive that the store owner would not hold sway over the store clientele
.
I'm sure you were just mentioning this so as to maintain an equal balance of perspective

Many thanks to you and many others who help create a better and more balanced information highway as regards the political scene.
Beer and Popcorn

It's amazing to me that even in his website posting Garth is still trying to defend his actions rather than just apologize and admit he was trying to pull a fast one.

Garth will face an uphill battle in Halton..
Tory@York

Garths finger must be getting exhausted from pressing the delete button on his comments section. Several comments I left on his blog were promptly deleted, though none of them could be considered offensive or profane. Strangely enough though, he allows Bill-Muskoka to call Alberta-Girl a street hooker. Double standard methinks?
Dan in Windsor

I've been following Garth since he was elected as a Conservative. I used to regard him as a beacon of honesty and transparency because of his blog entries. He's more of a spotlight chaser now and his antics are annoying and self-serving. The fact that he was a willing player in a ruse to make himself appear good in front of the camera makes me wonder what other ruses has he participated in? Right now he seems to be suffering as a victim of sign vandalism which is deplorable to any candidate. However, he suffered the same vandalism when he was a Conservative. One has to wonder if Mr. Turner is a lightning rod for vandals, or if this is another ruse. Maybe I'm connecting dots that shouldn't be connected, or maybe, in both campaigns, the vandalism was 'self-inflicted' to make him self appear better in the eyes of constituents, a la, playing to the voters sense of fairness and justice against the underdog.

Just a thought.
Dan in Windsor

Absolutely, I've posted a few comments that painted me as a non-Garth bot, and they we're deleted a few hours later. Objectivity is apparently not his forte.
East of Eden

Dan, you are connecting dots which should be connected. He has been a sham since he first started blogging. He uses his blog to hurt and to spread deception. Good Lord, he even played on everybody's sympathy when his dog was sick – I love dogs and felt a bit sorry for him but really, he milked it to death – while slagging Harper at the same time.
East of Eden

Garth’s claims to honesty and digital democracy are a sham. Plus, I do not see how having a blog makes one a leader in digital democracy. I have a blog – does that make me democratic or a leader in democracy digital or otherwise? No. Garth gives himself titles like Michael Jackson gave himself the title of King of Pop. And, we sure know what type of person Michael is, do we not?
East of Eden

Dan, you are connecting dots which should be connected. He has been a sham since he first started blogging. He uses his blog to hurt and to spread deception. Good Lord, he even played on everybody's sympathy when his dog was sick – I love dogs and felt a bit sorry for him but really, he milked it to death – while slagging Harper at the same time.