Apolitical Staples

Check out Lorne Gunter.

...Mr. Turner will no doubt explain away his decision to join Stephane Dion's caucus as a tough choice, made after the most profound consideration of all the options, and only after wide consultation with his constituents. But that's because Mr. Turner -- a shameless self-promoter and limelight hog, who nevertheless fancies himself a humble servant of the common man -- casts all his decisions as agonizing moral quandaries.

...Going Grit will be a huge stretch for him. To his credit, he has been the Commons' No. 1 champion of income-splitting for married couples. Not only do the Liberals oppose this move (which would save middle-class families $3,000 to $6,000 a year in income taxes), they banned it explicitly in their 1999 budget; and last fall they voted against a Conservative motion to permit seniors to income-split more of their pensions.
Mr. Turner has passionately defended the Tories GST cut, their elimination of the national daycare strategy in favour of child care payments directly to families, boosting the basic personal tax exemption to $10,000 a year, cuts to corporate tax rates, elimination of the corporate surtax and the rearming of our military, of which he said "hallelujah!" On all of these issues, he stands four-square against the Liberals. Crass, political self-interest is the only reason Mr. Turner signed up to join the Liberals -- no matter what the official line.