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Garth Turner, Charles McVety

The Man of the Cloth and the Tory MP

By Judi McLeod

Thursday, October 19, 2006

The dueling feud between a Man of the Cloth and a Member of Parliament has spilled out of the Michael Coren Show and the MP's blog to land on the pages of the Canadian print media.

Dr. Charles McVety, the president of both Canada Christian College and the Canada Family action Coalition and MP Garth Turner first met on the Michael Coren Show.

In one of those curious coincidences in the life of a journalist, I know both men from the same chapter of my past.

The signature cowboy boot wearing Turner was the talented Business Editor of the Toronto Sun when I was education columnist there. Indeed, my ex-hubby John McLeod was assistant business editor to Turner.

In these long ago days, Turner was the butt of reporter jokes because of what they perceived to be his outsized ego. In the same era, I used to get letters of encouragement from a guy called Charles McVety. Publicity hound NDP leader Jack Layton, then a Toronto councillor was going about trying to declare Toronto a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone. Every available opportunity, I reiterated in my columns, hopefully read by Layton and his attendant Peaceniks that "Jesus Christ is the true Prince of Peace". Even then, admitting to being a Christian was leaving oneself open to the charge of being a dinosaur.

Delighted, McVety couldn't believe that the name of Christ kept cropping up in the secular press. as things turned out, I wasn't to meet him until years later after I had launched the irreverent Toronto Free Press.

Having heard of the sparring duo, it seemed curious that the two Conservatives could make such bitter enemies of each other. Over the years, I lost touch with Turner, but have sporadically been in contact always with McVety, who once sagely advised me not to get too caught up in the whys of human nature. When I called him to ask about the McVety-Turner donnybrook, he told me, "Things are improving because I told him I want to debate him, and I have no wish to fight him."

But when I came across Turner's blog description of his battles with the Man of the Cloth, I knew that this was a fight that wasn't going be going away anytime soon.

In a blog post entitled, Me & the Rev, Turner wrote in May of this year, "as you may have noticed, I am in God's crosshairs. after being critical here of the motives and tactics of a Christian coalition group led by Dr. Charles McVety--who I met in a TV debate just days ago--the prime minister is now being urged to punish me for my "grossly ignorant and bigoted" views. Just what I need, eh? at least two weeks without getting into trouble, and now this...

"actually Reverend McVety and I had a long chat tonight. He says he doesn't mind me calling him a sanctimonious blowhard, but he definitely does not think kindly of my references to the Taliban. He also, as I learned, used to live in my sweet garden riding of Halton, and actually worked against me a year ago when I won the Conservative nomination there. That was interesting.

"Now his group...is after my political head since I trashed their stated plans to swamp nomination meetings of Tory MPs who support gay marriage and are otherwise morally deficient."

"Here's what McVety told me: "The whole process of nomination is for people to get out and vote, and support people who reflect themselves. Garth Turner was not apolitical when he ran for the nomination. He was not a sponge that just soaked up people's views. You stood for something.

"The messaging from your article was that we, on the other hand, represent just a tiny amount of people and that we should be compared as a result to some kind of evil. It is very evident from your bloggers that this is how they read it.

"McVety also took exception to some of my more colourful language. and when I referred to special-interest candidates as "single-issue monochromatic militants", he read that as code for people with skins of a different colour than mine. Of course, it was not. Low blow, Rev.

"In any case, I did agree with the guy on one thing: Political debate is best when it does not involve name-calling. "This is not a fight I wish to engage in," he said. "I will debate you, but I do not want to fight you."

"So, in that spirit, I will turn the other cheek (although I am running out of them). Charles McVety is naturally free to exert influence over the political system--like he did a year ago organizing for my opponent. He can exort (sic) his flock to get out and vote. He can support a candidate. Better yet, he can be a candidate. He can go on Mike Duffy and whip up the winds of vengeance against "legalized prostitution and drug use and changing the definition of marriage." He can form and lead institutes and coalitions and movements. and he can preach against politicians who follow reason rather than faith. He can attempt to lobby, cajole, influence, counsel and guide any elected official he wants. He can use every tool available to any of us to promote an opinion or point of view, to use the media as effectively as he does and to issue Garth-bashing press releases."

This is turning the other cheek, or turning the other cheek Garth Turner style?

McVety is being accused by an elected Member of Parliament of "exerting" his influence over the political system and "exhorting" his flock to get out and vote.

Turner seems to have gone roguish with his own party members since his election. The MP has every right to disagree with his opponent's push against same sex marriage, but ridiculing Christians is not exactly playing fair.

The trickle has grown into the magnitude of a cascading waterfall. Now the outspoken MP from Halton faces members of an insulted Christian community who are determined to keep him from running in the next election.

"Mr. Turner could find himself a sitting MP who is unable to stand in the next election. It's remote, but it's a possibility," said CTV's David atkin, reporting from Ottawa.

Turner's roguish behaviour had him booted out of his party's caucus yesterday.

With the Liberals fomenting to return to their coveted status as the Natural Ruling Party after this December's leadership race, and Jack Layton growing more anti-american every day, Turner and McVety, both Conservatives have much to fight besides each other.

Meanwhile journalists-cum-politicians assume they will always have the last word, but their having the last word can be more realistically counted as mostly, not always.

For the record, it seems that Garth Turner may have met his match in someone he jot long ago wrote off as a "sanctimonious blowhard".

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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