"It's all about Garth"!

Kelly McParland, of the National Post is really on a role.

The latest article is aptly titled "It's all about Garth".

National Post unimpressed by Sheeple!

Kelly McParland of the National Post has written an article titled "Garth gets his revenge".

My favorite quote is the last paragraph:

Garth is a tribune of the people, except without the people. He's a tribune of Garth, determined to serve the principles he holds dear, all of which seem to involve indulging himself and his whims, even if it's at the expense of whichever party he's a member of. Garth is the old Conservative party, going off in all directions, incapable of the kind of discipline and focus it takes to gain power and govern effectively. No wonder he couldn't get along with the new boys.

Bang on!

Canadian Press offended by "Sheeple"

It would seem that the first legal action Mr. Turner is facing over his book is coming from the Canadian Press.

Glen McGregor of the Ottawa Citizen writes:

OTTAWA — Even before it hits bookstore shelves on Friday, former MP Garth Turner's tell-all about getting bounced from the Conservative party caucus has already stirred the threat of legal action.

But the first to take formal offence to Sheeple: Caucus Confidential in Stephen Harper's Ottawa is not one of the Tories who sat with him on the government benches, but a news agency that covered the outspoken MP.

Turner's publisher, Key Porter Books, received a letter last week from the Canadian Press objecting to a passage in Sheeple about the wire service's reporting of a Conservative caucus meeting.

Key Porter said Thursday it has reached an agreement with CP to settle the complaint. The publisher said it has sent out "notification stickers" to booksellers to be placed inside the front cover of the book. The books are not to be sold until the correction stickers are affixed, the company said.

Turner was suspended from Harper's caucus in 2006 for alleged violations of caucus confidentiality on his Internet blog.

In a section of the book that discusses other breaches of confidentiality, Turner refers to a caucus meeting in which the prime minister was reported to have received a standing ovation for his decision to keep flags on Parliament Hill flying at full mast when Canadian soldiers are killed in Afghanistan.

The Canadian Press story on the meeting, Turner writes, was "a crock. There was no ovation, standing or otherwise." The story was made up by the Prime Minister's Office and leaked, Turner claims.

Turner goes on to allege that CP's Ottawa bureau chief confirmed the next day that "information of this kind is never verified, never confirmed, because of the inherent difficulty in doing so."

Jennifer Fox, a publicist for Key Porter, said that the passage in the book was not meant to be critical of CP's reporting.

"Garth didn't have any intention to suggest Canadian Press did not check its stories," she said. Rather, the anecdote was meant to illustrate the lack of caucus secrecy.

Fox said the book would be released Friday, as scheduled.

CP editor-in-chief Scott White said he was unable to comment Thursday but would be able to speak about the matter Friday.

Turner told Canwest News Service he didn't think most people would notice the offending section.

"Unless you were absolutely engaged in the arcaneness of it, I don't think you'd really see it," he said. "But in any case, they had an issue and we've come to a resolution."

Review copies of Sheeple were circulated to the media over the past week.

Once a cabinet minister in Kim Campbell's short-lived government, Turner returned to Parliament as the MP for the southern Ontario riding of Halton in 2006.

After he was kicked out of caucus and the Conservative party, Turner sat as an Independent, then joined the Liberal caucus in 2007. He ran as a Liberal in last year's federal election, losing to Conservative Lisa Raitt, now the minister of natural resources.

This is hilarious. "Sheeple" has only been available in book stores a few days and he is already being forced to apply "noticfication stickers" to his books.

If Garth has gotten the facts wrong on this, how can we trust that the rest of the book is factually correct?

Garth Turner's "Sheeple" a big Bust!

Ive had a chance to buy his book...yes I did say buy, not borrow or steal ... and I just had the opportunity to wake up from my mind numbing doldrums to post this review.

In essence it's a re hashing of his blog entries during his time as Conservative MP. Nothing before the election campaign, during the election campaign, or for that matter after the last election campaign.

Its comes off as soft although if you read the ad's for it, its supposed to be a cutting portrayal of his time in Harper's caucus.

Most of the time is spent on his ousting as a member of the Conservative caucus and who said what, and his "helpless" defense of Garth Turner by a couple of MP's. If you didn't really know Garth, the sympathy meter would be off the charts. Knowing who he is and how he operates, its like... BAH...you deserve it. IF it is indeed true.

In one part he speaks of meeting Paul Martin in the halls of the House of Commons and how pleasant it was to speak with him again. Made it sound all rosy and lovable.

Then I remembered something. A funny event during the election in 2006.

http://www.miltoncanadianchampion.com/news/article/53466

Nearing the end of the campaign and trying his best to rally the troops, PM Martin made a visit to Milton to help out Gary Carr, the local MP. Garth recalls that he had some pleasant conversations in the past with Martin, but at that time Martin referred to Garth as a "symbol of financial incompetence" saying "he has blue signs and he's just outside this door" Not exactly a Halmark moment eh? Therefore, Garth omits this event.

Other events that happened locally during this time period are omitted as well. Much needed information on how the local riding association dealt with him being "dooced" as he calls it would provide a better accounting of events in order to ensure its accuracy. And as we know about Garth and his accounting of events, accuracy is the furthest thing from his mind.

This is the truth...how Garth sees the truth. He believes every word he writes, no matter how inaccurate it may be.

If you've read through his blog, you've essentially read through this book minus a few quotes from Conservative party brass. Nothing mentioned of any local campaign happenings...only how Harper belittled him and made him feel small during a stop in Oakville during the election. Aww, someone hurt his feelings. He didn't get the respect that a former cabinet minister (albeit of only 75 days during summer recess of parliament) should get or someone who ran for the leadership of the PC party (and ironically got only 75 votes if I remember correctly). Tough. If you rest on your past laurels you stand for nothing.

This book is a safe book. Its safe because not many people will read it and if they do read it (and are part of the book) he probably wont be sued over it. What he might be sued for is littering. In his book he talks about how he wrote this book and almost decided not to publish it. He walked to his dock at his cottage and threw the manuscript into the lake. He said the next day, he reprinted it all. Not an environmentally nice thing to do ... especially with him being as "green" as he is.

I guess this book was just him venting and getting things off his chest ... disappointingly so. As someone who followed the local campaign as closely as I did, I really did find it lacking of any substance and a reminder that I did read his blog.

Having read other Garth Turner books, I would really put this at the bottom of the list in quality. At least After the Crash had some OOOOMF to it. This is a very flacid recounting of events with toothless aggression.

Creeple

Announcing the new blog where you can get the truth about Garth Turner's new adventure in petty aggrandizement and vindictiveness: "Sheeple".

For anyone interested, there will be more once the book comes out.