So, here I was for the first time after the election, and almost 13 years after leaving – sitting in my chair at my desk in my office on Parliament Hill. And it felt good. The view from my window is a new one, looking west out over the city and the court building and the historic stone mills in the valley and that broad river, whose waters are raging right now under the ice cover. Ottawa is a different place from the rest of the country, and sometimes I hate this city and what it stands for. But not today. Today I belonged here, because I knew, sitting in my office, exactly why I came.

The years between have changed me, without a doubt. I am far more secure in my own identity now at this age, less swayed by things that do not matter. I’ve come to be a democrat, a renewed populist; maybe the result of eight years on the road lecturing people in halls large and small; maybe because of all that door-knocking over the last eight months; maybe because I’m old enough to realize the people in this town who think they know more than the people, actually know crap.

Finishing off my pre-budget report this week reminded me of that, since the voices I heard were so impressive, and the people so willing to come forward. You would think, after years and years of being spoken down to, hectored, left unconsulted and having their money stolen by the political classes that Canadians would be in no mood to turn the other cheek and partner with an MP. But it happened, and, sitting in my chair and looking out the window, it makes me forgive this frozen capital city necropolis.

Garth Turner is the Conservative MP for Halton