The guy behind the petition to oust Garth Turner

Garth Tuner is the MP for Halton. He has a blog, he is a member of The Conservative Party, he is populist and a good communicator, and, who like Monty Solberg and others on the Hill at various times, tries to put the human face on politics for a cynical public.

He was recently confronted with a TV interview he wasn’t expecting. You can read about his encounter with a gentleman known in Canada for his lobbying and bully tactics for God. (Yes, we home grow our own!)

The rhetoric and politics escalated after Mr. Turner blogged about his TV time with Dr. Charles McVety - to the point that late last week a petition showed up online.

In true blogging fashion Mr. Turner posted I Need Your Help and asked his readers to go over and leave their two cents because only 73 people had signed it. With typical political wit Turner posted about the personal affront of there not being thousands of signatures. No respectable MP wants to be political worm food.

So, I’d like your help. Here’s a link to the petition. Go there, sign it and please leave a comment when you do. Your signature will help raise the stakes so this coming vote in Parliament will be seen as the final one to ever take place on the issue of same-sex marriage. Then we can get back to the economy, family taxation, health care and the environment. And your comments will, I am sure, be read personally by the Rev.

Well. 
The comments under I Need Your Help are the best part, people started claiming their signatures were disappearing so Garth Turner posted an update. I got curious and did some research on Dr. Charles McVety and a few of his lobbying buddies, but then got even more curious about the guy that actually put up the petition to oust a member of parliament.

Did the guy who wrote this petition calling for the resignation of a conservative MP take McVety and his fundamentalists buddies at face value – after all, exaggeration, half truths and breaking the 9th commandment would never be done by Christians, right?

Would the petition poster be willing to explain his decision?

I wrote Kevin Redmond, who is listed as the guy who put this petition online. 

Whether I agree with Mr. Redmond or not may or may not be a discussion for another day, I want to commend him for responding promptly and courteously to my query.

Mr. Redmond comes across as a university student who takes his faith and his politics very seriously.  A little bit like the MP he is opposing actually.:^)

Here is why Kevin Redmond put up a petition against MP Garth Turner.

1) You are listed as a student at Waterloo – what are you studying?

I am a student at UW working towards an honours biology degree.

2) You have listed yourself as Protestant. Are you comfortable with identifying your denomination?

I’m Lutheran, though this petition is free for anyone to sign who supports freedom of religion.

3) Anything else you are comfortable sharing about yourself – age, marital status, political party etc?

I’m 23 years old, I’m unmarried and I am a card carrying member of a major political party which I do not wish to disclose at this point in time.

3) Is this your own effort?

The petition was my decision and effort, with the support of some friends, after reading about the comments made by Garth Turner on his blog.

4) Are you receiving help or support from anyone to run this petition?

I looked for a bit of input from friends when creating the petition, though it was limited.

5) What do you plan to do with it?

As of now, I’m just going with the flow, I’m not making any particular efforts to circulate the petition.

6) What are you planning to do with the names you’ve collected?

Depending on the success of the petition, I may present the collected names to Garth Turner, his riding association, other Members of Parliament… etc.

7) Why have you decided to undertake this effort?

I’ve been noticing a growing trend of people making religious discrimination in our culture and getting away with it. I feel that it is time to stand up for the right to religion, protected Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Anything you’d care to add?
Sorry, nothing that I can think of at this point in time.

9) I’m unfamilar with the technology of the petition. How do you delete names and what reasons would there be to do so?

PetitionOnline.com is an online petition service that allows anyone to create a petition that collects names based on an email that is submitted and a follow-up email to the email address to inform the owner of the email address that their email has been used.
It is a widely recognized petition service and its petitions are often accepted as being just as legitimate as any other petition.
Names may be deleted by the moderator, myself, if there is given reason to do so. Of course it wouldn’t be in my best interests to remove names from the petition, unless there is good reason to do so.
Some of the names that signed the petition left comments that were in complete contradiction to what the petition was stating. Since signing the petition is agreeing in contract with the statements of the petition, signings that included such comments could not be accepted in good faith.
Other comments were also moderated because they were strongly offensive in nature or could have a detriment to the principles argued by the petition. Also comments were made by supporters of Garth Turner in a hope to sabotage the petition.

10) How long have you scheduled to keep it online and operational?

I haven’t thought yet how long I will keep this petition up and operational. Of course it would be unreasonable to keep it up if Garth was no longer an MP.

11) What organizations are you contacting to let them know it’s available?

So far I have just been seeing how the petition would do on a small level before I circulate it on a large level. Unfortunately the petition has met a lot of apathy from those who have come and contact with it. There are too many email forwards out there and when asked why they haven’t signed it yet, people that I know agree with it’s principles have told me that they just have yet to get around to it.

Thank you for taking interest in this petition,

Kevin Redmond