The Halifax Chronicle Herald:

“I’d like you to write this down,” he said. “We’ve met with Mr. Flaherty several times. We met with the prime minister several times. We’ve raised it in caucus. We got a legal opinion. We’ve made several proposals. We’ve tried to build bridges between the federal government and the provincial government. And we haven’t made any progress. So it doesn’t leave me a lot of choice.”

The longest sitting Conservative MP has been  kicked out his party minutes after voting against the federal  budget in the House. MP Bill Casy,(Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley) one of six Conservative MP’s from Atlantic Canada, has been in Parliament from 1988 to 1993 and from 1997 to the present.

“It’s very simple to correct, and I don’t need an amendment to the legislation. I need a signal from the federal government that they will take the steps to restore the benefits of the Atlantic accord in the same way that John Hamm negotiated them for about five years.”

Politics Watch:

Mr. Casey is well aware of the consequences before he cast his vote,” Government Whip Jay Hill told reporters. “The consequences are he will no longer be sitting as a Conservative member of parliament.”

Casey is the second Conservative member to be kicked out since Harper’s government took power. Halton MP Garth Turner  is the other. Turner was tossed in November 2006 and sat as an independent before moving to the Liberal Party in February 2007.  He has more on his former Conservative collegue here.  Further update on what went on here.

He’s a man of honour,” Turner told PoliticsWatch. “He’s wrestling very much with this issue. He feels the Atlantic Accord was breached and he feels at odds with his party. I empathize with him.”

“He’s in a caucus where you can’t even speak out even within the caucus on issues. So he’s doing what he has to do to try to force an issue — speaking to the media and maybe vote against his government tonight.”

“I know what Bill’s going through,” he said. 

Casey objected to the budget because of changes it made to the Atlantic Accord.

Casey is now an independent. He says he plans to run in the next election.

Halifax Chronicle Herald:

(Casey)”This has been a very emotional, trying decision to make. But I went to the Parrsboro legion on Saturday night to (provincial attorney general) Murray Scott’s lobster dinner. I think I’ve gone to 12 of these consecutively and I’ve always spoken. And I felt so uncomfortable that I said to my wife, I hope they don’t ask me to speak. On the way home, I thought to myself, I don’t want to spend the rest of my career not being able to look people in the eye or speak to my people.”