OTTAWA - (Web posted Feb. 13, 2002 @ 4:45 p.m.)
A day after he said Industry minister Allan Rock should apologize or face
censure for his criticism of new Liberal Party of Ontario (Canada) membership
rules, MP  Dan
McTeague flip flopped and said an apology is not necessary.
Now he would settle for an
explanation.
"An apology is an easy
word," he said, during a telephone interview with PoliticsWatch.com on
Wednesday. "I don't think he's acknowledged the fault of what he's done. I
cannot ask someone to apologize for something if they truly believe that they've
not done anything harmful."
The
trouble started at a weekend meeting of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario).
At the meeting, new rules were implemented that dictate party recruiters can
only have access to five membership applications at a time and they must provide
names and addresses of the prospective members in advance.
Rock said the new rules compromise the basic
principles of the party, and that it could turn the Liberals into a
"country club for elites."
Mcteague said Rock will have to explain that comment to his caucus
colleagues"
"I think Mr. Rock, owes at the very
least, an explanation to (Liberal) members of Parliament why he made the
comments," said, the Liberal member of Parliament for
Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge.
"He owes it to himself to clear the air and I think he should retract some
of the harmful things."
But in a Calgary
Herald story on Tuesday, McTeague sang a different tune.
He said if Rock refuses to apologize for
"slagging the party," Ontario MPs will push for punishment at their
next caucus meeting.
"If he doesn't, he should be censured," McTeague said.
McTeague is well known in the House
of Commons for standing up for what he believes in. The backbench MP has voted
against his own party, and criticized Liberal party policy positions.
But he doesn't support Rock, who has refused
to back down from his comments.
"If he calls them principles, then I
suggest his principles are way out of whack," McTeague quipped.
McTeague, who attended the meeting where the rule change was adopted, said the
they do not preclude anybody from becoming a party member.
"There's no restriction on bringing in
members to the party," he said. "The rules simply ensure that there
are no abuses."
|
