ICYMI - Veteran Conservative MP reveals AndrewScheer punished him for supporting cannabis legalization
OTTAWA — One of the longest serving Conservative MPs is urging his party to return to its democratic grassroots, and has revealed a behind-the-scenes account of how he was fired from his critic role by leader Andrew Scheer for supporting the legalization of cannabis.
He says Scheer’s office then asked him to resign from his role as critic of democratic institutions and provided him with a statement he could release. He refused and was banished to the backbench in January 2018. Then, out of loyalty to the party, he says he told an “outright lie” to a National Post reporter who called him to ask what happened.
With his strong feelings about citizen participation in politics, Reid decided to poll his constituents on the cannabis issue. He publicly released the results, which showed 55 per cent of the 3,100 respondents telling him to vote in favour of C-45. Reid says he’d promised to keep quiet and didn’t want to damage the party, so he chose to tell “an outright lie to a reporter, for the first time in my career.” He said he stepped down only because he was taking on further responsibilities in his family business.
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