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It is a sign of just how craven our political culture has become

“The Conservative caucus was divided on the issue of cannabis legalization,” Reid writes. But although there was some debate in caucus, no vote was ever taken on the party’s position. “Instead, the leadership simply imposed a decision from above,” Reid says. “The real motivation for this course of action was never explained to caucus.”

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.

“None of this mattered to the leader,” Reid writes. “I was summoned to his office, informed by him that the Constituency Referendum instrument…was worthless as a gauge of public opinion, and was presented with a choice between voting against Bill C-45, resigning my post as democracy critic, or being sacked.”

Reid says he was told to voluntarily resign from his critic role if he ever wanted back in shadow cabinet, and was given a resignation statement written by Scheer’s office — a statement he found unacceptable. “So I refused to sign the letter, although I did inform the leader that I’m a team player, and that it was not my intention to raise a fuss,” Reid writes.

Perhaps I really am a wild-eyed libertarian dreamer

The sacking came two months later. “I had been removed from my post in the evening, with neither notice to me nor explanation in the Leader’s press release, less than a week after Patrick Brown had been removed as leader of the Ontario PCs for sexual misconduct,” Reid writes. “Naturally, a reporter spotted a pattern, and called me at home, to ask if I had been terminated for a similar reason.”