OTTAWA–A moment of candour has cost Gordon Landon a shot at federal politics.

Landon was dumped Monday as the Conservative candidate for Markham-Unionville after publicly musing the GTA riding was being shut out of federal infrastructure funding because it is held by a Liberal.

The York regional councillor says he complied with a request from the Conservative party to step aside, adding he is not used to people telling him what to say and think.

The news came as Prime Minister Stephen Harper touted his government's progress in rolling out the pro-growth stimulus money announced in the Jan. 27 budget.

In a meticulously choreographed announcement in Saint John, N.B., Harper boasted that more than half the infrastructure projects financed by the spending plan are underway.

Last week, Landon told Citytv a National Centre for Medical Devices Development initiative wasn't receiving federal funding because the Conservative government doesn't hold the riding.

As a regional councillor from Markham, Landon, 61, is used to being independent and speaking his mind, "so it's hard for me to bow to a lot of structure and having everything approved by Ottawa," he said.

Critics have complained that only a fraction of the thousands of infrastructure projects approved by the federal government have actually received a cheque.

Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page says the government isn't sharing infrastructure-spending details he needs to determine whether the almost $16 billion over two years is being spent.

Page said his office filed a request for specific infrastructure spending at the end of August but was stonewalled.

"We got a letter back from the deputy minister of transport and infrastructure just last week saying this is a significant data request ... and they weren't prepared to give us this data (at this time)," said Page, who has been a thorn in the Harper government's side.

Page has embarrassed the federal government by casting doubt on Ottawa's price tag for the Afghan mission and accurately predicting the deficit would be far greater than forecast by the Conservatives.

"We are looking at where the bar has been set in other countries on openness and transparency on stimulus money and ... we will keep asking for the information so we can do our own analysis on money going out the door," he told the Toronto Star.

Meanwhile, Landon said he stands by what he said about the lack of funding for the medical devices centre but wishes he had said it differently.

"I didn't follow Conservative policy in terms of getting permission to go on that TV show and I made a comment on that show that was an embarrassment to some members of the Conservative party."

Landon intimated his fate was sealed when Harper was asked about his controversial comments at a news conference last week in Oakville.

While a party spokesperson declined to be interviewed, Conservative MP Paul Calandra, from the neighbouring riding of Oak Ridges-Markham, insisted Landon was not pushed.

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"He made the decision to resign on his own and he made that decision based on the fact it was difficult for him to work within the confines of partisan politics," Calandra said.

Landon said he had done "a lot of work in the riding" and thought he could have won it by defeating Liberal incumbent John McCallum.