Cool it

I find it odd that I've found myself defending the Conservatives today against Conservatives who are actually far more partisan than myself.

I used to be a member of the Blogging Tories blogroll, but then I removed my membership because I didn't want to be pigeonholed as some sort of mindless Conservative supporter. I've never seen myself as a big-c Conservative, even if I can't imagine that I'll ever vote for any other party.

Anyways, in addition to the criticisms of Emerson, Fortier and especially Harper (for facilitating the appointment of Emerson and Fortier), there has also been criticism directed towards Gordon O'Connor, Canada's new Minister of National Defense.

The charges against O'Connor seem fairly ridiculous. Here's a comment I posted on a couple of blogs:

Regarding Gordon O'Connor:

The Accountability act is actually the opposite.

It is designed to prevent public servants, bureaucrats and politicians from leaving government service in order to lobby the government (as a registered lobbyist) for a few years after their service in government.

O'Connor had left a private post in order to join the government.

It isn't the same thing and there's nothing (as far as I can see) that's wrong with it.

People from the private sector should be encouraged to take up government service. On the other hand, people who are in government should not be able to leave public service for jobs that involve lobbying their old colleagues and co-workers. The two situations are completely seperate.