Blogging & Garth Turner's suspension

Today's news: MP Garth Turner has been suspended from the Tory Caucus. Why? In part, because of his blog.

a motion passed citing "confidentiality concerns" on his often-controversial daily blog

I tried to access his blog but, alas, it's down:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /weblog/ on this server.

Either Garth Turner's new online fame has caused his server to crash, or he took it down himself. I'm hoping he didn't take it down. I can't judge his site based on the content available but I would hope that he writes what he honestly believes and he adheres to confidentiality agreements. Here's a screenshot that I snatched off Google's cache.

I'm not a reader of his blog, but I support the idea of politicians who blog. Government, as the law, is shrouded in mystery and it is largely inaccessible to unsophisticated citizens. It seems like every new administration that comes into power talks about accountability and transparency while they're in campaign mode, then, suddenly, they stop when they're elected.

If elected government officials can use blogs to help inform and educate the public, then we should give them a pat on the back. If, on the other hand, they're using their blogs as a personal soapbox to rant, reveal secrets and breach confidentiality, then they should be held accountable.