Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party MP Garth Turner is trying to make online politics more civil in Canada.  Or so he says.  For instance, when Garth Turner asserted that Elections Canada had told him that Will Stewart, the CEO of the local Conservative riding association, had ratted Turner out over a problem with Turner's accounting when Turner was still a Conservative, Garth Turner apologized, saying he wanted to "repair" things:

Mr. Stewart has also accused me of “undertaking a deliberate smear of (him) personally which had zero basis in fact.” That stemmed from my assertion he had asked EC for the review of my campaign finances. He says he did not. So, I apologize for that - even before he apologizes for releasing my confidential information. We have to start repairing this somewhere.

Garth Turner apologized after it was revealed that Elections Canada had not identified any snitches, and that despite Garth Turner's desire to cast himself as the target of some sort of Conservative conspiracy, it was in fact an audit within Elections Canada that had nabbed him.

It has never been made clear by Garth Turner just how he thought Conservatives had been responsible for his trouble with Elections Canada.  He has never revealed the letter from Elections Canada that he said had revealed the identities of his accusers.

He just suddenly decided to repair things.

Does this mean Garth Turner is going to be less, well, strident, in the way he responds to criticisms?

Perhaps not.  Maybe just a bit more stealthy.

There is a Garth Turner supporter who posts comments on Tory blogs, but in particular at the blog Repossessing Halton, called "Milton John".  Here is one of Milton John's comments:

Well, have you seen the official halton cpc website lately? I mean when it is up, anyway.

There are more Halton Conservatives here than anywhere else, so it might as well be the offical site. Misery loves company, eh?

From the tone of the 'debate' on this site, this is where the morons have landed.

Gawd, you guys sound like a bunh of prepubescent jerks.

Wah, wah, wah.

Nice. 

Who is Milton John?  Apparently someone who has never voted Liberal but is disgusted with Stephen Harper and the Conservatives:

I was a card carrying member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Perhaps foolishly, I ended up being a member of the Non-Progressive Conservative Party. I have never had an investment in an Income Trust. Good thing too, because I trusted Harper and faithfully voted for him.

I have never voted Liberal. I have a little ways to go, before I become a senior.

I am a vote that Harper has lost.

But now the allegation is being made that Garth Turner and Milton John are indeed the same person:

Yesterday, Garth Turner personally changed the Wikipedia article about him to change his residence to Oakville (see previous post for details about this story).

In changing the residence information to the article, he inadvertently left behind his ISP address in the history portion of the article.

Using that IP address, Repossessing Halton and his readers are making a pretty good case that Garth Turner and Milton John are either the same person, or at the very least, accessing the Internet through the same Rogers port.

Are Garth Turner and Milton John the same person?  Garth Turner denies it.  The IP evidence is pretty compelling, but these things are tricky at best.  Then again, Garth Turner has himself jumped to the conclusion that one poster and another were the same based on IP addresses:

Garth, how do we know it is the same person under “HaltonJohn”?

The other week, there was someone posting that was “Catherine”, and it certainly wasn’t me.

The IP address, among other items. — Garth

Other items?

I wonder what those would be.

Something non-technical, perhaps, that suggests a relationship between Person A and Person B.

What "other item" would make you wonder if Garth Turner was posting under the name "Milton John"?  I'm thinking of something that on its own is hardly evidence, but when added to the IP address argument, makes you wonder.

Did you know that Garth Turner's full name is John Garth Turner?

Just saying.