Liberal Leader Kevin Taft has booted one of his MLAs out of his caucus for not being a team player.
Taft tossed his labour critic Dan Backs permanently off the Liberal benches without warning yesterday, saying the Edmonton-Manning MLA just couldn't get along with colleagues and staff.
"It's not the result of any one particular incident," Taft explained to reporters. "It's the result of ongoing friction between Dan and the rest of us."
While he declined to provide any specifics, Taft insisted there was nothing more to the expulsion.
"There's no arrest. There's no scandal here."
The ejection reduces the Liberals, the official Opposition, to 15 seats in the 83-seat legislature.
Taft said he won't allow Backs to run for his party in the next election.
A stunned Backs called the situation "bizarre."
"I was totally surprised," he said. "I was always vocal on issues and always spoke my mind. Sometimes that may cause chagrin to certain individuals, but I am going to represent my constituents. That's why I was elected."
He said he recently complained that some fellow Liberal MLAs were hogging research resources.
Backs, who worked in labour relations before his election in 2004, said he will continue to sit as an independent while he mulls his future.
Liberal Whip Rick Miller said it hurt to lose a member of the Liberal family, but he supported the move "if it makes us a stronger team."
The permanent expulsion stunned Backs's colleagues. Some thought it was harsh.
"I was surprised and shocked it was expulsion," said Hugh MacDonald.
"I can't believe they couldn't work it out."
Last spring Tory Lyle Oberg was tossed out of caucus by fellow caucus members for publicly threatening to wage war on his own government, but that expulsion lasted only a few months.
