OTTAWA — Tory MP Gather Turner, who managed to get labelled a maverick even before Parliament met, has been banished to the Commons equivalent of Siberia in the new seating plan.

Turner's new seat is at the north end of the second row, almost beneath the overhang of the press gallery, mostly out of sight of the TV cameras.

Turner, though, says it's no problem: "I kind of thought I'd be in the parking lot behind the West Block. Or on an island in the river.

"There are no bad seats in the House of Commons."

He got himself into hot water with his party just days after the election when he criticized David Emerson's defection from the Liberals to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet.

He then suggested that the Conservatives might have to cut loose from one of their campaign promises, saying the promise to defer capital gains taxes was a bad idea.

In his latest blog posting, he said he understands his critics.

"I have spoken my mind since being elected, and repeatedly stated who I am working for, which is the voters and not my party," he wrote.

"Of course, I am a Conservative and for good reasons. But as an MP, my job is promote the people's interests first and foremost. In that, there is no compromise. Period."

Turner, who was a Tory MP from 1988 to 1993 and served briefly as revenue minister in the Kim Campbell government, was re-elected in January for the Toronto-area riding of Halton.

Last month in his blog, Turner wrote of a series of "unhappy meetings" with caucus officials over some of his comments, including one with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Turner said he expected to be assigned an office in "`a renovated washroom somewhere in a forgotten corner of a vermin-infested dank basement."

However, he later told readers he had been given "a surprisingly spacious office" with a scenic view looking west from Parliament Hill over the Supreme Court Building and the Ottawa River.