OTTAWA – Of such moments, revolutions are made. Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber’s resignation from the Conservative caucus, which dropped inside the Ottawa bubble like a little concussion grenade late Wednesday, represents more than the loss of a single MP among the 164 Tories in the Commons. It is a dagger straight to the heart of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Unless he responds dramatically, effectively and soon, the betting on his stepping aside before the 2015 election goes from even to odds-on. It also becomes not only possible, but likely, that the caucus will suffer further defections. Such is Rathgeber’s standing among his colleagues, and such is the degree of unhappiness on the Conservative backbenches, that pressure will now mount for others to bolt.
To gauge the importance of this, we must first appreciate where Rathgeber comes from, whom he represents, and why he quit. This is no feckless Atlantic Red Tory, or an ambitious Ontarian disgruntled at his pending exclusion from cabinet. Rathgeber is a true-blue conservative, fiscal and social, from the heartland. He has a history of taking principled stands on issues that matter to the Conservative base: democracy, accountability and fiscal probity. His departure therefore represents a sharp rebuke, if not a repudiation, by the base – in effect, by the Conservative party’s conscience.
The catalyst was the PMO-directed gutting of Rathgeber’s private member’s bill, C-461. At its heart was a measure to publicize the salary of any federal civil servant earning more than $188,000 a year. That is, incidentally, $88,000 above the typical provincial and municipal sunshine-list disclosure limit of $100,000, and $27,800 above an MP’s base salary of $160,200.
Yet a Conservative-led committee decided this was more than taxpayers need to know. It recast the bill so that only salaries above that of a senior deputy minister, in the highest category, will be disclosed. So a mandarin could earn up to $444,761 a year, including bonus, and not have his earnings made public.
Never mind, for a moment, the jaw-dropping number – $444,761, for a bureaucrat on the public payroll, when the average annual salary in Canada stands at $46,000. Just consider the optics. At every budget and in every election campaign, the Harper Conservatives stridently champion belt-tightening, value for money, respect for taxpayers, and the like. Yet they savage their own MP’s effort to make public spending more transparent. That is beyond strange: It is self-sabotage.
Keep in mind, the original bill was already a compromise. Rathgeber would have preferred disclosure at $100,000. Consider, also, the backstory: This comes as the prime minister is under siege, in a way he has never been before, over the Senate expense scandal, and the still unaccountable gifting of $90,172 by his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to Sen. Mike Duffy, formerly a Conservative.
And therein lies the bigger story – the context. In a blog early Thursday, Rathgeber lucidly explained that it wasn’t just about his bill. “I joined the Reform/conservative movements because I thought we were somehow different, a band of Ottawa outsiders riding into town to clean the place up, promoting open government and accountability. I barely recognize ourselves, and worse I fear that we have morphed into what we once mocked.”
He then proceeds to dissect, piece by piece, the bad strategy, bad faith, bad judgment and bad leadership that have in the space of a month put the Harper government in the ditch. “My constituents simply do not care what somebody, who they hope will never become Prime Minister, did or didn’t do seventeen years ago,” Rathgeber writes of the PMO’s new attack points aimed at NDP leader Tom Mulcair. For days now, it has been obvious these are doing the government more harm than good. Now the critique comes from within.
Most devastating of all, Rathgeber cites his own troubled conscience: “I can only compromise so much before I begin to not recognize myself. I no longer recognize much of the party that I joined and whose principles (at least on paper) I still believe in.”
And that brings us to the very nub of Harper’s problem: The dissolution and trampling, by himself, of his own ideals. To attack NDP leader Tom Mulcair, pink-hued coddler of Quebec separatists, is one thing. To attack Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, whose father devised the diabolical National Energy Program, is another. But to attack Brent Rathgeber? Harper really can’t do that. To do so would be to attack the best of what he used to stand for.
The prime minister now has two options, logically. He can strike a new course on openness and accountability, in effect reinstating Rathgeber’s original bill, plus-plus, and stealing some of the opposition’s thunder. Or he can continue to limp along, fighting a rearguard action, as the wolves gather. At one time, a Harper pivot would have been imminent. But those who’ve watched him evolve will bet, sadly, on option two.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: Michael Den Tandt
Unless he responds dramatically, effectively and soon, the betting on his stepping aside before the 2015 election goes from even to odds-on. It also becomes not only possible, but likely, that the caucus will suffer further defections. Such is Rathgeber’s standing among his colleagues, and such is the degree of unhappiness on the Conservative backbenches, that pressure will now mount for others to bolt.
To gauge the importance of this, we must first appreciate where Rathgeber comes from, whom he represents, and why he quit. This is no feckless Atlantic Red Tory, or an ambitious Ontarian disgruntled at his pending exclusion from cabinet. Rathgeber is a true-blue conservative, fiscal and social, from the heartland. He has a history of taking principled stands on issues that matter to the Conservative base: democracy, accountability and fiscal probity. His departure therefore represents a sharp rebuke, if not a repudiation, by the base – in effect, by the Conservative party’s conscience.
The catalyst was the PMO-directed gutting of Rathgeber’s private member’s bill, C-461. At its heart was a measure to publicize the salary of any federal civil servant earning more than $188,000 a year. That is, incidentally, $88,000 above the typical provincial and municipal sunshine-list disclosure limit of $100,000, and $27,800 above an MP’s base salary of $160,200.
Yet a Conservative-led committee decided this was more than taxpayers need to know. It recast the bill so that only salaries above that of a senior deputy minister, in the highest category, will be disclosed. So a mandarin could earn up to $444,761 a year, including bonus, and not have his earnings made public.
Never mind, for a moment, the jaw-dropping number – $444,761, for a bureaucrat on the public payroll, when the average annual salary in Canada stands at $46,000. Just consider the optics. At every budget and in every election campaign, the Harper Conservatives stridently champion belt-tightening, value for money, respect for taxpayers, and the like. Yet they savage their own MP’s effort to make public spending more transparent. That is beyond strange: It is self-sabotage.
Keep in mind, the original bill was already a compromise. Rathgeber would have preferred disclosure at $100,000. Consider, also, the backstory: This comes as the prime minister is under siege, in a way he has never been before, over the Senate expense scandal, and the still unaccountable gifting of $90,172 by his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to Sen. Mike Duffy, formerly a Conservative.
And therein lies the bigger story – the context. In a blog early Thursday, Rathgeber lucidly explained that it wasn’t just about his bill. “I joined the Reform/conservative movements because I thought we were somehow different, a band of Ottawa outsiders riding into town to clean the place up, promoting open government and accountability. I barely recognize ourselves, and worse I fear that we have morphed into what we once mocked.”
He then proceeds to dissect, piece by piece, the bad strategy, bad faith, bad judgment and bad leadership that have in the space of a month put the Harper government in the ditch. “My constituents simply do not care what somebody, who they hope will never become Prime Minister, did or didn’t do seventeen years ago,” Rathgeber writes of the PMO’s new attack points aimed at NDP leader Tom Mulcair. For days now, it has been obvious these are doing the government more harm than good. Now the critique comes from within.
Most devastating of all, Rathgeber cites his own troubled conscience: “I can only compromise so much before I begin to not recognize myself. I no longer recognize much of the party that I joined and whose principles (at least on paper) I still believe in.”
And that brings us to the very nub of Harper’s problem: The dissolution and trampling, by himself, of his own ideals. To attack NDP leader Tom Mulcair, pink-hued coddler of Quebec separatists, is one thing. To attack Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, whose father devised the diabolical National Energy Program, is another. But to attack Brent Rathgeber? Harper really can’t do that. To do so would be to attack the best of what he used to stand for.
The prime minister now has two options, logically. He can strike a new course on openness and accountability, in effect reinstating Rathgeber’s original bill, plus-plus, and stealing some of the opposition’s thunder. Or he can continue to limp along, fighting a rearguard action, as the wolves gather. At one time, a Harper pivot would have been imminent. But those who’ve watched him evolve will bet, sadly, on option two.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: Michael Den Tandt
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