Just last week, this commentator asked: if an MP fell in Ottawa, would anyone care? Days later MP Brent Rathgeber from Alberta fell from the Conservative caucus. And, yes, people cared. The news media gave the event a two-thumbs up.
Rathgeber left because he was piqued. He was right in the groove with what we were talking about. He is a guy who finally stood up on his hind legs and said, “I’m not going to put up with this crap any longer.”
This is one mad Member of Parliament. He is tired of being a patsy. He is fed up with trying to do something in Parliament and being treated like a puppy that has peed on the carpet. He is tired of young kids in the Minister’s offices telling him what to do. He is not only older than most of them but he has more life experience and he is the elected MP—not them.
But what do the other drones think of all this? These are the Conservative backbenchers who would not have a clue on how to propose a bill such as Rathgeber did. He proposed a bill asking for access to information regarding government employees earning more then $144,000 per year. Someone rewrote the bill to make the level above $444,000 per year. That effectively gutted his bill.
The drones are conflicted about this. Their concern is that one of their number has done something that they do not understand. He is doing their tadpole squiggly swim in the wrong direction. He has challenged management. He has asked for more. He has made himself a pariah. He has chosen to go to Coventry where they cannot speak to him.
Most of the drones enjoy the attention that they get from the minions in the Ministers offices. They are made to feel important. They get to ask their favourite Minister soft-ball questions in the House of Commons. They get to ask gratuitous questions in committees. They are lionized by the second tier lobbyists who have nothing better to do than to make sure that MPs are on side for their various initiatives. They love going home to give out medals or plaques for being over 100 years old. They enjoy feeling important. They know that MP Brent Rathgeber is not going to feel quite as important from now on.
There might be a few of the older Conservative backbenchers who will quietly—certainly not openly—sympathize with Brent. They know that unless they hoe the line, there will be no win for them in the next election or an appropriate appointment to some federal board before that election. You should not expect a sudden rush of Conservative MPs to join Rathbeger in Coventry.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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