A Senate spending scandal, a robotic caucus deferential to the will of the prime minister and unelected bureaucrats telling Conservative MPs what to say and how to vote – these all weighed on local member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber when he resigned from the Conservative caucus Wednesday night.
But it was the amendment of his private member’s bill that would disclose large salaries of civil servants that was, as he later put it, “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Even though he had known since January this outcome was likely, Rathgeber said what the government did was just too much for him.
“It’s my inescapable conclusion … that the government’s lack of commitment to transparency and accountability is troubling and I can’t unequivocally support the government anymore,” Rathgeber told the pack of media gathered in his St. Albert office Thursday morning.
The government stepped in Wednesday and amended Rathgeber’s bill, called the CBC and Public Service Disclosure and Transparency Act. Instead of making public all civil servant salaries greater than $188,000 as Rathgeber wanted, the government instead increased the number to more than $400,000.
Rathgeber said the Prime Minister’s Office is clearly trying to make sure no deputy ministers have to tell the country how much they get paid.
“In the absence of any evidence, they moved the disclosure bar to make sure no deputy minister is covered by it. I find that very troubling because it’s pointless. I think I called it a charade on my blog.”
Rathgeber will now sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons until the next election, scheduled for October 2015. He said it was “highly unlikely” he would cross the floor to another party and didn’t expect to be welcomed back to the Conservative fold.
He said the caucus is completely subservient to the will of Prime Minister Stephen Harper which, “for me is a bad thing.” He said while he believes Harper did not know anything about his former chief of staff’s decision to pay off money owed by Senator Mike Duffy, Canadians deserve to know what was expected of Duffy in return.
He saved his harshest criticism for members of the Prime Minister’s Office staff, saying while he respects Harper, he is weary of being “subservient to masters half my age in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
“Legislators like me have to take a stand. We have to take a stand that we are not going to read these talking points written by staffers, that we’re not going to vote like trained seals.”
Rathgeber is getting a lot of support for resigning on principle, both nationally and locally. Even John Williams, the man Rathgeber replaced as St. Albert’s MP, offered support for Rathgeber’s decision.
“I say congratulations to Brent for standing up and having the courage of his convictions,” Williams said.
Williams, who announced in 2006 he would not run in another election, said party discipline is important in the House of Commons, but that any prime minister needs to listen to his backbench MPs.
“The prime minister must respect the opinions of his backbench and in this case, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the government’s amendment to his private member’s bill,” Williams said.
John Kennair, who ran against Rathgeber for the Conservative nomination in 2007, said he also supported Rathgeber’s decision.
“Brent’s actions the last few months, I’ve been applauding them,” Kennair said, referring to Rathgeber’s criticisms of ministerial spending and supply management.
St. Albert also shouldn’t suffer as a result, Kennair added.
“We really aren’t getting a lot of political buyout because it’s a safe riding (for the Conservatives),” Kennair said. “Most of the time if the Conservatives did something for the riding, it was nothing more than lip service.”
Even longtime Liberal supporter Bob Russell said Rathgeber had done the right thing.
“He made it clear he wasn’t elected just to support the party, he was elected to represent the constituency. He sounded pretty principled to me. I think he took a big risk. He put his political life on the line,” Russell said.
Pat Martin, an NDP MP who regularly works out at the MP’s gym with Rathgeber, said he was surprised Rathgeber resigned from caucus but called him “a man of principle.”
“If you believe the party you stand for has lost its principles, people of principle will walk away,” Martin said. “I have respect for him because it took political courage and it’s one of those rare examples of maintaining your principles in spite of your political feelings.”
