Brent Rathgeber Denounces Cabinet Perks as Cover Against Allegation of Being "Asshole" Email Leaker

Rathgeber: attempting to avoid the wrath of Jason Kenney

As backbenchers go, Brent Rathgeber certainly has political acumen.

The current chatter in Canadian politics is that Brent Rathgeber is hurting his advancement chances by blogging about the opulence of cabinet ministers. Technically, that's very true but he probably also saved his political career. If a little bit of analysis led me to the conclusion that he's the prime suspect in the Jason Kenney "asshole" email leak, I doubt that the Conservative Party weren't suspicious of him.

So while the walls were closing all around him, he blogs about cabinet perks and appeals to conservative populism. Forgive me if I'm not overwhelmed by euphoria over Mr. Rathgeber's timely epiphany.

What does his blogging about this do? It provides him political cover to survive within the Conservative Party. Had he not done so, it's conceivable Stephen Harper would have made an example of him and booted him out of the caucus. Kicking someone out of caucus based on dubious allegations is not outside the realm of possibility with this Prime Minister. And the push to kick him out would have been led by the most thin-skinned MP within the Conservative caucus, Jason Kenney.

The Immigration Minister has no qualms about publishing private information about refugee claimants so you can imagine just how vicious he would be towards a perceived traitor that was trying to short circuit his political career.

If they kick him out now?

Well they would kick out the guy who just voiced his concern for personal responsibility and good fiscal management.

And since there's no smoking gun that he did leak the email, it would be yet another stain upon the reputation of an increasingly disreputable Conservative Party. And there's no one issue more important to the Conservatives than the myth that they are sound managers of the public purse.

By positioning himself as a populist champion, Brent Rathgeber may just have avoided getting Guergis-ed.

Want To Know Who Leaked Jason Kenney's "Asshole" Email?

Camouflage won't help this man.

Let's work through the list of suspects, shall we?

Here's a copy of the email in question:

.Part II

So the suspects are obviously all Alberta Conservative caucus members. Let's trim that down using the evidence in question. There were 27 Conservatives from Alberta elected in 2011. Easily excluded are Jason Kenney, Stephen Harper (who isn't on the list apparently) as well as Peter Goldring who didn't get the email since he's sitting as an independent due to his DUI charge. Lee Richardson quit federal politics and didn't get the email either.

So we're down to 23.

Let's assume that Blaine Calkins has got a modicum of common sense and doesn't go around pissing off members of the Alberta Regional Cause for whom he is the Chair.

That's 22.

These are all safe assumptions. Here's where we get creative: motivation. Two possible motivations explain how this email got leaked: you think Jason Kenney was out of line with his douchy comments or you want to crap on his goal of succeeding Stephen Harper as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Or both.

Next is the fact that it was leaked to the Edmonton Journal. Not the Calgary Herald or Calgary Sun. Why is this relevant? Well you don't send something you want leaked to a reporter you don't know. Journalists, even those based in Alberta, ask questions. They usually don't publish leaks unless they know what's behind it. They probably know that there's ideological differences between the individual that leaked the email and Jason Kenney. If you send a leaked email to a Calgary Sun journalist that has a good rapport with Jason Kenney, the whole thing could get spinned as this being a careless action and total lack of solidarity.

So the odds are, this individual was comfortable sending the leak to the Edmonton Journal so we infer that his riding is in Edmonton.

This narrows the list of suspects quite a bit! Now we have 6 individuals:

Mike Lake
Tim Uppal
James Rajotte
Rona Ambrose
Brent Rathgeber
Laurie Hawn

Now it would be interesting to have Rona Ambrose slam Jason Kenney but that's really not her style. Regardless of her politics, she exhibits professionalism in her duties as MP. She and Laurie Hawn entertain good relations with the Alberta PCs but my guess is that this is from someone with a lot less clout than those two and Tim Uppal. Laurie Hawn had come out and supported Kenney when his office was found to have misappropriated government resources for electoral campaigning. You can see Tim Uppal partying with Jason Kenney on St. Patrick's Day so I'll exclude him as well.


That leaves us with 3 suspects:

Mike Lake is a small fish. However, he'll never revolutionize the Canadian political landscape and is resolved to help the living conditions of those afflicted with autism. I'm pretty sure he doesn't give two shits about what Jason Kenney thinks or doesn't think about Thomas Lukaszuk.

James Rajotte is in the same boat more but he's more prolific than Lake. He's concerned about identity theft, Alzheimer's Disease and helping improve financial literacy in Canada. He could be a bigger player within the party but, for some reason, he's being cockblocked by Harper.

By contrast, Brent Rathgeber is all over the place in terms of "interests" but his accomplishments are few and far between. He, unlike his other Edmonton Tory colleagues, has opinions on everything. He is a professed defender of free speech however, and maybe the George Galloway issue of a few years back was a source of conflict between Kenney and himself after all.

Also, he commented on the Alberta election on his blog entry entitled "Free Speech but Political Liability".

In it, he points out that the bozos probably cost the Wildrose Party the election and suggests that this is how it should be. Furthermore, his riding of Edmonton St. Albert and the riding of Thomas Lukaszuk's Edmonton Castle Downs overlap quite a bit. In fact, Rathgeber went door-knocking with Lukaszuk in the past.

So if you want to know someone who thought highly of Thomas Lukaszuk and would be offended by Jason Kenney's remarks, Brent Rathgeber certainly fits the profile.

But don't take my word for it, take his:

Similarly, when candidates for political office utter comments that are politically incorrect and even offensive, they need not be censored (at least not by the state).  Again these matters are self-regulating, as the voting public will determine the appropriateness of the individual to hold public office.

Brent Rathgeber is the prime suspect.

Jason Kenney's Official Asshole Checklist

The man determining Canada's immigration policy has yet to master email.

When Jason Kenney, Canada's Immigration Minister, hit the "Reply All" button when sending out an email, he let his feelings be known about Progressive Conservative Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. He thinks of him as "a complete and utter asshole".

That's embarrassing! Apologize and move on, right?

Nope! In parliament, Jason Kenney was asked to apologize seven times but he couldn't be bothered to do so. Then he kind of did through a statement sent by his office in what is sure to be the blueprint for sincere apologies by Conservatives.

But you're probably wondering: how do you end up on Jason Kenney's list of assholes? How do other Conservatives end up there as well? Why is there no immunity for Alberta Conservatives? Does asshole status extend to federal Conservative as well?

Well thanks to CSIS oversight being greatly diminished and Canada's own cyber security being a joke, I retrieved from the computers of Canada's spy agency the Official Jason Kenney Asshole Checklist:


·Are you a progressive? √
·Do you disagree with Jason Kenney on the topic of imigration? √
·Do you support LGBT rights? √
·Do you believe Ministers are responsible for their respective departments? √
·Is it wrong to use government resources to bolster political party fundraising? √
·Do you believe that language training, employment counselling, housing help and youth programs for immigrants is beneficial to Canada? √
·Do you think that Canada should honour its commitments of citizenship to Afghan translators that worked with Canadian Forces in Afghanistan? √


If you said "yes" to any of the preceding questions: you're an asshole according to Jason Kenney.

Calgary Herald's Licia Corbella's Courageous Position on the "Dismemberment Video" Teacher

It takes courage to go against the grain. When a conservative columnist feels the need to voice her unique insights regarding the Montreal teacher that showed the Luka Magnotta dismemberment video, you simply must take a step back from the right versus left divide and acknowledge the courage of her conviction.

Licia Corbella injected her own subtle perspicacity into her Calgary Herald column today and used her digital ink to make a splash with her sober understanding that's rarely seen in the world of Canadian punditry.

Her position is this: the high school teacher that showed his high school class the video of the stabbing, dismemberment, rape and cannibalism of a Concordia student erred in judgment.

That's right. She took it upon herself to raise an issue of unanimous consent and echoed that same position.

An opinion that is irrefutable and obvious.

There never was any debate on this question.

No one ventured a personal view suggesting that this guy had the right idea or they should go easy on him.

The only question that sprang up among the columnists was more along the lines of "how quickly can this guy get fired?"

As you read her column, you're assaulted by its obviousness. You sit transfixed by Corbella's ability to stretch out a column while never adding a glint of discernment. Really, every single Canadian reached that consensus five seconds after hearing the news but only Licia Corbella thought it worthwhile to write nearly 1,000 words to the effect that "this guy's an idiot!".

This kind of blandness is so revolting that it's both comical and tragic. When PostMedia is cutting journalism staff and the Calgary Herald is no longer printing a Sunday edition, you wonder just how low the bar is to get fired once you land a job as a columnist. Her job is engage with ideas, stir debate, take principled yet unpopular views. But this is unbelievably mundane even by Canadian punditry standards.

She even asks a criminology professor for his opinion. Guess what his position is? He agrees! Of course he agrees! No one is disputing that this man is unfit to teach kids! No one!

So why did Licia Corbella write a boilerplate column that would only elicit yawns from its readers? Because she subjected herself to watching the Magnotta video. She wanted to write a column about some aspect of these events. Fine. But write something with just a modicum of worth!

To me, the least commented on aspect of these brutal slayings is how derivative they are from horror movies.  Someone better informed on horror movies than I could trace the parallels beyond the rip-off of the "Basic Instinct" stabbing or the boxing up of body parts much like that in "Se7en". This attention-starved psychopath is little more than uninspired brute. It's shocking of course but it's the most sickening plea for attention you can make and demonstrate that horror is not synonymous with individuality. He is not a once-in-a-generation killer more than an unoriginal psychotic mind.

You only feel revulsion when you think of his actions and you only feel revulsion when you think of a teacher subjecting his students to watching the video.

So why is Corbella writing about something when she clearly contributes nothing to engaging in a debate or elevating the conversation?

Because she's unable to think for herself as accusations of plagiarism have flown around her in the past.

When you think in talking points, you stand up in opposition to original thought.

A stale group of columnists anchor a newspaper chain that netted over $11 million in losses in the last quarter. Now consider that the newspaper with the highest circulation is the Toronto Star and its mostly progressive editorial stance. PostMedia's answer has been to cut journalists, erect a paywall and keep delivering the same lacklustre conservative opinions that they can offer.

As long as the Jonathan Kay's and Licia Corbella run editorial boards of PostMedia, the disengagement will continue to grow.

Blackout Speakout

Find out more on the .pdf file here. And read Elizabeth May's epic point of order regarding the travesty of democracy that is this "omnibus bill".

Michael Coren has insider expertise on high school girls

Michael Coren is all about high school girls

When I look for information on gay teen bullying, I don't look at the LGBT community, or studies or even facts for that matter. I go straight to the fount of all knowledge: conservative columnist and all-around horrible person Michael Coren!

Drop some propaganda on the folks, Michael!

First, the dishonesty of the premise that gay children are bullied. Some are, of course, but there is no objective study concluding gays are targeted.

That's right, sheeple! No objective study concludes that gays are targets for bullying. So forget what you remember in high school and take Michael Coren's word for it: gay teens are NOT being bullied.

Unfortunately for Michael Coren, 2 clicks of the googles reveals a study in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics that concludes that "gay, lesbian and bisexual young adults and teens at the highest risk of attempting suicide and having some other health problems are ones who reported a high level of rejection by their families as a result of their sexual orientation".

Sure, that's what the study concludes but is it as objective as, say, the uncompromising erudition of one Michael Coren? I don't think it can rival his discerning and objective mind that has brought us such gems as "it's not BlackBerries, it's Black thugs" in regards to the London riots or his infamous column on nuking Iran. However, Pediatrics has "been continuously published by the American Academy of Pediatrics since January Pediatrics has the second highest impact factor (4.473, 2007 Thompson Journal Citation Reports) among all journals in the field of pediatrics. It is among the top 2% most-cited scientific and medical journals (38,973 total citations in 2007) and is the most-cited journal in the field of pediatrics."

But let's put the facts aside for a minute and go with feelings, shall we? I hear that the TV show "Glee" is popular, there's gay characters on the show and therefore, it's entirely reasonable to extrapolate that gay-bashing has been nipped in the bud. Just like when Barack Obama was elected President, Western civilization turned post-racial. Equality for all was acquired on the day of his inauguration, and consequently, discrimination is a thing of the past! Nothing to see here folks, go home!

Michael Coren knows what's up with the kids today. Isn't that right, Michael?

But let’s be serious here. Urban North America has become extremely gay-friendly in recent years, to the point where in some schools it is even a fashion statement to come out, and silly girls regard having a gay friend as the ultimate fashion accessory.

Yes! Let's be serious here! If there's one thing that Michael Coren knows, it's high school girls. When I think of Michael Coren, I don't think "nauseating racist" or "religious zealot", I think "teenage girl trend expert". If a new teenage movie heartthrob emerges or a male teenage music celebrity has a new photo shoot, I get the 411 from 53 year old Michael Coren. Michael Coren has the inside scoop on teen trends that is only possible from complete and total immersion on the subject of teenage girls. Michael Coren doesn't just know the topic of teenage girls, Michael Coren lives for teenage girls or else how else could he provide us with such powerful insight into their every day habits?

Cynics would say he's making shit up to further his deeply flawed argument but I'd argue that in a world of Sun Media in which we turn to Michael Coren for teenage trends, it makes perfect sense that gay teens aren't being bullied.