Brian Storseth vs. Brent Rathgeber
Conservative debate beyond the Manning conference
Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber stands during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 21, 2011. Rathgeber is sounding off against the expensive perks given to cabinet ministers.THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Sean Kilpatrick
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Read along as a Conservative MP and a former Conservative MP have it out with each other via Twitter.
The participants: Brian Storseth and Brent Rathgeber. The issue: Mr. Rathgeber’s private member’s bill, specifically Mr. Rathgeber’s decision to propose amendments to strip all provisions related to the CBC from the bill.
Mr. Rathgeber has explained the reasoning behind his amendments here and here. On his blog yesterday, Mr. Rathgeber called out every single Conservative MP who voted against lowering the salary-disclosure threshold from $444,000 to $160,200. (Yesterday, former government whip Jay Hill criticized the forced amending of Mr. Rathgeber’s bill.)
As of this writing, the Twitter exchange ends with Mr. Storseth venturing that “this Bill stopped being about principal and started being about re-election for brent” and Mr. Rathgeber responding “the same thing and thank you for pointing it out: re-election based on principle.”