Thomas Lukaszuk, the Alberta deputy premier famously referred to as a “complete and utter asshole” by federal immigration minister Jason Kenney in an email that was leaked to the interwebs, has gone a long way towards proving the Honourable Minister right with a callous post he made on Facebook yesterday.  After a mudslide killed four people and stranded hundreds, including some 600 people at Fairmont Hot Springs in B.C., Lukaszuk posted a picture of the mud-covered resort on his wall, along with the cheeky caption “Fairmont in Hot Springs has a good deal on rooms today. If a little bit of mud doesn’t bother you, book now!!!”  After quickly creating a buzz with his remarks, Lukaszuk deleted the post and took to Twitter to apologize, tweeting “Sorry for my [Facebook] post. I’m out of Canada and was not aware of the scope of the situation in BC.”  Guess he left his brain (and quite possibly his heart) back home in Edmonton…

As the National Post points out, this isn’t his first display of douchey behaviour, either.  While on the campaign trail back in April, he allegedly got in a shoving match with an ailing senior citizen, then attempted to press charges.  As the Canadian Press reported at the time, “Lukaszuk alleged that the man who opened the door immediately recognized him, swore, and ordered him off the property while punching him.”  But the alleged assailant later told the CP, “I’m 67 years old, I’ve got severe asthma, I’m in the final stages of liver failure. I don’t know how much longer I’ve got to live. I couldn’t punch my way out of a wet paper bag.”

Now, if this comment came from some insignificant back-bencher a la Rob Anders, one could easily just roll their eyes, shake their heads and ask “Why did we vote for this guy again?”  But the truly scary thing is that Lukaszuk wields the kind of power in the provincial government a guy like Anders could only dream of.  If, God forbid, something were to happen to Premier Alison Redford, this man would be the leader of Alberta, at least until the PC party officially names her successor.  And this right here is one of the reasons why I moved to Ontario in ’05.  (Do I even need to mention that Lukaszuk’s from Edmonton?)