Education Minister Patrick Rouble is standing by his man – embattled Premier Dennis Fentie – after the Aug. 28 defection of high-profile cabinet minister Brad Cathers.

"I'm not going to call Mr. Cathers a liar. That's unprofessional and inappropriate. I think on this whole issue, there have been many misunderstandings,” Rouble said Tuesday.

He was responding to a question about Cathers' depiction of Fentie as a bully who misled the cabinet and the public about negotiating a selloff of the Yukon's public electricity utility to Calgary-based energy giant ATCO.

Both the premier and his cabinet have remained silent in the wake of Cathers' resignation and a cabinet shuffle, which saw Archie Lang moved into the Energy, Mines and Resources portfolio vacated by Cathers.

On Tuesday morning, reporters cornered Rouble following the presentation of a literacy award in the Yukon government main administration building (see story, p. 7).

"There have been manoeuverings done for whatever reasons that I'm certainly not aware of ... different politicians have their own reasons for doing different things,” was Rouble's take on recent events that have scandalized the Yukon Party and reduced it to minority government status.

When Cathers announced he was leaving the government's caucus to sit as an independent, his rationale was that he would not compromise principles for political power.

"(Fentie) made it unmistakably clear that (he) is not willing to correct the record, not willing to acknowledge the facts and is intent on trying to pressure me into publicly endorsing and repeating untruths he has said on the public record,” Cathers told reporters when he announced his resignation as Energy Minister and as government house leader.

Word that Fentie orchestrated negotiations to sell off, then privatize Yukon Energy Corp. assets, first came to light in June after four corporation directors resigned to protest the premier's intentions for the public utility.

Through a series of subsequent media interviews, Fentie denied the allegations.

Amidst calls from opposition party leaders that the premier resign, Fentie put two high-level bureaucrats into the firing line to support his claims.

While Cathers, the MLA for Lake Laberge, said his cabinet colleagues were "unhappy” and faced "a similar moral dilemma”, for Rouble, there appears no such quandary.

For the record, here is the Education minister on his leader and why he continues to stand by the Yukon Party government:

"Premier Fentie is a strong leader. We have a mandate. We ran on the first election in 2002 when we were elected – re-elected in 2006, where Yukoners reaffirmed that we were heading in the right direction and we have a responsibility to do the work that we were elected to do.

"I've made a commitment to Yukoners, to my constituents, to do the best that I can for the territory and I will continue with my responsibility to do that and to work with all of my colleagues, both within cabinet and members from the opposition.”

Rouble refused to entertain further questions, such as whether the Yukon Party's mandate from voters included privatizing the energy corporation, or if he agreed with how Fentie has handled the situation to date.

Cathers has not been available for comment since his resignation announcement.