Roundup: No, Chong’s bill won’t give us Australian leadership spills

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News of the leadership spill in Australia, ousting Tony Abbott as prime minister and ending the greatest political bromance of the Commonwealth countries (Harper and Abbott were quite the mutual admiration society), we were suddenly inundated with Twitter musings about whether that could happen in Canada, thanks to Michael Chong’s Reform Act which passed this summer. While Kady O’Malley offers the “in theory” answer, the in practice answer is that no, it couldn’t happen here, because Canada has a terrible system of leadership selection that purports to “democratise” the system with grassroots involvement, but instead created an unaccountable and presidentialised system of an overly powerful leader that has little fear of their caucus turning on them, because caucus didn’t select them. When it comes to removal, selection matters. A lot. Chong’s bill, perversely, makes an Australian situation less likely by raising the bar for leadership challenges to happen in the first place, and would instead give us situations like what happened in Manitoba where a sitting leader was challenged, and when it went to a leadership process where he still participated and won based on the grassroots support when his caucus was no longer behind him, well, it’s ugly and it’s down right unparliamentary given that a leader needs to have the confidence of his or her caucus, and when they don’t but stay in based on grassroots votes, the system breaks down. Paul Wells cautions that reforming a system usually replaces real or perceive problems with different problems, while Andrew Coyne points out that being able to dump a bad leader quickly is the lesser evil of being stuck with them.

On the campaign:

  • Stephen Harper boasted that the government posted a $1.9 billion surplus last year.
  • Thomas Mulcair promised all kinds of clinics and doctors, never mind that it’s an area of provincial jurisdiction and those specific figures are a lot of meddling. They also promised an Alzheimer’s and dementia strategy.
  • Justin Trudeau promised better retirement security for seniors, including new cost of living measurements.
  • The Jean-François Party revealed its party platform yesterday, such as it is.

Good reads:

  • That surplus figure seems to be born largely of lapsed spending.
  • In his interview with Chatelaine, Harper insists that everything is great, nothing to see here.
  • Thomas Mulcair tells Chatelaine that the Senate Chamber will make a great day care space, which is might as well be a unicorn stable as well given its likelihood.
  • Justin Trudeau talks to Chatelaine about the leadership style he inherited from his father.
  • Elizabeth May tells Chatelaine what she considers a “women’s issue,” and her vision of childcare in the workplace.
  • The Information Commissioner is challenging PCO’s decision not to release its records relating to those four errant senators.
  • Former Senator and general Roméo Dallaire blasts the government’s inaction on the Syrian refugee crisis. The government says there are more caseworkers, but won’t say how many.
  • The Canadian Forces is set to launch its independent centre to deal with sexual misconduct, per Justice Deschamps’ report.
  • Elections Canada is creating tools to help get out the Aboriginal vote in this election.
  • The Bruce Carson influence peddling trial finished its first day and will wrap up today.
  • Philippe Lagassé writes about the current legal quagmire surrounding the office of the Queen of Canada.
  • Economist Stephen Gordon offers some perspective on household debt figures.

Odds and ends:

Here is an interesting long-read on the drama surrounding the Franklin expedition find, and the spin and political rewriting of history around it.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne gave a wonderful ode to the Queen of Canada yesterday.

The Bloc got into the stock photo fun with a picture of a Pennsylvania farm standing in for one from Quebec.