Brave anonymous Conservatives have gone to the media to describe how they asked Andrew Scheer to let them vote to remove Maxime Bernier from caucus. Scheer, smartly, said no, but the whole affair is sordid and more than a little gross. The reasons these brave anonymous Conservatives gave for looking to oust Bernier was because he apparently lied to caucus when he said he was going to shelve his book project and then reposted the chapter that had already been made public on his website. But it’s not really about Bernier’s supposed sins, but rather it’s another instance of MPs being performative in their demonstrations of obeisance to Scheer as the leader, which is antithetical to how a Westminster system should operate.

Canada’s insanely punitive system of party discipline is not only imposed from above. Some of the inmates volunteer to enforce it upon themselves. https://t.co/KteHJ7f3qT

— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇬🇪🇲🇩 (@acoyne) July 4, 2018

I love how “emotional” and “outraged” Tory MPs are said to have been as a result of this small, largely meaningless insurrection. For once the pack has decided on the virtues of a collective lie, nothing — nothing — enrages it more than someone who insists on telling the truth.

— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇬🇪🇲🇩 (@acoyne) July 4, 2018

Scheer knows that booting Bernier would cause a rift in the party, where all of the Ayn Rand-reading wannabe-libertarians in the party would storm off after him in a huff, possibly forming a libertarian splinter party in their wake (never mind the fact that Bernier isn’t actually that smart as a politician, as charismatic as he may be, and it would likely all end in tears). But Scheer has to preserve the big tent – or at least the illusion thereof, because gods know that he’s already alienated Red Tories and free-market conservatives with his pursuit of boneheaded populism – and so he’s going to keep Bernier around. Not in his shadow cabinet, apparently, because Bernier has become a liability in his attempt to portray himself as a greater defender of Supply Management than thou, but Bernier will at least be there in the room, tolerated. For what that’s worth.

More importantly, this is but one more sign about how venal and degenerate political parties in this country have become as they’ve been hollowed out and serve as little more than personality cults thanks to the bastardized leadership contest rules that each has adopted. Because leaders are chosen in such a broken manner, it has given them the appearance of “democratic legitimacy” that is antithetical to how our system operates, and rather than hold them to account, the caucuses now twist themselves into pretzels to show loyalty to the brand of the leader rather than the ideals of the party. And until we’re willing to stand up and say no, this is a bastardization of our system, it will only continue to get worse (and yes, the Liberals are among the worst culprits for this). This is not how parties are supposed to work. This is not how the Westminster system is supposed to work. And yet we have brave anonymous MPs tattling on each other for thought crimes against their leaders. It’s revolting.

Good reads:

• Export Development Canada is backstopping the costs of resuming construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline to the tune of $1 billion.
• A Canadian steel company that helped rebuild the World Trade Centre is being stung by the new US-imposed tariffs.
• In case you needed some added doom in your life, analysis suggests that if Trump imposes auto tariffs, it would cut production by 900,000 cars in Canada.
• US border patrol has been stopping Canadian fishing boats in Canadian waters, allegedly “looking for illegal immigrants.”
• A team of Canadian female soldiers are headed to Jordan to train an all-woman team in the Jordanian army.
• Locally-hired staff at the Canadian embassy in Haiti wound up swindling some $1.7 million from the government.
• Despite a surge in gun violence, the provinces are still hashing out how to divide the $327 million the government set aside to combat gang violence.
• Here’s a look at how US Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft has had a difficult time in the posting.
• Academic Elizabeth Dubois looks at the sticky issue of “parody” accounts on Twitter impersonating cabinet ministers.
• Andrew Coyne makes the case for civility in politics.

Odds and ends:

Tristin Hopper does a little thought experiment around Canada adopting a Japanese monarch instead of one from the House of Windsor.

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