The other, non-Senate big news on Parliament Hill yesterday was Elizabeth May’s decision to step down as Green Party leader – sort of. She said that she would stay on as the “parliamentary leader,” but give up the mantle of big-P Party leader, and that one of her appointed deputy leaders, Jo-Ann Roberts, would be interim leader until the party could have a leadership convention – next October. May fully intends to stay on as an MP and run again as an MP (and said that she would not run for Speaker this time, but would pursue it in the next Parliament).

This particular kind of leadership dynamic is part of what ails Canadian democracy right now – this notion that there should be year-long leadership races, and that someone who doesn’t have a seat in Parliament should be leading the party in any capacity. The fact that the leader is not selected by caucus alone is one of the biggest problems with our system – it has allowed leaders to centralize power and when they get into power, that centralization rests in the PMO. And with May stepping back, and new MPs Jenica Atwin and Paul Manly also eschewing running for the role, they will again be a party where their leader is outside of Parliament, and who may or may not run for a seat anytime a byelection comes around, and they will face some of the challenges that Jagmeet Singh became all too familiar with.

There needs to be a rebalancing of leadership roles in our system, and we need to keep the party leader’s focus back on parliament, with the rest of the leadership better handled by the Party president. But what the Greens are doing now is just perpetuating what is horribly wrong with our system.

Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt remarks on how May left on her own terms, while Paul Wells sees the end of May’s leadership as a chance for her party to overhaul its message and its organizational abilities.

Good reads:

• The government faces an uphill battle to try and win the UN Security Council seat that they have been working toward.
• The federal government is in talks to settle a proposed class action lawsuit on First Nations children apprehended by child welfare (separate from the Tribunal order).
• A court case is looking to challenge the US’ designation as a “safe third country” for asylum claimants, which could see the Agreement suspended.
• The Crown is looking to overturn the bail decision for alleged RCMP spy Cameron Ortis.
• Here’s a longread on the visceral hatred being shown to Catherin McKenna and other women who work on climate policy.
• Here is more about the new Canadian Senators Group that splintered off in the Senate, and how it could further complicate passing legislation.
• New openly gay Conservative MP Eric Duncan thinks the party needs to modernise its position on LGBT issues (and not just for people in Iran).
• Doug Ford is pitching a premiers’ meeting to talk national unity, while sending out fundraising letters allying himself with Jason Kenney and Scott Moe.
• Here is a longread on the recurring issue of Western alienation in Canada.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at how the different parties may try to rewrite the House of Commons’ rules in the current hung parliament.
• Chris Selley says the court case on the Safe Third Country Agreement should be a sign that we need to better deal with asylum claimants at our borders.
• Chantal Hébert lists the reasons why Andrew Scheer hasn’t really earned himself a second chance at leading the party in an election.
• Andrew Coyne advocates a quick coup in the Conservative caucus to oust Scheer by means or threat of the (garbage) Reform Act instead of the leadership review.

Odds and ends:

My latest video for Loonie Politics offers a look at the Conservative Senate caucus leadership election.

Official photo of the nine current judges of the Supreme Court of Canada. #SCC #SCCJudge pic.twitter.com/QEcercoKUE

— Supreme Court of Canada (@SCC_eng) November 4, 2019

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