The Conservatives are having their first post-election caucus meeting today, and there is talk that the discontent may be more serious than the public picture they’re letting on in public – not that that’s surprising. But all of the talk of forcing an early “leadership review” of Scheer rests – whether from the talk of the disaffected Conservatives, or in the public musings of Andrew Coyne and Stephen Maher to name a couple – haven’t made a very careful study of the Reform Act beyond its stated good intentions when the bill is actually garbage.

In fact, I think that relying on the Reform Act could insulate Scheer more readily than it could push him out, given that it has a relatively high threshold to trigger the caucus vote to ouster a leader, and that high threshold can be used to intimidate any would-be usurpers or those who would use the ability to hold their leader to account for his or her sins – in this case, a bad campaign based on lies, a platform that didn’t appeal to any of the target demographics or ridings that they needed to win, and the inability of said leader to articulate positions on socially conservative issues that would offer any kind of reassurance to those target demographics and regions. (And did I mention the campaign of lies?) That intimidation can make it harder for the caucus to make a clean break and get on with choosing a new leader.

This having been said, I want to push back on something that Conservative MP Chris Warkentin said on Power & Politics last night as it pertains to this Reform Act business, wherein he said that he didn’t agree with giving caucus that power because it somehow “disempowered” the grassroots (followed by the ritual motions of insisting that they are a “grassroots party” as though that were actually true). For a century now, political parties in Canada have flattered their grassroots members by pretending that letting them choose the leader is “democratic,” when all it does is obliterate accountability. It means that the leader can claim a false democratic legitimacy and centralize their power by marginalizing both the MPs in his or her caucus, and eventually marginalizing the grassroots because that power has been centralized and those grassroots become an increasingly irrelevant means of pretending to get policy advice. It’s simply become an exercise in the grassroots willingly turning over their agency and power to the very person who will undermine them, but hey, it’s “democratic.” This is the root of the problems that have developed in our system, and we can’t just keep pretending that they don’t exist because “grassroots parties” no longer resemble that.

Good reads:

• A key US committee chair is meeting today with Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland and Patty Hajdu about next steps on ratifying the New NAFTA.
• Trudeau isn’t expected to name a date for Parliament’s summoning until after he’s met with the other party leaders next week.
• China is resuming Canadian pork and beef imports (remembering that this was ostensibly a separate issue than other trade actions because of forged certificates).
• Here is a look at how online hate and vitriol affects MPs and staffers, which can turn into a need for panic buttons and other security measures.
• The RCMP are launching an internal review of their social media monitoring operations to ensure they are not violating privacy rights.
• Two upcoming LNG pipelines are being seen as test cases for the new environmental assessment legislation (formerly known as C-69).
• Conservative Senator Don Plett has been elected as the leader of the Conservative’s senate caucus. Expect fireworks with most of the other leaders.
• While the breakaway of the CSG in the Senate could mean a solidification of the Trudeau “reforms,” Conservative senators insist their caucus is still a force.
• Here’s a long recap of the election campaign and how the Liberals didn’t lose, and it has a few more details that we didn’t know previously.
• Some voices in Alberta seem reassured by Anne McLellan’s presence in assisting Trudeau with his Cabinet shuffle.
• Alberta’s Elections Commissioner is levying even more fines as the investigation into the UCP leadership continues to roll along.
• Chris Turner has a great longread about the evolution of climate change, the infrastructure underpinning change, and why panic isn’t helpful.
• Colby Cosh delves into the court case challenging the new Canada Elections Act around making false statements about candidates.
• Heather Scoffield takes on Encana’s departure as symptomatic of problems with big business in Canada. (Stephen Gordon disagrees with her analysis).
• Paul Wells suspects that the Liberals will consider their post-election introspection over and will retrench into their current patterns with a feeling of vindication.
• My column looks at the shifting dynamics in the Senate now that there has been a breakaway caucus among the Independents.

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