Even more knives have come out for Andrew Scheer – on a couple of different flanks. From the social conservatives, Scheer didn’t defend their interests strongly enough in the election and now they want him gone. This in the face of more moderate conservatives looking for him to join the twenty-first century on issues like support for LGBT rights. And then, on Power & Politics, Kory Teneycke – one-time director of communications to Stephen Harper and maestro behind Sun TV – said that Scheer should resign and if he wants his job back, to run for it again in a full-blown leadership contest. What was even more interesting in those comments was his contention that a leadership review is not enough because those are easily enough manipulated by those loyal to the current leader – and he’s right.

“He should resign and run again for his job,” said Kory Teneycke about Andrew Scheer. “How one gets the authority to lead the party into the next election is by having their leadership tested in a true way not in sort of a rigged convention process but in a true leadership race.” pic.twitter.com/PR7XtumzBN

— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) November 25, 2019

The problem, of course, is that so long as we continue to insist on running our leadership contests in this bastardized model, leaders will continue to claim democratic legitimacy to marginalize their caucus, ignore the grassroots, and not face any meaningful accountability, so it’s hard to see how the outcome of such a contest could be any different in the broader scheme of things. There are deep problems that need to be addressed in our parties, but nobody wants to actually say so.

Meanwhile, not only has Scheer fired his chief of staff and his director of communications, but Hamish Marshall, his campaign manager, has come to the end of his contract and it doesn’t sound like he’s interested in renewing it anytime soon. It remains to be seen if this kind of house-cleaning is enough bloodletting for the caucus that remains frustrated by their election loss, but it may not be given the knives that have been out for Scheer in a number of different directions.

Good reads:

• Chrystia Freeland met with Jason Kenney yesterday to “look for common ground,” and lo, Kenney walked away from the meeting with a bigger list of demands.
• Marie-Claude Bibeau met with farmers in Saskatchewan, and called on CN Rail and the Teamsters Union to resolve their strike.
• Marc Miller and David Lametti committed to a settlement on First Nations child welfare class action while the judicial review of the Tribunal order is ongoing.
• The Federal Court has signed off on a $900 million settlement for military and civilian victims of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Forces.
• At the Halifax International Security Forum, pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong called on Canada to do more to censure China over their crackdowns.
• Crown Corporation Trans Mountain is monitoring certain anti-pipeline activists and has labelled several as “persons of interest.”
• Pipeline company Pembina is stepping up to alleviate the propane shortage in Quebec (which the Teamsters say that CN Rail has allowed to perpetuate).
• A trio of Atlantic senators in the Canadian Senators Group are also demanding Parliament be summoned early to deal with the rail strike.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column previews which committees are going to be the ones to watch in the upcoming parliament.
• Paul Wells paints the scene of last weekend’s Halifax International Security Forum.
• Andrew Potter calls out the vacuum that Trudeau has left in defending Confederation that premiers like Ford and Pallister are rushing to fill in his stead.
• Chantal Hébert explores the differences in what sovereignty and provincial autonomy means for Quebec and Jason Kenney’s Alberta.

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