Erin O’Toole’s future is under discussion, as a number of vocal MPs are coming out to support his continued leadership, and former Ontario premier Mike Harris is adding his voice to the call. But this is as other MPs are phoning up journalists, on a not-for-attribution basis, absolutely savaging O’Toole and the fact that he is a lying liar and an opportunist of the highest order, and that ultimately undermined their case during the election. (Threads here and here).
"He campaigned as a Liberal. He wasn't even Liberal lite — he campaigned as a Liberal in this campaign with no input from caucus or the party or anybody else," the caucus member said.
— J.P. Tasker (@JPTasker) September 23, 2021
This caucus member also says specifically on the carbon tax that O’Toole went from none, to his own to his own and Trudeau’s which “rubbed salt in the wound of those who campaigned against the carbon tax.”
— Mercedes Stephenson (@MercedesGlobal) September 24, 2021
This is going to start resolving itself at the first caucus meeting, whenever that takes place, because it’s when the party is going to have to vote on which provisions of the (garbage) Reform Act they are going to adopt for the 44th parliament, including the provision about having the caucus hold a vote to start a leadership review process. Why this is important is one of the reasons that makes the Act garbage in the first place – it actually makes it harder for caucus to push out a leader because it establishes a threshold of 20 percent of the caucus needing to demand a vote before it can be held. That exposes his critics at a time when he is deciding on critic portfolios and things like committee chairs for opposition-chaired committees, and he can use that fear-or-favour system to punish his critics if they fail to meet that 20 percent threshold. If they didn’t have this threshold or this framework, we’ve seen leaders read the writing on the wall with far fewer MPs/MLAs going public, and resigning as a result. The (garbage) Reform Act provides protection for those leaders where it’s supposed to be putting the fear of caucus into them, and it’s just such a dark irony that once again, attempts to improve the system only make it worse.
And while there are a bunch of voices (especially over on the CBC) who seem to think that Andrew Scheer was pushed out for his loss, they have all apparently forgotten that he resigned, particularly after his use of party funds came to light. Whether that was an excuse is not really the point – it wasn’t simply because he lost the election.
Anyway, probably a good lesson to a lot of politicians out there not to pretend to be shit posting reactionary culture warrior d-bags if they’re actually decent human beings. Tho I suspect the lesson that’ll be taken from this will be simply to keep up the shitposting facade.
— Supriya Dwivedi (@supriyadwivedi) September 24, 2021
Programming note: I am taking the weekend off of blogging entirely because I am exhausted from the election and need to catch up on some sleep. See you next week.
Good reads:
- While expert groups call for federal dollars and standards to fix long-term care, the premiers are demanding higher health transfers with no strings attached.
- The federal government is stepping up to assist Alberta as their COVID hospitalisations spiral out of control and they at ICU capacity.
- A lawsuit is moving ahead alleging that RCMP management was negligent in preventing bullying and intimidation the ranks.
- There are questions as to how Kevin Vuong was able to get past the Liberal Party’s vetting process (and part of that answer is the riding association had no input).
- Former Liberal MP Marwan Tabbara has plead guilty to attacking his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend.
- Matt Gurney has a candid interview with a senior Conservative about the election, and where they think they went right and wrong.
- Susan Delacourt hears from Liberals about their ability to mobilise their ground game in close ridings, while the Conservatives and NDP preferred online tools.
- Paul Wells recalls his prior trips to Afghanistan, and the signs of problems that everyone were ignoring at the time but seem obvious now.
Odds and ends:
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He may survive the Reform Act meeting, but if they really want him gone the leaks will start coming out. It looked like Scheer was going to stick around by this point after the last election too, and that’s when the expenses scandal hit. Personally I find it interesting that so many of his most vocal critics are from Ontario. I doubt Harris’ endorsement will sway them, though. He lost seats in Fortress Alberta and failed to convert those to gains in the sacrosanct GT(H)A. What’s going to happen regardless is that their meanness and dysfunction will be dialed up to 11 again because it’s a hung parliament, and they’ll start up the process again of going after Trudeau with Republican-style committee witch hunts. After reading that TVO article I honestly don’t know why anyone with any decency bothers going into politics at all.