Liberal MPs lack the means – but mostly the courage – to take down their Leader

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It was, by all accounts, a “robust” discussion at Wednesday’s Liberal caucus meeting. And not only robust, but “frank” and “difficult.”

And why not? Ostensibly Liberal MPs were there to debate whether Justin Trudeau should stay on as leader. But there were also important principles at stake, as I need hardly tell you. Principles like: will I lose my seat? Or: will I get into cabinet?

In the end those more worried about the former appear to have been outnumbered by those more hopeful of the latter (a cabinet of 39 out of a caucus of 153 offers pretty good odds) and the leader at the start of the meeting was still the leader at the end. For all of the hyperbolic advance billing, however, not much else seems to have been resolved.

The rebels, whoever they were – in the dramatic high point of the meeting, a letter calling on Mr. Trudeau to resign was read out, supposedly with the support of 24 MPs, none of whose signatures were attached – issued a vague ultimatum demanding that the Prime Minister “make a decision” on his future by Oct. 28. Or else … what?

The loyalists, if that’s what they are, came out of the meeting insisting caucus was united because, well, they all want to defeat the Conservatives. That’s good news, if you’re a Liberal. Certainly it would be worse news if Liberal MPs could not agree that it would be better, on balance, if the Liberals were to win the next election rather than the Conservatives. But it skips over the little question of who should lead the party in that fight.

Mostly what the whole affair reveals, as if there were any doubt, is how utterly supine Liberal MPs have become – how fearful, how craven – before the power of the party leader. The days before the meeting had been filled with accounts of small groups of MPs meeting in secret; of a letter being circulated, on paper, with no copies permitted; of MPs making each other swear not to wilt in the face of the inevitable counterattack from the leader’s office, all relayed in whispered off-the-record briefings to reporters, no doubt with the aid of false wigs and burner phones.

Is this any way for the elected representatives of a G7 democracy to carry on? These are not below-stairs servants in the mansion of some Transylvanian count. These are members of the Parliament of Canada, once considered a position of some repute. Each one of these frightened shadows was elected by the votes of tens of thousands of their fellow citizens to represent them in the House of Commons, to shape the laws that govern us, to stand up, to speak out.

Yet here they are, too terrified, even in their desperation to rid themselves of a leader who has taken the party to the brink of annihilation, to so much as say their own names, lest the wrath of His Awful Majesty or His More Awful Chief of Staff come down upon them.

But of course they are. It isn’t just that every moment of an MP’s political life, from the day they seek the nomination to the day they leave, is controlled by the leader’s office – their fates determined, their votes decided, their every utterance dictated – in a way that would crush the most independent spirit. It’s that these are the people who volunteered for this, who willingly signed up for this humiliation. That a small minority have belatedly summoned the nerve to challenge the leader – only leave my name out of it, won’t you – is not out of any newfound desire for liberty or self-respect, but only in search of a more electable slavelord.

Things are a little different in the Conservative camp, since the caucus, alone among the parties, voted to adopt each of the powers available to it under the 2015 Reform Act: not only the power to elect their own caucus chair, or to expel or readmit a member, but also, crucially, the power to fire the leader, with rules for how it could be done.

Still, the leader retains enormous power over individual members, not least since, like every party leader, their signature is required on their nomination papers. A majority of the Conservative caucus now has the means to toss its leader, but woe betide the Conservative MP who steps out of line.

But even by the standards of the other parties, the Liberal caucus has proved notably servile. They are desperate to rid themselves of Mr. Trudeau now, but they were no less desperate to surrender themselves to him a decade ago. And now they are stuck with him. They can make his life miserable if he stays, but they cannot make him go.