This page has long advocated for giving MPs more powers, and taking them out from under the thumb of domineering party leaders who view them as little more than biotic voting devices.
So, in theory, anyway, it should be a welcome thing that a group of what is being described as “15 to 30″ Conservative MPs has formed a so-called “civil liberties caucus.” Unfortunately, their idea of civil liberties involves devoting themselves to representing the tiny minority of Canadians who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In so doing, they are undermining leader Erin O’Toole and saddling the party with the political equivalent of a lead lifejacket.
On the face of it, MPs speaking their minds and showing some independence is how Parliament is supposed to work. Loyalty to party and leader, while an important part of playing this team sport, is not supposed to be unconditional.
Add to this the welcome fact that Conservative MPs used the Reform Act after the election to give themselves the power to call a leadership review at any time, as well as the sole power to throw a member out of caucus, and Parliament suddenly has a party whose members are not as typically bovine as those, say, in the governing Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau.
But what are these Conservative MPs using their power for? They want to keep litigating an unpopular issue that helped to sink their side during the election campaign.
Calling it the “civil liberties caucus” is misleading, based on kooky claims that public-health authorities are waging a war on individual rights. The nearly 90 per cent of eligible Canadians who’ve been vaccinated aren’t buying it.
A better name for the group would be the “highlighting the reasons we lost the election caucus.” Or perhaps the “People’s Party of Canada caucus,” after Maxime Bernier’s vehicle for anti-vaccination victimhood that once again failed to elect a single member to Parliament.
But this group is a part of the Official Opposition, a.k.a. the government-in-waiting.
Is this what we could expect from a Conservative government – that a minority of its own MPs would force the majority to bend to the anti-vaccination fringe?
Mandates and proof-of-vaccination have been critical in the fight to keep vaccination rates rising in Canada. Mr. Trudeau hesitated on them right up to the moment he called the election in August, and then made them a campaign issue by announcing them for federal employees and people travelling by rail or plane.
Mr. O’Toole responded by trying to straddle the spiked fence, saying he supported vaccines but opposed mandates, and that everyone should get vaccinated, but only if they wanted to. His waffling contributed to his party’s election loss. And it came back to haunt him after the election, when the Board of Internal Economy, the all-party body that sets policies related to the management of the House of Commons, voted to oblige MPs to be fully vaccinated when Parliament returns on Nov. 22.
Mr. O’Toole eventually declared that his MPs would respect the rule, but it’s still not clear how many of them have been vaccinated – and they’re not saying.
And now the “highlighting the reasons we lost the election caucus” is keeping the issue alive and making life difficult for Mr. O’Toole – to the point that he has made few recent public appearances, apparently in order to avoid being asked by reporters what’s going on, and whether he’s the captain of the ship, or Captain Phillips.
Mr. O’Toole’s problems largely stem from the fact that candidates for the party’s leadership in 2020 had no choice but to pander to the views of the small, crankish and highly unrepresentative group of party members empowered to chose a leader. (Who chooses local candidates? Same problem.) After becoming leader, Mr. O’Toole had to switch positions on carbon taxes, gun control and other issues in order to appeal to a broader range of voters.
And now, as he tries to prepare for the return of Parliament, a group of rebel Tory MPs is choosing not to focus on the postpandemic recovery or other pressing matters, but on irresponsible fringe opinions not shared by the vast majority of Canadians.
What a gift to Mr. Trudeau. He didn’t get the majority he wanted, but he did get a fractured Official Opposition whose caucus contains its own internal Official Opposition. Christmas has come early to Rideau Cottage.
Keep your Opinions sharp and informed. Get the Opinion newsletter. Sign up today.