A quick, legal, and democratic way for Liberal MPs to fire Justin Trudeau.
The Conscription Crisis is a great recipe for rapid divorce and remarriage.
The Liberal caucus has a problem: if Justin Trudeau doesn’t want to resign, he can’t be forced to leave his position until at least after the next election, and perhaps not even then.
At the first sitting of the House of Commons after an election, the Reform Act has each party’s caucus of MPs hold a ballot on whether to adopt the provisions allowing for that caucus to expel their own leader.
Liberal MPs voted against adopting the Reform Act in 2021, and as a result, there is no mechanism within the Liberal Party to forcibly remove the leader from power against their will.
This could only change after the results of the next election in 2025, and only if that iteration of caucus votes to give themselves the power; for the purposes of preventing a devastating loss to the Poilievre Conservatives, this is clearly not useful.
So, what can Liberal MPs do if Trudeau continues to be obstinate about overstaying his welcome? The answer is simple:
Create the Liberal Party 2: Electric Boogaloo.
If this plan sounds stupid, don’t worry, it is! But it is also a plan which is well within the individual power of each and every MP who sits in the House of Commons. And the best part? It’s both very legal, and very cool.
Any MP can leave their caucus and go join a new caucus at any time. We typically call this “crossing the floor”, but that term incorrectly implies merely going between a government party and an opposition party.
We can get much more creative with floor-crossing. Indeed, MPs kicked out of their own parties for wrongdoing (or alleged wrongdoing) frequently sit as independents.
And sometimes, the ones with true gumption create a new party, sit as the sole MP for that party, and then tragically lose reelection. Many such cases.
So, there is a clear solution to the Liberal problem: if Trudeau will not leave the Liberal Party, Liberal MPs can leave caucus and form a separate one.
While the name “Liberal Party 2: Electric Boogaloo” is facetious, I mean to communicate that this would be a temporary caucus for the purpose of winning a confidence vote.
While the NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has proclaimed that he will not give the Liberals a second chance under any leader, the truth is that his break is entirely fuelled by hurt feelings about Trudeau’s unwillingness to be a legitimate partner.
If the Temporary Liberal Holding Caucus were able to convince Singh that the next year can be salvaged, and that universal pharmacare and dentalcare will be passed as Liberals promised the NDP, without Trudeau’s bullshit asterisks and gotchas?
Then I believe that a confidence vote could be won, and that the Governor General would have to give them the opportunity to test confidence. The plan is not without risk, mind you, but it is exactly how Westminster parliamentary democracy is intended to function.
Who would the new Prime Minister be? Whomever the interim caucus and the NDP could agree upon. There is no need for them to be the permanent Liberal leader, and indeed an open leadership contest must be held.
But in the interim, Liberal MPs can take back power from a Prime Minister who refuses to recognize that he has lost their confidence. And instead of going into an election, they can work with the NDP to advance progressive priorities, and buy Liberal MPs the time to reinvent their party.
If Trudeau is truly content to watch dozens and dozens of Liberal MPs drain out of his caucus to form a competing Liberal faction, then he would truly be a fool; the last time this occurred, Canada was plagued by immense national strife.
In 1917, during the Conscription Crisis triggered by World War One, pro-conscription Anglo Liberal MPs joined Prime Minister Robert Borden’s Unionist government, while anti-conscription Franco Liberal MPs remained under Wilfrid Laurier.
Borden’s successor Arthur Meighen sought to make the alliance with the Anglo Liberal MPs permanent, and renamed his party to the National Liberal and Conservative Party in 1920.
However, the Liberal Party was salvaged by a new leader, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who reunited the Anglo and Franco factions of the Liberal Party, and led them to a minority government in 1921.
This is a lesson to the Liberal Party, and to the Liberal MPs who will need to address Trudeau’s continued leadership. Not only can Liberal MPs have valid justifications in splitting into two caucuses, it can be temporary to suit specific circumstances.
Once the crisis has been resolved, the Liberal Party can then reunite with itself, as we have done before. This is not an easy thing, and it is not a desirable thing, but sometimes it is a necessary thing.
If this is the last resort that Liberal MPs have to regain control over our party, then it is their moral imperative to represent the best interests of their constituents and do so.
The Liberal Party is not the leader, and it is not the on-paper entity which structures financial assets. The Liberal Party is every single Liberal elected to office, and every single volunteer, donor, and voter who did their part to put them in that office.
I hope matters will not come to something as drastic as this, but I also believe that the threat of MPs leaving caucus may be necessary to force Trudeau to come to his senses.
So if this is what the road will lead the Liberal caucus to, so be it. I will not suffer any accusations of disloyalty towards any Liberal MP who is forced by circumstance to pursue this path.
And regardless of what actions are taken before the 2025 election, I will push every Liberal MP elected in 2025 to vote yes on adopting the Reform Act in the next session.
Justin Trudeau’s own caucus has made it emphatically clear; it’s time for him to leave. And those MPs should know: if he isn’t ready to go willingly?
The Liberal caucus has the power to make him.