Liberals bring out the Knives

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
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There is no short term solution to save the party from 3rd string.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he doesn't think his leadership is in danger, one day before a highly anticipated Liberal caucus meeting where his future at the helm of the Liberal party is expected to be up for discussion.

Around an hour later, ministers started trickling into the room, telling reporters that they still have his back.

"I absolutely support the prime minister," said Justice Minister Arif Virani.

"The entire cabinet, and myself for sure, are 100 per cent behind the prime minister (???), who's led this country through difficult times in the past few years," said Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge. "I think it's time for caucus and for us all to really think about Canadians... It's also a good time for us to get ready for the next election." (???)

It's been reported that as many as 30 Liberal backbenchers are involved in the effort to encourage Trudeau's ouster, or at least a reconsideration of his future. Though, uncertainty remains about how many MPs are involved, and who they are???
Liberal MPs are gearing up for a high stakes caucus meeting on Wednesday that could see multiple calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign, but it is unclear what, if anything, will come of the internal revolt or if it will simply fizzle out???
 

petros

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he doesn't think his leadership is in danger, one day before a highly anticipated Liberal caucus meeting where his future at the helm of the Liberal party is expected to be up for discussion.

Around an hour later, ministers started trickling into the room, telling reporters that they still have his back.

"I absolutely support the prime minister," said Justice Minister Arif Virani.

"The entire cabinet, and myself for sure, are 100 per cent behind the prime minister (???), who's led this country through difficult times in the past few years," said Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge. "I think it's time for caucus and for us all to really think about Canadians... It's also a good time for us to get ready for the next election." (???)

It's been reported that as many as 30 Liberal backbenchers are involved in the effort to encourage Trudeau's ouster, or at least a reconsideration of his future. Though, uncertainty remains about how many MPs are involved, and who they are???
Liberal MPs are gearing up for a high stakes caucus meeting on Wednesday that could see multiple calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign, but it is unclear what, if anything, will come of the internal revolt or if it will simply fizzle out???
Mutiny.
 

Ron in Regina

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If so, it’s a pretty limp wristed one. A very odd and telling talking point has taken hold among federal Liberals in recent times — including among those who seem to think Justin Trudeau ought to step aside as party leader: It’s the notion that Trudeau has somehow “earned the right” to decide whether he stays on or not???
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This “earned” language couldn’t really be any more explicit a representation of how Liberals conflate the party’s interest with the country’s. “Earned the right” is the sort of concept you hear about when pro athletes sign one last contract with their hometown team, or when popular artists run out of creative steam. If the Rolling Stones want to release a half-assed new album, people would say they’ve “earned the right” to do so.

But this isn’t sports or music. It’s supposed to matter, a lot, who’s in charge of the country. And it’s also completely untrue. By definition, Trudeau cannot govern — could never have governed — without support from his caucus. There are 152 of them and one of him. (There used to be 183 of them and one of him.) He has accrued no additional “rights” to his position by dint of his longevity. The opposite makes more sense.
 
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Ron in Regina

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Michael Chong’s Reform Act, passed from the Conservative MP’s private member’s bill in 2015, offers MPs an ounce of courage in situations like these. It codifies rules for removing a party leader from office, as well as for expelling members from caucus; both are decided by a secret-ballot vote of caucus. Conservative MPs used these procedures to eject Derek Sloan from caucus in 2021, and to terminate Erin O’Toole’s leadership in 2022.

The idea was to rebalance the relationship between party leaders and MPs. (Not so long ago, MPs chose their leaders themselves.) But caucuses have to vote to adopt those rules after each election, or else they don’t apply. And Liberal MPs didn’t just vote against adopting them after the 2021 election. They voted unanimously against adopting those rules.

Then-caucus chair Brenda Shanahan declined to offer a rationale for the vote or to weigh in on the matter herself. “It’s not really important what my opinion is,” Shanahan told the Hill Times — rather perfectly encapsulating the problem.

That unanimous vote of confidence in the prime minister and his office, let us recall, came after Trudeau called a pointless early election about nothing in the middle of a global pandemic and delivered them a weakened minority government.

But hey, at least they actually held the vote. Reports suggest they didn’t even bother in 2019, after Trudeau lost the Liberals their majority and had to admit he didn’t know how many photos there might be of him wearing blackface. (It’s a legal requirement in the Parliament of Canada Act that caucus votes on the leader’s powers after an election, but the Liberals apparently didn’t let that trouble them.)

It was also just a few months after Trudeau demonstrated how corrupting and damaging a party leader’s overinflated power can be, when he expelled Jody Wilson-Raybould from caucus for doing her job and Jane Philpott for supporting Wilson-Raybould.

If ever there were a perfect moment for Liberal MPs to claw back some of the power they used to have — and still have, if they choose en masse to vote to use it — the aftermath of that debacle was surely it. They didn’t. Apparently not one of them even had the inclination to try. As they agonize about the future — their leader’s, their party’s, their own — the idea of a simple secret vote to move on from the Justin Trudeau era must look pretty appealing.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller today called efforts by disaffected Liberal MPs to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "garbage" and said it would be better for the team to pull together to take on their main opponent: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre???
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"Any minute spent on this garbage is a minute that's not spent on Pierre Poilievre and what he wants to do to this country, and I think that is very dangerous," Miller told reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting.
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Echoing Miller, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said it's Poilievre who's the real problem???
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Jinentonix

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It won't matter. The Liberals are cooked either way. The ones currently revolting against Trudeau allowed him to do the damage he has caused. They're every bit as guilty as Trudeau. I hope Trudeau ends of Mulroneying the Liberals.
 
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pgs

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It won't matter. The Liberals are cooked either way. The ones currently revolting against Trudeau allowed him to do the damage he has caused. They're every bit as guilty as Trudeau. I hope Trudeau ends of Mulroneying the Liberals.
Like the energizer bunny they somehow keep on ticking .
 

Ron in Regina

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Speculation of a prorogation ramped up in Ottawa again on Tuesday, just ahead of Trudeau facing a caucus meeting where some Liberal MPs will demand (????) he step down. Trudeau is reluctant to go and may suspend the sitting of the House just five weeks after returning from the summer recess.

Minister’s offices have been told that Thursday is a blackout day for announcements except those coming from the centre, meaning Trudeau’s office. That sparked speculation that Trudeau could do something dramatic such as cutting immigration rates dramatically or even shut down the sitting of the Commons to avoid further drama.

In the House of Commons, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was having fun at Trudeau‘s expense over the leadership drama, saying Liberal MPs aren’t allowed to speak up in their caucus meetings.

“There is this strange rule in the Liberal caucus that they need to have permission from the prime minister to speak at the microphone,” Poilievre said in the House.

“Will the Prime Minister lift the gag so that his Liberal MPs can say to his face that he is not worth the crime, the cost and the corruption?”
(While Trudeau denied the rule of MPs needing permission, Liberal MPs have said they must sign up in advance to speak. In response, Trudeau accused Poilievre of playing politics)

Disgruntled Liberal MPs are finally getting a chance to express their ire (?? As long as they signed up to speak first??) on Wednesday as the party’s caucus meets for the first time since a new effort to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke into public view.

Dozens of MPs have signed a letter (that may or may not exist) asking the prime minister to step down for the good of the country. While many ministers and MPs affirmed their support for Trudeau, it might be a different story when the whole caucus gathers behind closed doors on Wednesday.
 

Ron in Regina

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This is neither from the Beaverton or Babylon Bee. New Brunswick Liberal MP Wayne Long said Monday’s result shows that the Liberal brand still holds appeal with voters (???), and can be revived at the federal level — once Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exits the picture.

Long added that he thought Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was “absolutely beatable” with the right party leader in place???
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Long is one of three Liberal MPs — joined by Sean Casey and Ken McDonald — that have come forward to say they’ve signed a much talked about letter urging Trudeau to step down in the face of widespread unpopularity across Canada…& the other 20-40 haven’t.
 

Ron in Regina

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Earlier in his mandate, Canadians were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt when he broke his promise on electoral reform, and when he was twice found guilty of breaking the Conflict of Interest Act, first on his vacation to the Aga Khan’s Caribbean island and then in the SNC Lavalin case, when he was found guilty of using influence “tantamount to political direction” when it came to a decision by the attorney general.

Voters were prepared to overlook the blackface scandal, dancing the bhangra in India and paying former Al-Qaida fighter Omar Khadr $10 million in compensation.

But trust is a non-renewable commodity and the accumulation of missteps means that the benefit of the doubt has been lost and mistakes are now magnified.

The most obvious way for Trudeau to win back some of his audience would be to repeal, or at least pause, the consumer carbon tax, an issue on which McDonald voted alongside the Conservatives last year. It may be the most effective, market-oriented way to reduce emissions but it is political kryptonite.

McDonald told reporters that there are around 20 of his colleagues who have signed the fabled letter that calls on Trudeau to step down.

A grassroots petition called “Code Red” has also started circulating that says the Liberal party needs to address “the current threats to its very survival … including growing hostility to our leader” because of the failure of the current policy platform to attract and inspire support from Canadians, particularly young Canadians.

The petition calls on the caucus and the party’s national executive to conduct secret ballots on Trudeau’s leadership.

But there were no signs of white smoke rising after the caucus meeting. As Garneau pointed out in his new book, A Most Extraordinary Ride, the prime minister likes a fight and doesn’t like giving up.
Justin Trudeau stood up at the start of Question Period on Wednesday to thunderous applause from the Liberal benches and declared he was happy to have their confidence. Coming as it did just hours after an attempted coup inside the closed-door Liberal caucus meeting, Trudeau’s statement and the applause were nothing but theatre.
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“I have to say, the Liberal Party and the Liberal government are totally united in holding the Conservative Party to account.” ??? The Conservatives aren’t the the current government who need to be held to account…but don’t let that stop you.😁

Maybe that’s part of the problem with Trudeau and his government at the moment, he’s got it all backwards. Given he’s the one running the government, the Opposition is supposed to hold the Liberals to account for their running of the country — not the other way around.

Trudeau survived the coup attempt by a group of Liberal MPs, but he and his party are wounded even if the rebels were defeated — both sides are bleeding. Estimates ranged from just three MPs signing onto demands for Trudeau to step down, to as high as 60, with several more guestimates in the middle.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
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Speaking in Toronto, Poilievre said he had conversations with “numerous” Liberal MPs, some of which said they were willing to vote non-confidence in Trudeau if the occasion presents itself again. That is an idea that was floated by Liberal MP Ken McDonald, from Newfoundland and Labrador, but was struck down by some of his colleagues.
“I’m not going to send our government into an election. That really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” said Long.
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Casey said that any step taken to put Poilievre in the Prime Minister’s Office is “dumb.”
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So the potential will of the majority of Canadians is “dumb” then. Good to know.
"We're going to continue and have… great discussions about how I can best lead the Liberal party forward?,” Trudeau told reporters on Thursday, facing questions about an emotionally charged caucus meeting the day prior.

"We're focused on winning the next election, and we've got a great team around us to do it,” he said, backed by Liberal MPs.

Might as well be focused on the next election because their ability to govern during this current term has failed completely due to more overlapping Liberal scandals like “The Other Randy” & the “Green Slush Fund” which are burying their other scandals towards the back pages.
Patrick Weiler, the Liberal MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, B.C., said he wasn’t surprised that Trudeau said he is staying on. If he had said anything else, he’d “be a lame dick prime minister,” Weiler added.

These MPs’ comments come amid swirling suggestions that some are considering voting with the opposition on big issues, if Trudeau doesn’t resign.

Asked what conversations he’s been party to, Poilievre said he’s talked to “numerous Liberal MPs.”

“Some of them say that they're worried that the carbon tax will cost them their seats,” Poilievre said. “And some of them might even be willing to vote non-confidence in Justin Trudeau if that issue comes up again.”

Casey and other MPs poured cold water on the Official Opposition leader’s claim, saying they hope their colleagues have better judgement.

“Every single Liberal colleague that I have talked to thinks that Pierre Poilievre in the prime minister's office would be a bad thing. Anything that we do that makes that more likely, is dumb,” Casey said.

Adding to the pressure the prime minister is facing, the deadline for Trudeau to get back to his team was set for one day before the Bloc Quebecois’ ultimatum is set to expire.

If the Liberals don’t ensure a pair of Bloc bills get through a currently logjammed Parliament by Oct. 29, Yves-Francois Blanchet has said he’ll start talking to the other opposition parties about bringing down the government.

So even if Trudeau can bribe/corral his caucus, his minority government’s grip on power could be in peril.
 

Ron in Regina

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The main factor holding Trudeau in place is that he doesn’t have to resign if he doesn’t want to, and there is no mechanism by which his party can force the issue.

According to the Liberal party constitution, the only time party members get to vote on their leader is if a leader dies, resigns or contests an election in which they fail to “become or continue to be the Prime Minister.” Given that Trudeau first became Liberal leader in an April 14, 2013 leadership vote, it’s now been more than 11 years since anybody in the party has explicitly approved his leadership.
This is a marked difference from the Conservative party, where all it takes to trigger a leadership review is an agreement signed by 20 per cent of the caucus.

And it would be easy for the Liberals to do similarly. All their caucus would have to do is adopt the provisions of the Reform Act, a 2015 Act of Parliament that is effectively a pre-written package of measures to give MPs more control over their party.

But first, a caucus has to vote to follow Reform Act rules — something only the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives have ever done. Maybe it’s an extreme right winger-type thing though…?

There is no mechanism to remove an unpopular Liberal leader, and with Trudeau exercising a near-unprecedented level of control over the current caucus, any dissent has largely been reduced to anonymous whisper campaigns.

After rumours that Trudeau would be presented with a petition signed by as many as 40 Liberal MPs calling for his ouster, he was reportedly given a document stripped of any signatories whatsoever.
 

pgs

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The main factor holding Trudeau in place is that he doesn’t have to resign if he doesn’t want to, and there is no mechanism by which his party can force the issue.

According to the Liberal party constitution, the only time party members get to vote on their leader is if a leader dies, resigns or contests an election in which they fail to “become or continue to be the Prime Minister.” Given that Trudeau first became Liberal leader in an April 14, 2013 leadership vote, it’s now been more than 11 years since anybody in the party has explicitly approved his leadership.
This is a marked difference from the Conservative party, where all it takes to trigger a leadership review is an agreement signed by 20 per cent of the caucus.

And it would be easy for the Liberals to do similarly. All their caucus would have to do is adopt the provisions of the Reform Act, a 2015 Act of Parliament that is effectively a pre-written package of measures to give MPs more control over their party.

But first, a caucus has to vote to follow Reform Act rules — something only the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives have ever done. Maybe it’s an extreme right winger-type thing though…?

There is no mechanism to remove an unpopular Liberal leader, and with Trudeau exercising a near-unprecedented level of control over the current caucus, any dissent has largely been reduced to anonymous whisper campaigns.

After rumours that Trudeau would be presented with a petition signed by as many as 40 Liberal MPs calling for his ouster, he was reportedly given a document stripped of any signatories whatsoever.
The only principal the liberals have , is what will give them the keys to the mint . All else is window dressing .
 

Retired_Can_Soldier

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I don't want him to resign.
I want him at the controls when this JT Doomsday Cult's Boeing 747 nose-dives into the dirt.
That way, his legacy as the worst fucking prime minister in the history of Canada will be thoroughly cemented.
 
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