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party leadership

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LegislationJuly 11, 20266 min read
There's a Law That Lets MPs Fire Their Own Party Leader. Most Caucuses Choose Not to Arm It.
Canadian party leaders are unusually secure by the standards of Westminster democracies: they are chosen by party members at large, not by the MPs who sit with them, and for most of modern history the MPs had no formal mechanism to remove them. The Reform Act, 2014 — introduced by Conservative backbencher Michael Chong as Bill C-586 and passed with royal assent in June 2015 — was an attempt to shift some of that power back to caucus. It amends the Parliament of Canada Act to define four powers a party caucus may give itself: to expel and readmit caucus members, to elect its own caucus chair, to trigger a review of the party leader, and to elect an interim leader. The Act does not impose these rules; instead it requires that at its first meeting after a general election, each recognized party's caucus must hold a separate recorded vote on whether to adopt each of the four, with the outcome reported to the Speaker. Where the leadership-review rules are adopted, a written notice signed by at least 20 per cent of caucus members triggers a review, and a majority vote by secret ballot removes the leader. In practice, caucuses have rarely adopted the leadership powers, and the Act contains no penalty if a caucus skips the required votes altogether. The rules have been used to remove a leader exactly once: on February 2, 2022, the Conservative caucus — which had adopted the leadership-review power after the 2021 election — voted 73–45 by secret ballot to remove Erin O'Toole as leader.

There's a Law That Lets MPs Fire Their Own Party Leader. Most Caucuses Choose Not to Arm It.

Canadian party leaders are unusually secure by the standards of Westminster democracies: they are chosen by party members at large, not by the MPs who sit with them, and for most of modern history the MPs had no formal mechanism to remove them. The Reform Act, 2014 — introduced by Conservative backbencher Michael Chong as Bill C-586 and passed with royal assent in June 2015 — was an attempt to shift some of that power back to caucus. It amends the Parliament of Canada Act to define four powers a party caucus may give itself: to expel and readmit caucus members, to elect its own caucus chair, to trigger a review of the party leader, and to elect an interim leader. The Act does not impose these rules; instead it requires that at its first meeting after a general election, each recognized party's caucus must hold a separate recorded vote on whether to adopt each of the four, with the outcome reported to the Speaker. Where the leadership-review rules are adopted, a written notice signed by at least 20 per cent of caucus members triggers a review, and a majority vote by secret ballot removes the leader. In practice, caucuses have rarely adopted the leadership powers, and the Act contains no penalty if a caucus skips the required votes altogether. The rules have been used to remove a leader exactly once: on February 2, 2022, the Conservative caucus — which had adopted the leadership-review power after the 2021 election — voted 73–45 by secret ballot to remove Erin O'Toole as leader.