Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney makes remarks at a meeting of the Liberal caucus, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on May 25.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press If there had been any doubt that the MPs of the New and Improved™ Liberal Party had grown a backbone since the Justin Trudeau era, that doubt was vaporized on Sunday, when the caucus voted against taking the most modest step toward reclaiming some power from the Prime Minister’s Office, and possibly some relevance. Liberal MPs, for the fourth time in a row, declined to take up the powers available under the Reform Act that would, among other things, allow it to force a leadership vote if one-fifth of MPs signed a notice to that effect and decide who sits in caucus. On the upside, Liberal MPs actually went so far as to obey the law, and held a vote, something that they failed to do in 2015.
By contrast, the Conservative caucus did take up those full powers, as it did after the 2021 election. (Tory MPs also exercised those powers to force the resignation of then leader Erin O’Toole.) But the powers in the Reform Act need not be used to have an effect.
Knowing that a caucus could force a leadership review might very well make a party leader less likely to require MPs to play the role of lobotomized sheep. Depriving a party leader of the ability to boot someone from caucus similarly frees MPs. Nothing is guaranteed – the Conservative caucus marched in lockstep behind Leader Pierre Poilievre in the last Parliament – but the powers in the Reform Act at least hold out the possibility of returning to MPs some of their lost capacity for independent action and thought.
And the Liberal caucus would have found such powers most handy last year, as MPs fretted about how to avoid a looming electoral defeat with Justin Trudeau as leader. Rather than the orderly and quick process envisioned under the Reform Act, Canadians instead had to endure months of dillying, dallying, dithering and denying from Liberals about support for Mr. Trudeau. It took the former prime minister’s overreach in clumsily demoting Chrystia Freeland, and her abrupt exit from cabinet, to eventually force Mr. Trudeau’s resignation.
One might think the Liberals would have learned the lesson of 2024, namely that the country’s interests must be put above those of the party – or at least, that the party’s interests must be put above those of any one person. One might think that, but one would be wrong. There was no need to vote in favour of empowering caucus because Prime Minister Mark Carney is “by far the greatest leader that we’ve seen since Lester B. Pearson,” Sault Ste.
Marie-Algoma MP Terry Sheehan told reporters. It’s easy enough to imagine similar sycophancy in 2015 about Mr. Trudeau. The Liberal caucus missed a low-drama opportunity to normalize the use of the Reform Act.
Mr. Carney’s current job security is close to absolute, given the indispensable role he played in the improbable resurrection of the governing party. If MPs had adopted the powers in the act, it would not have been the opening act of a caucus rebellion, but rather a principled decision. It’s hard to conceive of a more conducive scenario for a low-key endorsement of the Reform Act.
And still, the Liberal caucus was not able to summon even the minimal courage needed for that. Mr. Carney, too, missed an opportunity to embrace the use of the Reform Act, and demonstrate that he welcomed the empowerment of caucus. The implications of the Liberal caucus’s failure extends beyond the party’s own ranks.
If both the Liberals and Conservatives had voted to adopt the provisions of the Reform Act, it would have gone a long way in institutionalizing such measures, of making them a permanent, unremarkable feature of national politics. Instead, the Liberals have reinforced the notion that a vote for the powers in the Reform Act is a vote against the party leader. And the unwillingness of the Liberals to embrace a minimal, indeed mostly theoretical, measure of independence does not bode well for other parliamentary business.
Any hope of MPs departing from the party line in Commons committee work just fizzled. The Liberal caucus had the chance to place their constituents first, to show Canadians that they had drawn the appropriate lessons from their near-death experience last year. Instead, Liberal MPs again chose party over country, again chose sycophancy over independence.
