There are growing indications the Prime Minister and his allies are seeking to stay in power through fear and are unsure whether or not they could prevail in a secret ballot vote.
Following reports that a growing number of Liberal MPs want a secret ballot vote on Justin Trudeau’s future as Prime Minister, one of the Prime Minister’s top allies is expressing her opposition to such a move.
As reported by the Canadian Press, Freeland has rejected the idea:
“Our party and our caucus have had many opportunities to decide our own rules for choosing a leader,” she said at her weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“Our party decided on that, and our caucus decided on that. And in our rules, the leader is not chosen by secret ballot of caucus members.”
After each election, parties have the opportunity to decide if they will avail themselves of measures contained in the Reform Act, which allows MPs to force a leadership review.
The Conservatives were the only party to opt in after the last election, and those measures were used to oust former leader Erin O’Toole from his role in 2022.
The Liberals, however, did not, leaving them no mechanism to depose Trudeau even if a majority of MPs wanted him to go.”
While Freeland is indeed correct that the Liberals decided not to allow secret ballot votes on the status of their party leader, it is notable that this is what it has come to for the Liberals.
Nothing is stopping the Liberal Caucus from holding a non-binding secret ballot vote on Trudeau’s future as party leader, and announcing the results afterward. If he were to lose the vote, that would not oblige Trudeau to depart the scene, but it would make his position deeply untenable.
But it seems Trudeau and his close allies are unwilling to take that risk.
Justin Trudeau appears willing to hold on to power in defiance of the wishes of a clear majority of the Canadian public and a growing number of Liberal MPs.
Trudeau is effectively playing a game of chicken with them, betting that they are too afraid to speak out publicly in large numbers and too afraid to vote against the government in a confidence vote.
Time will tell whether Trudeau’s ‘rule by fear’ strategy continues to work.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube