He still gets to be party leader, but he cannot sit in Parliament. There are two remedies for this. First, the party can choose a new leader from their elected MPs. Second, they can have an MP in a “safe” riding step down and then ask the government for a special by-election in that riding.
Even if that’s how it goes, I think his days are numbered. There’s 100% a couple of rivals in dark rooms right now, calling around trying to get the numbers to oust him as leader. Whether they’ll be successful, I don’t know, but this is such a dramatic snatch of defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s only been a couple of months since the Conservatives were 30 points up. That can’t all be blamed on Poilievre, but there will be those within the party who will. Party unity will be shot.
I’m not so sure about the “jaws of Victory” bit. I think that Canadians were just fed up with Trudeau, couldn’t bring themselves to vote NDP and ended up polling Conservative. So it wasn’t really support for PP, but unsupport for Trudeau.
Take Trudeau out of the equation and the Liberals came flooding back to the party.
I think so too. I think they just wanted a more traditional centrist candidate than Trudeau. Not that he’s anywhere near as left as he’s painted to be.
Would be a shame if another party overspends to defeat him in that race too.
But in all seriousness, it might be beneficial for the new government for PP to stay on. He’s deeply unpopular and it seems he’s unable to change that. O’Toole would have swept this election all else being equal. Of course there’s the risk of losing the next election to PP if things go really sideways for the new government.
I do hope that the government won’t let them have a by-election to put PP on board anytime soon. If the Cons are determined to make it happen, it will no matter what eventually, but I hope that they won’t be able to get a special exception for it. And there’s no way he’ll lose since he’ll pick a riding that’s got at least 70% support already.
Though it would be hilarious if he loses twice in a row.
That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t 100% certain. My girlfriend was asking. She’s a French immigrant who’s been a citizen since fairly recently and she was wondering.
What happens when a party leader doesn’t get elected in their riding but their party wins the majority?
He still gets to be party leader, but he cannot sit in Parliament. There are two remedies for this. First, the party can choose a new leader from their elected MPs. Second, they can have an MP in a “safe” riding step down and then ask the government for a special by-election in that riding.
Yeah, they’ll probably just parachute him into an Alberta riding. We’re not rid of him yet.
I’m not sure that I can remember that being done for any leader at the federal level in the past 50 years or so. We’ll have to wait and see.
It’s a weird situation. Like it or not, Polievre just achieved the highest Conservative vote share since the 1980s.
That he still lost is astonishing, and it’ll be a while before anyone can sort out the path forward.
But I suspect they’ll keep him around.
Even if that’s how it goes, I think his days are numbered. There’s 100% a couple of rivals in dark rooms right now, calling around trying to get the numbers to oust him as leader. Whether they’ll be successful, I don’t know, but this is such a dramatic snatch of defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s only been a couple of months since the Conservatives were 30 points up. That can’t all be blamed on Poilievre, but there will be those within the party who will. Party unity will be shot.
I’m not so sure about the “jaws of Victory” bit. I think that Canadians were just fed up with Trudeau, couldn’t bring themselves to vote NDP and ended up polling Conservative. So it wasn’t really support for PP, but unsupport for Trudeau.
Take Trudeau out of the equation and the Liberals came flooding back to the party.
I think so too. I think they just wanted a more traditional centrist candidate than Trudeau. Not that he’s anywhere near as left as he’s painted to be.
Houston is channelling an old switchboard operator today. I’d put money on it.
Honestly, if they drop him into my riding to replace Garnett Genuis, I’d consider it an upgrade.
Not a significant one, mind you, but still a marginal improvement.
Would be a shame if another party overspends to defeat him in that race too.
But in all seriousness, it might be beneficial for the new government for PP to stay on. He’s deeply unpopular and it seems he’s unable to change that. O’Toole would have swept this election all else being equal. Of course there’s the risk of losing the next election to PP if things go really sideways for the new government.
I do hope that the government won’t let them have a by-election to put PP on board anytime soon. If the Cons are determined to make it happen, it will no matter what eventually, but I hope that they won’t be able to get a special exception for it. And there’s no way he’ll lose since he’ll pick a riding that’s got at least 70% support already.
Though it would be hilarious if he loses twice in a row.
That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t 100% certain. My girlfriend was asking. She’s a French immigrant who’s been a citizen since fairly recently and she was wondering.