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Jeremy Geddert: Conservative leadership elections aren’t conservative enough 

It should be caucuses that hire, and fire, party leaders. Not the general party membership

Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s impossible tightrope act is over, but the chorus of cheers and jeers now moves from the circus ring of caucus to the raucous stage of stunned party members. The Conservative division of labour, where the party membership hires leaders but the caucus fires them, violates the old conservative maxim that you cannot serve two masters. There is nothing conservative about encouraging two-faced leaders, nor about entrusting the “hiring” part to members in the first place.

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Canada’s chief conservative institution is its Westminster system of Responsible Government, the oft-forgottenCanadian triumph of the 1840s. Responsible government rests on two principles that unite the tasks of hiring and firing.

Jeremy Geddert: Conservative leadership elections aren’t conservative enough  Back to video

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