Completely off topic, but your username made me look up a Latin translation site. Joe Haldeman fan?

I’ve said elsewhere there were only 3 real options available to them, and this was one of them. The fact of the matter is, the leader of the Conservative Party is chosen by Conservatives and he gets elected by a riding, and those are two different things. Now, if the people in this new riding think he should be gone, then he most likely will be, both from that riding and the party. And if Conservatives in general think this was the wrong choice for the party, we will see the results of that in the next general election if not sooner.

Now, I’m not saying I disagree with your assessment, and I personally think the Conservatives made the wrong choice (not surprising, I didn’t vote for them), but these are the choices we’ve established in our system. Perhaps this is one that should be changed, perhaps not.

My bad, he was in fact elected in a general election, although there were rumors about him running in a by-election shortly before that, and all of that was before he was even leadervof the Liberals. I honestly, don’t remember anything about him in politics prior to leading the Liberals except that half-remembered by-election tidbit.

Another relevant example would be when Preston Manning resigned and Stephen Harper ran in his riding after being newly chosen to lead the Conservatives. There were a number of reasons for that to happen, and a bit of political maneuvering to have them all happen at the same time.

I just have to say that image is a work of journalistic art.

This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened, provincially or federally, and it tends to be resolved pretty quickly. The same thing happened when Trudeau took leadership, for reference. Now, certainly this happens a lot less often when a party leader loses in a riding he previously held, but the mechanics are the same. Get a new leader, have a leader who can’t vote or perhaps speak in Parliament, or have a by-election in a safe riding.