I wonder how many of the Ottawa backbenchers are looking over their shoulders as Conservative Party HQ defenestrates MPs and candidates for being insufficiently robot-like. Who is next? Hell, why not replace them all... maybe with cardboard cutout?

Since in Canada all party leaders either act this way or aspire to, this is not a Conservative crisis, but a crisis of the Canadian parliamentary system. Does our system elect 308 MPs or just five party leaders and a mass of inanimate tally sticks to be tossed in whenever decisions are required? The only people who can address this question are the MPs themselves (though they will only do it if we stop telling them not to).

Ultimate authority in a parliamentary party lies not with the leader but with the caucus.