History of changing leaders in mid-campaign: the Canada story

At his blog Parliamentum, James Bowden takes a deep dive into the weirdness of prime ministerial tenure, starting with the very topical question of what would happen if Rishi Sunak somehow abandoned (or was removed from) the prime ministership of Great Britain in the midst of his disastrous general election campaign.

There are an impressive number of Canadian precedents and analogies. Bowden does not bother to point out that Canada has the absolutely worst system of prime ministerial accountability in the world -- even as Britain and other parliamentary states strive to descend to our level.

Bonus: Mackenzie Bowell shows that he remains as newsworthy as ever.