Christopher Moore

Christopher Moore considers the BC Liberals’ current predicament in the context of how party leaders are chosen in this country.

In reviewing William Cross and Andre Blais’ new study of how leaders are chosen in English parliamentary systems, Christopher Moore quotes William Hague, the British foreign minister who was dispatched by his own caucus when he led the Conservative party a decade ago.

I almost never disagree with Chris Selley. Indeed, I am almost willing to make it a rule not to disagree with Chris Selley. But his analysis yesterday of Brad Trost’s groping for more backbencher power in Parliament is uncharacteristically superficial. Selley celebrates Trost’s public ruminating over his inability to spurn the party whip on polarizing issues; wouldn’t it be nice, he asks, if we had a Conservative Party more like the eclectic, dissent-tolerating one in old Westminster? Perhaps it would be. But there is an awkward plain fact staring us in the face.

Christopher Moore reviews John Ralston Saul’s Lafontaine & Baldwin.

But how to fix it? Columnists Andrew Coyne and Paul Wells debate the question.