“According to the Liberal [Party of Canada’s] constitution,” writes Tristan Hopper in his First Reading National Post newsletter:

…the only time party members get to vote on their leader is if a leader dies, resigns or contests an election in which they fail to “become or continue to be the Prime Minister.”

The same parliamentary principle that requires a government to maintain the confidence of the House also extends to the leader of each party and their caucus. Leadership changes between elections (or “spills” as Australia charmingly calls them) are never elegant—recall, for example, that the UK most recently had three different Conservative leaders (and, therefore, prime ministers) between elections—but, they’re a feature and not a bug. Caucus leverage over leader is an important convention, one to which the LPC (and all parties, for that matter) should adhere.

Trick or treat? Well, we won’t know the answer to that until after Halloween. With just seven days to go before the US presidential election, keeping perspective, like the Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker, is critical:

One thing we desperately need to get away from is the silly idea that our country's greatness is a partisan achievement, one that can be eviscerated by a few thousand voters going the wrong way in a swing state next month. Merely to articulate the thought is to show how stupid it is.

I cannot recommend Charles C.W. Cooke’s most recent National Review article (on the future of conservatism) enough. First, it reads like a devastatingly blunt but fair report card on both presidential candidates. Second, it reminds us that a healthy political spectrum should be the goal of our politics more generally. That is, you don’t have to be a member of the opposing tribe to have a vested interest in their continued coherence and clarity.

Dana Gould has released his annual Halloween podcast special. Don’t miss the middle feature about film adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula (1897). The book-based-on-the-movie-based-on-the-book point of order alone is both terrifying and hilarious.