{"id":63910,"date":"2015-10-29T07:16:39","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T12:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=63910"},"modified":"2015-10-29T07:16:39","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T12:16:39","slug":"calgary-mp-deepak-obhrai-king-of-the-conservative-caucus-for-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/29\/calgary-mp-deepak-obhrai-king-of-the-conservative-caucus-for-the-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai king of the Conservative caucus, for the moment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Deepak<\/a>
Deepak Obhrai (Photo from Obhrai’s website<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2013 For a brief moment in history, Deepak Obhrai will be the man at the helm of the Conservative party caucus.<\/p>\n

The longtime Calgary MP happens to be the longest, continuously serving member of the caucus, and as such gets to run the party\u2019s first post-election, post-Stephen Harper meeting next week.<\/p>\n

And Wednesday\u2019s meeting will likely be dramatic \u2013 MPs are expected to vote on a host of important things, including who will be their interim leader and their caucus chair, and whether they will endow themselves with more powers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all the result of changes made to the Parliament of Canada Act, put forward in a private member\u2019s bill by MP Michael Chong and passed into law in June. The new provisions call for caucus to vote on a series of key matters, presided over by the caucus member \u201cwith the longest period of unbroken service.\u201d<\/p>\n

That happens to be Obhrai, elected in 1997 along with Jason Kenney and Gerry Ritz, but whose victory happened to be officially recorded first. The 65-year-old \u2013 referred to deferentially as \u201cmzee,\u201d or elder, in his native Tanzania _ just learned about his role this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe irony is that I was the one who was opposing (Chong\u2019s) Reform Act, now I\u2019ve got to follow it,\u201d said Obhrai, calling it an honour to have the role of presiding over the first meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever is laid out, we\u2019ll follow the process and as things unfold, which could be very interesting or not, I\u2019ll have to deal with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chong said the changes contained in his bill were specifically designed to remove some of the confusion that can plague parties when a leader steps down after an electoral defeat.<\/p>\n

The new changes require the Liberal, Conservative and NDP caucuses to vote on four main issues:<\/p>\n

*Whether or not to give MPs the power to eject and reinstate colleagues;<\/p>\n

*Whether to give MPs the power to spark leadership reviews after 20 per cent of MPs formally request one;<\/p>\n

*Whether MPs should have the power to elect caucus chairpeople;<\/p>\n

*Whether they should have the power to hold votes for interim leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften in Canada, when we\u2019ve had questions of leadership, there\u2019s a great deal of instability about the process because there\u2019s a great deal of instability about what exactly the rules were,\u201d said Chong.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow with the Reform Act, we have clear model rules to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obhrai said he\u2019s well aware of some of the debate that continues to swirl around the law, and expects it will come up at the meeting.<\/p>\n

The reforms specified that only elected members of caucus be part of these votes.<\/p>\n

That has created a discrepancy with the Conservative party constitution, which says the \u201cparliamentary caucus shall appoint\u201d the interim leader.<\/p>\n

With no MPs elected from Atlantic Canada, that could mean the interim leader is voted in without any input from that region. Newfoundland Sen. David Wells has already voiced his displeasure with the prospect.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, party president John Walsh pointedly used the words \u201cCommons caucus\u201d when referring to the vote for interim leader in a recent statement.<\/p>\n

So far, MPs Diane Finley, Rob Nicholson, Candice Bergen and Erin O’Toole have come forward as candidates for the job.<\/p>\n

When the Conservative party was formed from a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties in 2004, interim leaders John Lynch Staunton and Grant Hill were selected by the two existing party leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe candidates who have declared for the interim leadership are acting in accordance with the rules; in other words, they\u2019re assuming they\u2019re going to be seeking an elected position,\u201d said Chong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways the cultural shift has already begun in House of Commons caucuses, and that\u2019s encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 For a brief moment in history, Deepak Obhrai will be the man at the helm of the Conservative …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":63911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-63910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-jennifer-ditchburn","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}