There's no formal mechanism to make Trudeau face a leadership review — even if MPs wanted one

Last week, Liberal MP Ken McDonald walked back comments suggesting he would like to see the Liberal Party consider a leadership review of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

But even if a substantial number of Liberal MPs wanted such a review, there's no formal way to make it happen — not while Trudeau is prime minister.

The Liberal Party doesn't have a leadership review mechanism built into its constitution. It does allow for «leadership endorsement» ballots, which allow registered Liberals to vote on whether they still support the current leader.

The endorsement ballot is conducted by each riding association and each riding is weighted equally, with 100 points. A leader needs 50 per cent of the points nationally to stay on.

But such a vote occurs only after the party loses a general election. The Conservative Party constitution similarly states that a vote on the leadership should occur only if the current leader lost the previous election.

Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University, said that forcing a leader out before they lose an election isn't really part of Canadian «political culture.»

«If a whole party at large elects you, it's very difficult for the party at large to come together to say they don't want you anymore,» she said. «There's no formal mechanism for that unless a person loses an election.»

Andrew Steele, a vice president with Strategy Corp and a former Liberal campaign strategist, said the party would have to amend its constitution in order to force a leadership review at the party's next annual general meeting.

No such AGM is expected before 2025 — which means, he said, that any leadership review would have to happen «immediately before an election.»

"[It] would be basically a suicidal