Think that Canadian politics are sometimes rough and mean? Forget about it.
Compared with what just happened in Australia – yet again – our politics are child's play.
On Monday, in a vote behind closed doors, the ruling Liberal Party caucus ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott, one of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's few close friends among world leaders.
Mr. Abbott and Mr. Harper both love the monarchy; believe in tax cuts and smaller government; prefer a go-slow bordering on a no-go approach to climate change, including any pricing of carbon; lined up lock-step with Israel; and moved their respective parties to the political right. Mr. Abbott, in the presence of Canadians, proudly proclaimed Mr. Harper to be his role model.
Now, Mr. Abbott is gone, ousted in a very Australian coup by his own MPs, a majority of whom preferred, by a 54-44 vote, Malcolm Turnbull, who – if you can follow this storyline – was the Liberal leader in opposition in 2009 only to be deposed in a coup organized by Mr. Abbott.
Mr. Turnbull is polished and articulate; very worldly, having travelled and read widely; and moderate by today's conservative standards in the English-speaking world. In Canadian parlance, he would be a Progressive Conservative, or a Tory in the old and true sense of the word, even a Red Tory. He has a patrician air about him, is clever with words, made a lot of money practising law and is married to a woman with a prominent public profile outside politics.
As such, he would fit very uneasily in Mr. Harper's government because he would stand head and shoulders above any other minister, as would Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, deputy leader of the Liberal Party (which is actually a conservative party).
Poll after poll in Australia have shown Mr. Turnbull to be the country's most popular and respected politician. But he lost the Liberal leadership before he had a chance to contest an election because Mr. Abbott unseated him.
Many were the issues that divided the two men, but tensions came to a head over Mr. Turnbull's support for the previous Labor government's carbon-pricing scheme. Mr. Abbott gathered up his party's right wing and won the leadership by one vote at a caucus meeting. Now the worm has turned, and Mr. Abbott has been shown the door by Mr. Turnbull's supporters.
Mr. Turnbull is a staunch republican in a country where debates have swirled around the monarchy and where a referendum on the monarchy resulted in its retention. Before he entered politics, he was chairman of the Australian Republican Movement.
Mr. Turnbull once showed a visiting Canadian journalist office drawers full of possible designs for a new Australian flag without the Union Jack. On another occasion, he explained to the same visitor why climate change was an important issue about which Australia had to do more –heresy in his party.
On an occasion that brought Canadians and Australians together, he spoke for about 30 minutes without a note, but with considerable knowledge and erudition, about China, displaying a mastery far beyond the scope of any Canadian political figure.
In Canada, leaders can be unsettled by caucus unhappiness, but they are replaced only by the party membership. In Australia, the caucus's ability to knife leaders suddenly has given the country five prime ministers in eight years, since the Labor Party caucus did in two of its recent leaders, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
If an Australian party is down in the polls, as the Liberals have been under Mr. Abbott, the leader needs knight's armour to survive being stabbed in the back. Last spring, there were rumblings of discontent with Mr. Abbott that spilled into the Australian newspapers in a political culture – completely unlike the Canadian – where journalists and politicians talk privately all the time.
Australians seem to like this threat of doing in the prime minister, feeling that it keeps the leader on his or her toes. Whether another bloodletting will produce second thoughts remains unknown.
Mr. Turnbull will face difficult challenges before the election within 15 months: The collapse of commodity prices and softening of the Chinese market hit the Australian economy. The Australian dollar has fallen even more than the loonie. A balanced budget has receded to perhaps 2020. Abbott government cuts were sometimes unpopular.
Mr. Turnbull has wanted the top job for a very long time.
Now, in a very Australian fashion, it is his.