Should I Stay or Should I Go Now: Party Leader Exits

The selection of party leaders in Canada, and internationally, has garnered an incredible amount of scholarly attention (Cross and Blais, 2012; O’Brien, 2015; Pilet and Cross, 2014). Much less attention has been paid to the ways in which party leaders leave their jobs. Using data collected on over 203 leaders selected to lead Canadian provincial and federal parties between 1980 and 2017, the paper develops a typology of exit types that allows for a comparative evaluation of how, when and why party leaders exit their posts. Our findings suggest that informal party rules are of much greater importance than formal rules for the removal of party leaders, and that the most common exit route is resignation in the immediate aftermath of an electoral defeat. The paper concludes by reflecting of the importance of the findings for our understanding of party leaders and political parties more generally.