With the signing of an agreement in principle between Carney and Danielle Smith over the Northern Gateway Pipeline, removal of the emissions cap, and the exploration of lifting the Tanker Ban along the Pacific Interior Passage. Carney’s hold on the left wing of the Liberal Party is meeting an abrupt end.

Steven Guilbeault was the first to resign from the cabinet and will sit as a regular MP. Guilbeault was a Greenpeace environmental activist before coming to Ottawa, but his presence there brought votes from the left and the Greens to the Liberals.

The fragile coalition of conservative, centrist, and left-wing liberals hasjust had the party’s foundations rocked. Mainly, this is because no one has ever done this so publicly in the party before.

A great many people have always asked me why I never supported the Liberals, and Mark Carney has just defined that to me. The Liberals are still, traditionally, a party without principle. If the people’s consensus is leaning right, so goes liberal policy; likewise, if it is leaning left. So overall, even though they have governed over our country far longer than the conservatives, when holding majorities, the policy becomes less defined and wishy-washy. In other words, whatever way the winds are blowing, that’s the direction they will take.

This move has scratched the underbelly of the main antagonists on this issue who have been battling for years and effectively ended the Premier’s coalition but also left Carney in a very shaky situation with a minority parliament hanging in the balance.

The following year will now be clouded by skepticism, and if Carney sees more of his anchors abandoning him, his ability to hold onto office will be extremely challenged.