Not sure I'm convinced. I vote for my local MP, and if my MP suddenly said "nah, someone else can do the job," while the federal party shifts someone into the position that has no intention of meeting with citizens and representing me as my local MP, I'd be pretty offended. Particularly so if it was something I identified with and thought of as "my party."
"We just had 338 team members face a tough challenge. 144 of them, including the boss, failed. You did the VERY BEST out of alk of them, and now we're firing you so the boss doesn't get in trouble."
Poilievre is weak and cowardly. Not someone who will rise to a challenge, but someone who is lazy and just wants the easy path. Basically, everyone the cons complain about. The opposite of the so called business "thought leaders" or manosphere "alphas". But they vote for him anyway I guess.
In the federal government it is illegal to ask someone to step down from their seat with money, they have to do it voluntarily, but yeah money changed hands.
You know, voter fatigue is a thing. I can't imagine people are happy to go back to the polls for this by-election and there's something of a foregone conclusion that Polievere wins by default anyway. I don't think the region is likely to suddenly churn out enough Liberal support to deny him the seat, but I suspect that, as bored and tired of this the CPC voters must be, the other voters are likely galvanized by the opportunity to tell Polievere that they don't want him coming from away and using them, as opposed to doing his job and representing a community. And even a district shiftf from 85-15 to 65-35 is embarrassing for Polievere.
There's a real potential for comedy here, and at the very least, I suspect it'll be even more embarrassing for the conservatives yet.