Andrew Coyne: MPs wouldn’t need to cross the floor if a party leader wasn’t all powerful

The more that candidates ran, and voted on, their personal views, the less it would matter whether they sat with one party or another.

What are members of Parliament?

Are they mere standard-bearers for their party, obliged to vote the party line at all times?

Or are they representatives in their own right, entitled to apply their own judgment to the issues of the day?

On which understanding do voters elect them: party affiliation or individual merit?

That age-old issue is once again in play, with the expulsion of one MP, the NDP’s Erin Weir, from his caucus and the…