As we await the decision of Justin Trudeau as to whether or not he plans to defy the growing number of his caucus members who think it’s time he steps down, a number of voices in the media keep bringing up the possibility for an “interim prime minister” to take his place during the leadership race. Except, there’s no such thing as an “interim” prime minister. While the Liberal Party might decide to have an interim leader until a new one is chosen, a prime minister is a prime minister and there is nothing “interim” about it. Beyond that, if the Liberals choose to go with such a route, it presents some particular challenges and obstacles that require thinking through as they decide how to move forward if Trudeau does signal his intention to pack it in (and to be clear, he should, because it is untenable that he remain in the position any longer given how much of his caucus wants to see him gone, for the good of the party’s future).

The notion that there could somehow be an “interim” first minister—because this has happened at the provincial level as well—is one of the byproducts of our bastardized leadership selection system where the party membership votes on the leader and not the caucus—or in the case of the federal Liberals, party “supporters” who don’t have memberships but who totally swear that they’re not a member of another party, because remember, this was the genius idea of the Alberta Liberal Party to fill their voter identification database, which federal Liberals thought was a great idea. (The Alberta Liberal Party is now virtually extinct). If we had a properly functioning Westminster system, Trudeau would already be out the door because the caucus would have ousted and chosen his successor in the space of a day or two, but that hasn’t happened because of the move toward these inane leadership contests, and our system is all the worse for it.

Nevertheless, we have seen situations where this “interim” process did happen, most notably in Alberta in 2014, when Alison Redford resigned after caucus unrest (with only a couple of MLAs who went public in their discontent, one of them leaving caucus for the duration). Her deputy, Dave Hancock, became interim party leader during the nearly six-month leadership contest, but was at that point the premier of Alberta. Not “interim premier,” as some called him, particularly in the media, but full-on premier, because the sovereign and their representatives cannot have an “interim” person advising them. The advice has to come from someone who commands the confidence of the Chamber, which Hancock did because the party had a large majority in the legislature, as most PC governments in Alberta tended to. That is not the case federally, where the Liberals only have a minority parliament, and confidence is not guaranteed because all of the party leaders are currently indicating they want to vote non-confidence (though with the NDP, who knows if that indication will hold because Jagmeet Singh is very, very malleable).

With this in mind, what would this process look like federally? If Trudeau steps down immediately, and the party doesn’t come to their senses and allow for caucus selection of the successor (like they should), but rather wants to put together an abbreviated leadership contest, the caucus would have to vote on the “interim” leader who would have to promise not to run in the leadership contest. Recall Rona Ambrose’s time as interim Conservative leader, when she was doing such a good job that people kept trying to get her to run for the job permanently, but she refused because of the promise she made not to, and then left politics shortly after Andrew Scheer was chosen by the membership. Once the interim leader is chosen, they would take a trip over to Rideau Hall, where Trudeau would submit his resignation to the Governor General, and the “interim” leader would be sworn-in as prime minister. Any Cabinet ministers who want to run in this contest—and so far, the scuttlebutt includes François-Philippe Champagne, Mélanie Joly, Anita Anand, Chrystia Freeland, and probably Dominic LeBlanc—would have to resign, which will mean yet another Cabinet shuffle.

This effectively ends the currently ministry, because they are tied to the first minister. Despite this being an “interim” leader, they are still a full-on prime minister, so this counts as a new government from Trudeau’s, even if most of the Cabinet remains the same for the duration of the leadership contest. I would imagine that Rideau Hall would want a new “family photo” of the Cabinet of this ministry, even if it’s only for a few months, because a prime minister is a prime minister. And in the end, even if they only serve for a few weeks or a couple of months, they will still get a portrait on Parliament Hill, and future schoolchildren will be required to memorize their names as with every other prime minister—much as they have had to with John Turner and Kim Campbell, neither of whom met the House of Commons to test confidence because they were sworn-in shortly before an election call, and Turner didn’t even have a seat when he was prime minister.

There is, of course, a better option than the “interim” leader and new Prime Minister route. Trudeau could just announce his intention to step down, but stay on in a caretaker capacity until his successor is chosen by whatever means the party deems necessary, whether that is a caucus vote (preferable) or an abbreviated leadership contest (not good, and faces the potential for interference and mischief because of the “supporter” nonsense). This has the added benefit of providing some stability and continuity during the transition of the American administration, because that is going to be an overriding concern in the weeks ahead, particularly because Trudeau has experience dealing with Donald Trump. Proroguing Parliament means a reprieve from an imminent confidence vote when the House of Commons return at the end of January, and allows the successor to test the confidence themselves with a new Speech from the Throne (with a very likely possibility that the NDP will decide to give them a chance). It would avoid the “interim” nonsense entirely, and be better all around—provided the party makes smart choices for the leadership contest ahead.