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“This thing is coming to a head,” one MP said. “We will give the guy the honourable way out, if he wants to stay on in the House as a senior statesman. But the captain has to show up, especially when the ship is taking on water.”

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One former MP, who lost his seat in the 2015 election, said he had hoped Mulcair would leave over the summer, having somewhat redeemed himself with his performance in the House after his defeat in Edmonton.

“I knew he wouldn’t have the fortitude or disposition to do what leaders need to do during the summer when they are angling to be the next prime minister,” he said.

One senior caucus member, New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian, said he had not heard about any concerted efforts to remove Mulcair. “Our focus at the caucus retreat is going to be on the fall session. I’m hearing more and more people raising concerns about the rhetoric from the Trudeau government and what they are delivering,” he said.

Mulcair did not respond by press time to a request for comment on any attempt to force him to resign the leadership ahead of schedule, but in an interview with the National Post late last month he addressed questions about his recent low profile. “I’ve been taking a bit of time off this summer with my family. That’s something I haven’t had the chance to do over the last nine years,” he said.

Mulcair disputed the notion that he had been an absentee leader — he’d been in Ottawa every week over the summer, he said, working on files including the Liberals’ Latvian deployment, changes to the Supreme Court appointment process and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s plan to investigate itself over concerns about Ontario nuclear plants.