The Manitoba Liberal Party is in the market for a new full-time president.

The MLP is suddenly in need of filling the top chair on its board of directors after president Paul Hesse submitted a letter of resignation to the party Thursday morning.

In an email obtained by the Winnipeg Sun to party executives, Hesse said his decision came with “some sadness” and said he no longer had the passion to be in the volunteer position.

“This decision has been coming for the last few months, but there has never seemed to be a good time,” Hesse wrote. “There is so much work for the party to do. But simply put, I don’t have the heart or energy to do it. My mind and my focus is elsewhere and the party needs more from its President than I can give.”

Party spokesman Sam Dixon said Hesse’s decision did not catch the party off guard.

“This isn’t an abrupt decision by him,” he said. “We were aware he was waiting for a lull in activity to step down.”

Hesse makes it four MLP presidents in a row who have stepped down mid-term, following Sachit Mehra, Gerard Allard and Robert Young. That turnover is a product of what one senior Liberal source called a “toxic” environment within the provincial party.

“He went through some tough stuff, so it’s completely understandable,” the source said. “He sat through the election and he did a good job. It’s an exasperating job. He dealt with a lot of issues from Day 1 ... and I think he gave as much as anyone could have.”

Hesse’s resignation comes at a time of flux for the MLP, which is already in the throes of a leadership transition after Rana Bokhari announced in May she was stepping down.

Dixon said the provincial council will meet Oct. 15, at which time Bokhari’s resignation will be officially accepted and a directive will then go to the MLP board to hold a leadership contest in the next 18 months.

Dixon acknowledged Bokhari’s role with the party has scaled back since her announcement.

“She’s technically the leader,” Dixon said. “She’s the leader until that provincial council meeting accepts her resignation. So she fulfils duties that are required as far as the leader goes, but she has been in a transitioning for herself as far as what she’s going to do.

“You step back a bit and start getting on with your life.”

The Liberals’ hit-and-miss showing in April’s provincial election to some extent repelled interest from the federal party, according to a source. While the MLP did up its seat total to three, the campaign was fraught with controversies and bungled PR moments, which didn’t sit well in Ottawa, where federal party members view Manitoba’s Liberals with “ambivalence.”

“It’s just a lack of caring, to be honest,” the source said. “Once they got on the ground they saw just how terrible the situation actually was.

“So Trudeau’s not going to come out and put his neck on the line for something that by all accounts wasn’t going to work out, and it didn’t.”