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All-powerful only three days ago, the Conservative Party of Canada is suddenly a roiling mass of dismay, anger and confusion that spreads deep into its truncated 99-member caucus.

New Calgary Signal Hill MP Ron Liepert, for instance, doesn’t even know if Stephen Harper is still the party leader. He says there has been no communication of Harper’s status to MPs — or at least, not to him.

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“If that’s the way we’re communicating, and that’s the way we have been communicating with the public, we have a problem.”

It’s just another unhappy campaign experience for Liepert, who was a provincial MLA and cabinet minister before leaving politics. He returned to beat Rob Anders for the federal Conservative nomination in the new riding.

Several months ago, Liepert says, he had “a 15-minute shouting match” with the controversial Jenni Byrne, who was then Harper’s campaign manager but recently lost that post in the face of impending disaster.