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The Liberal backbench has had its rumblings, but mostly it's been tame. Wayne Long is different.

The New Brunswick MP doesn't seem like a rebel, but he's the folk hero of revolt on the Liberal government's proposal for small-business tax reform. A lot of Liberal backbenchers are uneasy with it and the way it was done. A few spoke up. Mr. Long actually cast a ballot chastising the government for not listening enough.

After he voted for a Conservative motion that complained there wasn't a long enough consultation, Mr. Long posted a picture on Facebook of himself sitting alone, saying he'd made a difficult decision, but that he "just can't support a process that was only 75 days long that pitted people against each other." By Friday, it had garnered 4,700 likes and been shared 1,350 times.

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As punishment, Mr. Long was kicked off a couple of committees. But that's not the end of it. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is redrafting the tax proposal and presumably he will eventually bring back version 2.0. When he does, the vote will be a confidence matter. Mr. Long would then face a decision between staying a Liberal or getting the boot.

That's a tricky thing for the Liberal government. However, it's not just Mr. Long. It's going to be harder for Mr. Trudeau to manage his own backbench now, two years in. Most of his MPs are rookies, but now they're starting to feel they know what they're doing; it's not all about riding the wave in on Team Trudeau any more. There will be more like Mr. Long and more rumblings in the caucus.

That will test Mr. Trudeau. He promised MPs would be freer. When he was the third-party leader campaigning against Stephen Harper, he went around the country telling people that Liberal MPs would be "your voice in Ottawa," not Ottawa's voice in their ridings. Clamping down on dissent will bring (more) complaints that he has turned his back on the openness he promised. In Atlantic Canada, where Mr. Long is from, there was, by 2015, a particular antipathy to Mr. Harper's authoritarian style, and Mr. Trudeau's different approach helped sweep the region.

So Mr. Long is a conundrum. Right now, he's a hero to some of the mad-as-hell small-business owners. Some want him to make Mr. Trudeau hurt more – they're urging Mr. Long to cross the floor to the Conservatives. "But I'm not a Conservative," he said in an Ottawa restaurant Friday morning. "I'm a Liberal." He calls himself a progressive – proud, for example, of the Canada Child Benefit instituted by Mr. Trudeau's government.

He was a small-business person himself, operating a seafood sales company before he became president of Saint John's junior hockey team, the Sea Dogs. His customers were small-business owners. Saint John is a small-business town. He said he sympathized when they told them the tax changes would hurt them and their business and especially when they asked for more time to be heard, more consultations.

He doesn't seem particularly worried. He's sheepish about putting his fellow Liberals in a tight spot – other MPs get asked why they aren't speaking out as Mr. Long is. But he said he thinks he should be able to disagree. He's 54. He's been in business. He's a backbencher and might always be. "I'm comfortable in my skin," he said. "I'm not cocky."

It's clear in retrospect that Mr. Morneau should have brought Liberal MPs in from the start to gauge their reaction to his tax proposals, and get them onside, because the proposals are controversial in almost every riding. It's also clear that Mr. Trudeau's government would be better off, politically, if they could win over Mr. Long. He's now the poster child for dissatisfaction, so Mr. Morneau would be better off getting his endorsement for tax battle 2.0.

Mr. Long said he knows that there's no way the Finance Minister can make everyone happy, he's just hoping there will be a revision that most can live with. If the Liberals can't find a way to bring Mr. Long back in, they make him a symbol, on small-business taxes, and on that promise that MPs could speak for their constituents.

And then there's the next time. Mr. Trudeau has a lot of rookie backbenchers with two years under their belt and the PM's promise to give them freedom is only now facing its test.

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