{"id":17464,"date":"2025-12-13T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/13\/liberals-claim-other-conservatives-could-defect-opposition-accuses-carney-of-shady-governing\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T09:00:20","slug":"liberals-claim-other-conservatives-could-defect-opposition-accuses-carney-of-shady-governing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/13\/liberals-claim-other-conservatives-could-defect-opposition-accuses-carney-of-shady-governing\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals claim other Conservatives could defect, Opposition accuses Carney of \u2018shady\u2019 governing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Heartened after picking up another member in a surprise floor-crossing, Liberals claimed Friday there are other Conservative MPs increasingly disgruntled with Leader Pierre Poilievre who could soon be joining Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s ranks.\u201dI think there are some that will do some soul-searching during the vacation, the Christmas period,\u201d said Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne in an interview airing on CBC\u2019s Rosemary Barton Live Sunday.The finance minister said that some in the Opposition \u201cdon\u2019t want to oppose\u201d just for the sake of fighting the government at every turn.\u201dMy sense is that some are at unease with this situation,\u201d he said.Speaking Friday at a high-speed rail announcement, government House leader Steven MacKinnon told reporters he\u2019s spoken to other Conservative MPs who are unhappy with their party. \u201cThere are lots of Conservatives, I assure you, who do not like Poilievre\u2019s approach,\u201d he said.\u201dYou have seen two to date.There are others, for sure. Others exist.\u201dTheir comments came just hours after Greater Toronto Area MP Michael Ma announced he was leaving the Conservative caucus and joining the Liberals, bringing a shocking end to an already eventful fall sitting. It marks the second floor-crossing in as many months.Ma\u2019s move brings the Liberals up to 171 seats in the House, one shy of a majority government.WATCH | MacKinnon asked about floor-crossing, suggests \u2018there are others\u2019:Liberal House leader asked about floor-crossing, suggests \u2018there are others\u2019 but offers no namesLiberal House leader Steven MacKinnon, appearing at an event about high-speed rail on Friday, was asked about Ontario MP Michael Ma\u2019s decision to leave the Conservatives and join the Liberals. MacKinnon, who took aim at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, suggested there were others like Ma, but declined to offer any specifics.MacKinnon, who plays a key role in stickhandling the government\u2019s day-to-day affairs, alleged he and his colleagues have spoken to Conservatives who are \u201cextremely frustrated with the leadership of their party\u201d and \u201cextremely frustrated with the small games and the obstruction\u201d in the House.He described them as representing a \u201cminority\u201d in the party. MacKinnon wouldn\u2019t bite on questions about who he has been talking to or whether his party is courting more MPs to secure a majority for when Parliament resumes in the new year. \u201cThese are incredibly hard choices for those people to make, so I don\u2019t want to speculate,\u201d MacKinnon said.The Liberals are keen to make the floor-crossing an attack on their main rival, Poilievre, whose leadership is up for review next month. He still enjoys confidence from a large swath of Conservatives in Canada.Responding to MacKinnon\u2019s comments, the Conservatives accused Carney of \u201crunning a government like a shady backroom dealmaker rather than a principled leader.\u201d \u201cMichael Ma has rejected his community who voted for a Conservative vision of hope \u2014 one that opposes the Liberal policies driving up the cost of food, housing and everything else. He will need to answer to them,\u201d said the party in a statement. \u201cMark Carney\u2019s contempt for Canadians who elected a minority government cannot be any clearer. \u201cHodgson befriended Ma at Markham events: sources Ma wrote in a statement Thursday night that he made his decision after listening to constituents in his riding.\u201dThis is a time for unity and decisive action for Canada\u2019s future,\u201d Ma wrote. \u201cIn that spirit, I have concluded that Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering the steady, practical approach we need to deliver on the priorities I hear every day while door-knocking in Markham-Unionville.\u201dConservatives have been quick topoint out Ma had attended the Conservative holiday party Wednesday, just hours before marking the switch, and voted with the Opposition Thursday.WATCH | Carney introduces Ma at Liberal holiday party:PM Carney introduces new Liberal MP Michael Ma at holiday partyPrime Minister Mark Carney brings new Liberal MP Michael Ma onto the stage during the Liberals\u2019 holiday party. Ma defected from the Conservatives earlier in the day.Champagne and MacKinnon brushed off questions about Ma\u2019s integrity.\u201dWhat matters at the end of the day is that he made the choice to join the Liberal Party,\u201d said the finance minister.Sources told CBC News Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson was involved in bringing Ma over. Ma met with Carney and Hodgson Thursday afternoon after the votes in the House, they said.Those sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said the cabinet minister, who represents a neighbouring riding, befriended Ma in the late spring and early summer while attending events in Markham.Conservatives express shock, disappointment  Conservatives said they were blindsided by the move and had believed they had clamped down on floor-crossers after their rough start to November. Poilievre posted on social media that Ma had turned his back on voters who sent him to Ottawa as a Conservative.\u201cThe people he let down the most are the ones who elected him to fight for an affordable future. He will have to answer to them,\u201d he said.WATCH | Another Conservative crosses the floor:Another Conservative crosses, leaving Liberals 1 seat shy of majorityOntario MP Michael Ma announced he is leaving the Conservative caucus and joining the Liberals. Ma is the second Conservative MP to cross the floor in the last five weeks, along with Chris d\u2019Entremont. The new addition puts the Liberals one seat shy of a majority government.Conservative MP Jamil Jivani said \u201cit\u2019s frustrating\u201d and \u201csad,\u201d but added the caucus is rallying together. \u201cIt sucks when there\u2019s a kind of a dishonourable aspect to this. Like the guy went from doing the conga line at our Conservative Christmas party to literally 24 hours later, leaving our party,\u201d he said in a wide-ranging interview with CBC News.\u201dThe bigger issue is that there seems to be this weird narrative being established that the only way for Conservatives and Liberals to work together is for a Conservative to cross the aisle and sort of betray their voters \u2014 and I don\u2019t think that has to be the case.\u201d Parry Sound-Muskoka Conservative MP Scott Aitchison said he is \u201cincredibly disappointed\u201d in Ma\u2019s decision to \u201cbetray his team and the people who went to the polls mere months ago.\u201d\u201dWhen you join a team, you work as a team. If you have a problem with your team, you work it out with your team,\u201d Aitchison said.WATCH |  Conservative says floor-crossing MP left without giving him a Secret Santa gift:Conservative says floor-crossing MP left without giving him a Secret Santa giftConservative MP Jamil Jivani says \u2018it\u2019s frustrating\u2019 and \u2018sad\u2019 that Michael Ma went from \u2018doing the conga line\u2019 at the Conservative Christmas party one night to crossing the floor to the Liberals the next.  London-Fanshawe Conservative Kurt Holman posted on social media that he was Ma\u2019s Secret Santa.\u201dI gave him an Amazon Fire Stick just hours before he crossed the floor. Now I want my gift back, just like the people of Markham-Unionville want their votes back!\u201d he quipped.It turned out Ma was meant to be Jivani\u2019s Secret Santa.\u201dWhen we were all giving out gifts, I didn\u2019t have one given to me. And I thought: Well, maybe someone forgot \u2026 no judgment,\u201d he said.  But after the news of the floor-crossing settled, Jivani said he asked the organizers and found out Ma drew his name.\u201dMaybe he decided to give it to a Liberal instead,\u201d he said while laughing.WATCH | D\u2019Entremont on his decision to leave the Conservatives:Conservative leadership \u2018barged\u2019 into office, yelled at me: Chris d\u2019EntremontNova Scotia MP Chris d\u2019Entremont says the Conservative House leader and the party whip \u201cbarged\u201d into his office and yelled at him about \u201chow much of a snake\u201d he was, following news he was crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party. Helater clarified with the CBC News that they pushed the door and that his assistant was able to jump out of the way. The Conservative Party lost its foothold in Nova Scotia when Chris d\u2019Entremont left the party to join the government benches last month.Explaining his decision to leave, d\u2019Entremont said he was no longer \u201caligned with the ideals of what the leader of the Opposition had been talking about.\u201dAt the time, d\u2019Entremont hinted there were other Conservative MPs who \u201care in the same boat.\u201dCarney also hinted others could follow.Alberta Conservative leaving politics That put focus on Conservative Matt Jeneroux.After a flurry of rumours that he was considering crossing the floor, the Alberta MP announced in early November that he would be leaving politics altogether. Jeneroux hasn\u2019t officially resigned but hasn\u2019t voted since his announcement.Conservative sources told CBC News at the time that Jeneroux had said he was under pressure to stay from some in the party. A senior Liberal source confirmed the MP met with Carney the week he announced his resignation.Jeneroux said coercion played no role in his decision to leave federal politics.Ma, a first-time MP, won his riding in April by about three percentage points.Markham-Unionville had previously been held by Liberal Paul Chiang, who was set to run for re-election in the spring \u2014 but withdrew from the race over comments he made suggesting that another Conservative candidate could be turned over to the Chinese consulate to collect a bounty.Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said these Conservative departures speak to an issue MPs in swing ridings may be feeling.\u201cI think there is some concern about the longevity of the Conservative brand over the next, say, 18 months to two years in some of those places against the backdrop of Mr. Carney\u2019s leadership,\u201d she said.Angus Reid Institute published a study Thursday, before the floor-crossing news, that found a majority of recent Conservative voters (58 per cent) still want Poilievre to lead the party into the next election. But that majority has shrunk by 10 points since the last time the question was asked.\u201dThat represents a significant chunk of Conservative voters who are now looking ahead to the next election and saying maybe this isn\u2019t the guy,\u201d Kurl said.\u201dThe challenge for the party, though, is trying to find the mathematical equation that keeps enough of the right-hand core of the base on side while at the same time appealing to enough of those more centrist swing voters.\u201dThe online survey was conducted between Nov. 26 and Dec. 1. The sample had a lower proportion of French-speakers and people from Ontario when compared to Canada\u2019s population.Floor-crossing has a long history in CanadaFloor-crossing is as old as Confederation, with public polling in recent years suggesting Canadians are mixed on the controversial phenomenon. There have beenunsuccessful attemptsto force a floor-crossing MP to seek re-election under the new party banner, but those bills failed to become law. Over the years, hundreds of MPs have changed affiliations \u2014 some sit as an Independent or start their own party, while other high-profile cases involve joining their former rivals.In 2018, the Opposition Conservatives welcomed Leona Alleslev. She left the governing party, condemning then prime minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s leadership. She was re-elected the next year but was defeated in the 2021 election.One the most memorable floor-crossings in Canadian history belongs to Belinda Stronach, who not only joined the Liberals in 2005, a year after vying for the Conservative leadership, but ended a relationship in the process.Prime Minister Paul Martin shakes hands with defected Conservative MP Belinda Stronach at a news conference in 2005. (Tom Hanson\/Canadian Press)The next year saw another highly controversial switch.Just days after winning the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway as a Liberal in the 2006 general election, David Emerson switched parties and joined Stephen Harper\u2019s Conservative cabinet.Emerson argued joining government was the best way to serve his constituents. But the decision led to a chorus of outrage from Liberals and triggered an investigation from the ethics commissioner\u2019s office.The commissioner, Bernard Shapiro at the time, found neither Emerson nor Harper contravened the Conflict of Interest Act. But his report suggested Canadians\u2019 \u201cdiscontent\u201d when it happens should be taken seriously.\u201dFairly or unfairly, this particular instance has given many citizens a sense that their vote \u2014 the cornerstone of our democratic system \u2014 was somehow devalued, if not betrayed,\u201d Shapiro wrote. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heartened after picking up another member in a surprise floor-crossing, Liberals claimed Friday there are other Conservative MPs increasingly disgruntled with Leader Pierre Poilievre who could soon be joining Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s ranks.\u201dI think there are some that will do some soul-searching during the vacation, the Christmas period,\u201d said Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,123,1],"tags":[116,122],"class_list":["post-17464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-saskatchewan","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-saskatchewan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}