FIRST READING: These are not normal floor crossings

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

TOP STORY

Floor-crossings are obviously nothing new in Canadian politics, but the recent defection of two Conservative MPs to the Liberals has broken all the usual rules of how these things usually take place.

Typically, floor-crossers can cite some specific grievance or goal in switching teams. Or at the very least, they’ll have a demonstrated pattern of dissent or disillusionment with their former team.

But with ex-Tories Chris d’Entremont and Michael Ma, neither man could cite a specific reason why he crossed to the government benches. What’s more, they both demonstrated perfect party loyalty right until the moment they no longer did.

When d’Entremont joined the Liberals on Nov. 4, he said he did it because he wanted to be in government instead of the opposition.

“After five years of serving in opposition, the people of Acadie-Annapolis and all Canadians know that the moment we face today needs all of us to lead — not with complaint, but with confidence in a strong future,” read d’Entremont’s official statement.

Ma’s Dec. 11 statement announcing his defection similarly didn’t list a single point of contention with his former Conservative colleagues. He framed the decision as being the result of “listening carefully” to his Markham-Unionville constituents.

Compare this to the famed 2003 floor-crossing of Scott Brison, who left the newly amalgamating Conservative Party of Canada in order to join the Liberals under prime minister Paul Martin.

Brison’s departure was motivated in large part due to the Conservatives’ then-opposition to same-sex marriage. In becoming a Liberal, Brison said he was leaving behind “rigid ideologies.”

The 2005 floor-crossing of Conservative MP Belinda Stronach was widely criticized at the time as the peak of political opportunism. Stronach’s defection to Paul Martin’s minority government scored her an instant cabinet post, and protected Martin from a looming vote of non-confidence.

But Stronach was still able to publicly justify her decision as having staved off an imminent election that was likely to see the Bloc Québécois become the power broker in another minority parliament. In press statements, Stronach said she was uneasy about Canada being ruled by a Bloc-Tory coalition.

Similar to Brison, she also had a lengthy record of friction with the Tories on social issues – and had been one of the prominent Conservatives to go against the party’s view on same-sex marriage.

While any floor-crossing is going to feature the awkward spectacle of an MP joining a party that they have previously criticized, the dissonance is particularly brazen in the case of d’Entremont and Ma.

Both MPs were continuing to issue vicious condemnations of the Liberal party only days before joining the Liberal ranks.

Notably, d’Entremont crossed the floor on the same day that the Liberals tabled their 2025 federal budget. The same federal budget that d’Entremont had criticized only a few weeks prior as “monstrous.”

“Instead of delivering relief, this government delayed its budget. Why? Because it’s projecting an over $92-billion deficit. That’s a monstrous, irresponsible burden on future generations,” he said.

After joining the Liberal caucus, d’Entremont would even poke fun at his apparent ease with switching partisan loyalties.

In the House of Commons on Dec. 9, he began a statement with “Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said he would be judged by …” – a line that d’Entremont had previously used to criticize the Carney government. The Nova Scotia MP then halted, and made a show of flipping over the paper to read a pro-Liberal talking point.

On Nov. 18, Ma had delivered a House of Commons statement accusing the Liberals of being the party of criminals and murderers.

“Day in and day out, the Liberals have shown us whom they truly value. They cater to the common criminals, with fairness for the thief, the murderer and the drug dealer, and firmness for the honest citizen and the compliant taxpayer,” said Ma.

It was precisely 23 days later that Ma was declaring in a Liberal party statement that he now believed the party was the best choice for “growing a strong Canadian economy, strengthening community safety, and creating real opportunities for young people and families who are working hard to build their Canadian dream.”

What’s also unusual about the Ma/d’Entremont defections is the sight of multiple MPs abandoning a party without any kind of core issue driving the exodus.

Defections of more than one MP at a time have really only happened a handful of times in Canada, and each time they occurred in the context of a seismic political event or an internal struggle over power.

In 1917, for instance, a whole faction of MPs left the Liberal party of Wilfrid Laurier over the issue of First World War conscription.

In 2001, the Canadian Alliance lost 12 MPs all at once due to disagreements with leader Stockwell Day. A similar mass-departure struck the Bloc Quebecois in 2018 over the leadership of Martine Ouellet.

But in their initial statements, neither Ma nor d’Entremont cited any common issue leading them to the Liberals, or specific grievance with Conservative leadership. d’Entremont is even on record as supporting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when his leadership was called into question in the wake of the 2025 federal election.

IN OTHER NEWS

After a weekend terrorist attack in Australia targeting Jews on the first day of Hanukkah, the Toronto Police issued a post on their social media feeds announcing stepped up security around Jewish sites and asking community members that “if you see anything suspicious please report it immediately.” The post was soon overwhelmed with replies noting the regular presence of masked men screaming for intifada in Toronto’s Jewish neighbourhoods, or outside Jewish community centers and places of worship, all of them usually accompanied by a police escort.

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.