EDITORIAL: ‘Quiet coup’ fuels cynicism with voters

The gleeful celebrations of floor-crossing by Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet are disturbing.

Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, rumoured to be the person responsible for wooing former Conservative MP Michael Ma onto the Liberal side of the House, sounded especially smug in recent statements.

“I’m getting a lot of inquiries,” Hodgson told a Toronto news conference, when asked if more Tories were preparing to defect.

This is taking on an undemocratic tone. The will of voters has been subsumed by a post-election game of Let’s Make a Deal.

Two Conservatives have now defected and a third has said he’ll resign in the new year. Nova Scotia’s Chris D’Entremont quit the Tories last month to sit as a Liberal. Ontario’s Michael Ma fled the Tories for the Liberals a day after attending the Tories’ Christmas party.

Matt Jeneroux, from Edmonton, will quit at an unspecified date.

There’s grumbling from them about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s acerbic style. Well, D’Entremont wasn’t a newcomer to Parliament.

He shouldn’t have run again in April if he had a problem. Ma has barely been an MP for eight months. Poilievre’s abrasive style was evident well before that. If they were so offended, why did they run?

They’ve disenfranchised the people who voted for them.

This “quiet coup” has led to cynicism among voters, who now see no reason to vote.

There has been no radical change in policy by the Conservatives. Voters are left with the impression that these defections were more about personal ambition than political persuasion. Voters spoke — and they gave Carney a minority government.

They wanted him held to account. And voters are always right.

This is not to give Poilievre a free pass. Clearly, he has management problems he needs to address.

It’s time to consider legislation banning floor-crossing.

If you’ve lost faith in your party, quit and run in the byelection. Politicians don’t get elected in a vacuum. There are countless volunteers and donors at the riding level who supported them.

Both Ma and D’Entremont should return all their political donations now that they’ve betrayed the people who supported them.

Politicians have trust problems at the best of times. Hodgson’s comments reek of grubby backroom deals that have no place in our politics.

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