Floor-crossings are part of a Canadian tradition – and fair play in our politics

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John Ibbitson is a writer and journalist.

Much is being made of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s successful efforts to poach MPs from both the Conservative and New Democratic parties in an effort to convert his minority Liberal government into a majority.

But these MPs’ parliamentary perambulations are small potatoes compared to events in the early 2000s. Floor-crossings in those years helped determine the future of the conservative movement, the fate of a Liberal government and Canada’s foreign policy. Herewith, a brief history lesson on that era – the golden age of crossing the floor.

In 2001, a number of MPs who had been members of the newly created Canadian Alliance, successor to the Reform Party, were so unhappy with the leadership of Stockwell Day that they effectively crossed the floor by creating the Democratic Representative Caucus, which was quickly dubbed the Rebel Alliance. Most of them returned to the fold when Stephen Harper replaced Mr. Day as leader.

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Mr. Harper subsequently negotiated the union of his Alliance Party with Peter MacKay’s Progressive Conservatives, creating today’s Conservative Party of Canada. But former PC leader and prime minister Joe Clark was so unhappy with the merger that he decided to sit as an independent Progressive Conservative, as did MPs André Bachand and John Herron. Scott Brison, another former PC MP, crossed the floor to the Liberals, eventually serving in the cabinets of prime ministers Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau.

But the biggest floor crossings were yet to come.

In May, 2005, Mr. Martin’s Liberal minority government was in danger of defeat at the hands of Mr. Harper’s Conservative Party and Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Québécois, amid the revelations of the sponsorship scandal, involving Quebec advertising firms, contracts for which no work was done, and kickbacks to the party’s Quebec wing.

As the non-confidence vote approached, Mr. Martin called a news conference, to take place at the National Press Theatre. As he emerged from his car in front of the National Press Building, commentator Don Newman exclaimed, live on CBC, “Holy mackerel!” For there, beside the prime minister, was Belinda Stronach.

The daughter of former auto-parts magnate Frank Stronach, who is currently on trial over allegations of sexual assault, she was at that time the Conservative member of Parliament for Newmarket-Aurora, a former candidate for the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party, and the girlfriend of then-deputy leader Mr. MacKay.

But Ms. Stronach had never been happy under Mr. Harper’s leadership, and here she was accompanying the Liberal prime minister, jilting both the Conservative Party and Mr. MacKay. When Mr. Martin insisted her appointment to cabinet had nothing to do with the upcoming vote of non-confidence, reporters laughed openly. The Liberals survived when the speaker of the House broke a tie vote by supporting the government.

And then came the greatest floor-crossing of them all.

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David Emerson, a former corporate executive and senior public servant, had joined Mr. Martin’s cabinet because he was impatient with Canada’s lacklustre effort to solve the softwood lumber dispute with the United States and with the government’s inability or unwillingness to forge new trade agreements. He ran for office to get Big Things Done.

But when Mr. Harper’s Conservatives defeated Mr. Martin’s Liberals in January, 2006, Mr. Emerson suddenly found himself a backbench opposition MP, which was no fun at all.

Shortly after the election, John Reynolds, a senior Conservative MP, bumped into Mr. Emerson at the Vancouver airport. They got to talking, and soon Mr. Emerson was talking to the incoming prime minister, who offered him the portfolio of international trade.

When the cabinet was unveiled on Feb. 6, the man who had been elected as Liberal MP for Vancouver Kingsway was now a Conservative cabinet minister. Critics and constituents howled, but Mr. Emerson couldn’t have cared less. He resolved the softwood lumber dispute, launched a series of trade talks, and chose not to run in the 2008 election.

Canadians do not vote for prime minister or for a political party; they vote for one of the candidates in their riding. Whichever party can command the support of a majority of legislators following the election forms the government.

Critics, including NDP Leader Don Davies, have argued that MPs who switch parties should submit their decision to their constituents through a by-election. But that’s not how the system works. Parties attract and lose MPs through floor-crossings based on the party’s policies and leadership. Thus it has always been and will ever be.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this column incorrectly stated that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called for by-elections for MPs who cross the floor.