Michael Ma, MP for Markham-Unionville, makes remarks at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, Dec. 11.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The Ontario MP who broke with the Conservative Party and joined the Liberals last week said he made his decision to do so the same day his move was announced.
Michael Ma’s decision to cross the floor, announced Dec. 11, stunned his Conservative colleagues, as just the night before, he’d been at their holiday event, where he posed for photos with party leader Pierre Poilievre.
Mr. Ma told CP24 that on that evening, “I was truly a Conservative member and an MP.”
It wasn’t until a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney the next day that he decided switching parties was the right choice, he said in his first interview since his decision.
His move gives the Liberals 171 seats in the House of Commons, one shy of a majority.
A majority government built with floor-crossers is not legitimate, Poilievre says
Mr. Ma told the news channel he liked how Mr. Carney had moved the Liberals to the centre, and his focus on solving the country’s economic problems.
He also felt he could achieve more as a government MP for the people of Markham-Unionville, the Toronto-area riding he was first elected to represent in April.
Mr. Ma said he now has better access to ministers and the Prime Minister on their behalf.
“I think this is a better approach than creating very negative views and not finding solutions.”
Mr. Ma’s move was announced just hours after the Commons rose for the winter break, and that evening, he appeared alongside Mr. Carney at the Liberal caucus holiday party.
“You are going to have a much better time spending Christmas with us than Christmas with the cranks,” Mr. Carney said.
The move was a blow to Mr. Poilievre, and he and his MPs were highly critical of Mr. Ma’s decision.
Among other things, they circulated photos of him attending their party’s holiday event and pointed to statements Mr. Ma had made just days prior attacking the Liberal government, including its record on crime.
Mr. Ma said his principles have not changed.
“I’m still believing in fighting crime and growing the economy,” he said in the interview.
House Leader says there are other frustrated Conservative MPs
Mr. Ma was the second Conservative MP to leave the party this fall; Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont joined the Liberals in November.
In a year-end interview with The Globe and Mail this week, Mr. Poilievre did not answer a question about whether he thinks Mr. Ma is the last of his caucus to cross the floor.
He accused Mr. Carney, however, of trying to engineer a majority government with floor-crossers to avoid accountability.
“The reason he wants to get a costly majority through floor-crossing is so that he can implement a very unpopular and expensive agenda that is the opposite of what Canadians voted for, without any accountability for the next three years,” Mr. Poilievre said.
In his own rounds of year-end interviews, Mr. Carney has said he’s not recruiting MPs, but they are coming to him.
The Prime Minister was asked by CBC whether he’s comfortable obtaining a majority through MPs who cross the floor, and he said he was “comfortable commanding the confidence of the House of Commons.”
“We’re in a Parliament, and when we pass legislation, we need more people voting for it than against it,” he told host Rosemary Barton.
“Last time I checked, that’s the way Parliament works.”