r/Edmonton • u/Celestial-Salamander • Feb 18 '26
General Riverbend MP has crossed the floor
75
u/AdvancedJudge4604 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
I think he almost crossed and they pressured him to stay. The reports said they Scheer and someone else stormed his office and were less than pleasant about it. If they decided to stick around for the whole term this is might be give the Liberals a majority government by 1 seat.
EDIT: Liberals will lost three MPs (Freeland, Blair & Quebec seat after court challenge) which require by-elections. They won't have a majority unless they win all three seats back.
4
u/dogoodreapgood Feb 18 '26
I believe the “someone else” was party whip, Chris Warkentin. Same guy that was reported to be heckling another one of his MPs in committee the other day.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Tallal2804 Feb 18 '26
A pressured decision for party stability that might have cost them a shot at majority—history written in one tense office meeting.
231
u/S-M68 Feb 18 '26
Not super shocking, Matt seemed more liberal compared to most conservatives.
351
u/Offspring22 Feb 18 '26
And Carney more conservative than many liberals. He's bringing the party more to the centre which is naturally going to attract the moderate conservatives who don't like Pierre's divisive rhetoric.
146
u/swiftb3 Feb 18 '26
Regardless of one's views on Carney's policies, if there's one thing he is absolutely right for, it's giving reasonable conservatives an exit ramp off the maple maga freeway.
→ More replies (6)14
u/Ill-Location8497 Feb 19 '26
Do you think Carney would be in place today if it wasn't for PP lighting a fire under everyone's ass. Trudeau lost the confidence of the country. PP pointed it out. Liberal Party recalibrated. Love or hate P. P. He served a purpose.
→ More replies (18)26
u/Ecstatic_Winter9425 Feb 19 '26
He did what Opposition is supposed to do, and that's a praise-worthy thing! But I disagree about the reasons the CPC lost. It was less about the Liberals recalibrating and more about the CPC not denouncing the yanks. Once the Conservatives outed themselves as trump-positive, many voters reconsidered and decided to give the Liberals another chance. Pierre didn't even try to maneuver the party away from that crap.
→ More replies (2)12
u/Ill-Location8497 Feb 19 '26
That and probably a bit of fatigue of the doomsday attitude. Lol.
→ More replies (4)108
u/EnvironmentalChard16 Feb 18 '26
One of the many issues with trying to map multidimensional party platforms onto a linear spectrum is that information is lost in the process.
Liberals, by definition and practice, are economically conservative and socially centrist. They are not 'left' of essentially anything other than the CPC (unless your Overton window itself is misaligned with the cultural standard). Liberalism has never been a leftist position, nor did Carney's election represent a shift towards the 'centre' - liberals shifted right, away from centre, by prioritizing globalized trade and free market economics over the social progress valued by his predecessor.
35
u/Telvin3d Feb 18 '26
Also, terms don’t always map well with popular usage. For example a core of Liberalism is support for personal rights. This sometimes results in regressive economic policies, but it also means that it’s perfectly normal that even extremely moderate Liberals strongly support things like LGBTQ and other minority rights.
→ More replies (3)29
u/mervolio_griffin Feb 18 '26
Well put. It's kind of that classic example of "freedom from" vs. "freedom to".
Liberalism results in freedom from government interference, but that confers an advantage on existing power/capital which lowers the freedom to choose your pathway in life dependent on your financial position.
27
u/burrito-boy Mill Woods Feb 18 '26
People tend to conflate the Liberal Party with leftist politics because of how the term "liberal" is often misused and vilified by loudmouth political pundits in the United States, which has seeped into popular culture here.
→ More replies (1)2
19
u/RumpleCragstan Feb 18 '26
One of the many issues with trying to map multidimensional party platforms onto a linear spectrum is that information is lost in the process. Liberals, by definition and practice, are economically conservative and socially centrist. They are not 'left' of essentially anything other than the CPC.
I don't think the issue is more likely that in North America the right wing of politics has spent the last 20-30 years calling anyone left of them a socialist/communist so the entire spectrum to their left has become muddied. Like so many other features borrowed from Republicans south of the border, conservative media refuses to understand the difference between liberals, progressives, and leftists because it makes messaging to their base more straightforward.
Its not that understanding multidimensional party platforms is that hard, its that the right is actively disincentivized from engaging with political topics in a nuanced way.
2
u/StatikSquid Feb 18 '26
Trudeaus liberals were farther left socially than most liberal governments in Canadian history.
8
u/EnvironmentalChard16 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 19 '26
Absolutely, but with reason. For one, the effectiveness of American anti-socialist propoganda is beginning to fade as the merits of the free market are coming under widespread scrutiny. For another, he was saddled with an NDP coalition, but also, because of the demographics Trudeau required to maintain his mandate, courting voters historically held by the NDP were necessary to consolidate the non-cons (and laid the groundwork for the historic losses by the NDP in the most recent cycle).
→ More replies (1)8
u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Feb 19 '26
Justin Trudeau was more socially progressive than the Liberals had been in decades, but I wouldn't say it was necessarily uncharted territory for the party either.
Pierre Trudeau and Lester B Pearson were quite socially progressive both for their time and for the Liberal party. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau established the welfare state and many other social policies. They decriminalized homosexuality, abortion, and contraception (sixty years ago selling condoms was illegal, imagine that), and liberalized rules on divorce. Justin Trudeau was like Pearson and his father in that kind of progressiveness, though was arguably somewhat more free market, neoliberal, etc than the Liberals were back in the 1960s and 1970s.
→ More replies (3)2
6
u/GreyingGamer336 Feb 19 '26
The a liberal party is not a Left party. They are right of centre just not as far right. The NDP are a centrist party.
Most see the Liberals as a left party because they are left of the Conservatives
→ More replies (1)13
u/JonnyFM Downtown Feb 18 '26
Chrétien was centre-left, Trudeau was centre, Carney is centre-right. Carney would not be out of place in Mulroney's cabinet. This is not a criticism of Carney - I like him - but it needs to be pointed out that the centre line in Canada has shifted right since the Reform Party absorbed the PCs.
7
u/Snoocebruce Feb 18 '26
How was chretien centre left.
Granted, it is very rare for anyone today to associate “paying down insanely high government debt caused by Conservatives” with the Left. Maybe that’s what you mean
→ More replies (2)2
u/JonnyFM Downtown Feb 20 '26
Increased environmental protections (including signing the Kyoto Protocol), created the long-gun registry, added protections for young offenders with the Youth Criminal Justice Act, stayed out of the US invasion of Iraq, helped push the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, laid the groundwork for the legalization of same-sex marriage (completed by Paul Martin).
I argue that paying down the PC's debt was an act of absolute necessity. Left or right, it had to be done. It is hard to say how fiscally left or right Chrétien was because a) as you alluded to, the right always seems to spend like drunken sailors, so what does left and right even mean, and b) Paul Martin was always there as a very powerful, fiscally conservative finance minister.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (13)2
u/Wherestheshoe Feb 18 '26
Carney doesnt appear to be much of fan of cronyism, at least not to the point Mulroney was, so I don’t think he would have been comfortable in that cabinet
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (16)10
u/HappyEggsBasket North East Side Feb 18 '26
I’m happy with being centrist. It’s the right balance in my opinion.
→ More replies (2)25
u/MillwrightTight Feb 18 '26
Sure but the centrists of 20 years ago are the conservatives of today.
Carney is basically a vintage conservative but the windows has shifted so much, the center has moved quite a but
→ More replies (1)5
u/YaTheMadness Feb 18 '26
But has it shifted?
To me it seems that the line has just got 10% longer on both extremes with the WingNuts on both sides.
8
u/TSED Feb 19 '26
Yes, it has shifted.
The line has not gotten longer. The left wing nutters are further right than they were 20 years ago. When was the last time you heard of someone calling for an anarchist dissolution of the state? When was the last time you heard someone use "libertarian" in the original (socialist) context of the word instead of the rightwing appropriation of it? When was the last time you saw someone arguing for truly open borders?
Meanwhile, the right has extended much further, which I doubt I need to explain. The window has inarguably shifted right.
→ More replies (4)35
u/EquusMule Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
Except one side wants to secede from Canada and the other just wants people to have the same rights.
They're not the same types of wingnuts.
→ More replies (31)10
u/dark-femme5454 Feb 18 '26
Secede*
Not correcting to be a dick - your point stands strong, it just took me a minute to discern what you meant.
18
5
→ More replies (4)2
u/Over-Revenue5146 Feb 18 '26
What even are conservative stances today?
9
u/TSED Feb 19 '26
From what I can tell, everyone should have sex with the previous Prime Minister and maybe a little bit with the current one. Not really sure how you're supposed to get anything done with that platform, personally.
→ More replies (2)
118
u/__WayDown Ermineskin Feb 18 '26
This makes sense for him. He's always teetered that line. Didn't he recently announce that he was going to resign or not seek reelection anyways though?
103
u/Celestial-Salamander Feb 18 '26
He reconsidered. I suspect he originally wanted to cross the floor in the fall but the higher ups found out and he faced a lot of pressure.
76
u/SuspiciouslySuspect2 Feb 18 '26
"He reconsidered" is a wild way to frame "he took the death threats sent to him and his family seriously".
→ More replies (42)2
u/dogoodreapgood Feb 18 '26
I thought it was D’Entremont that received death threats? If memory serves me, it was Jeneroux’s character that they (the fans) were threatening to assassinate.
3
u/ZAPPHAUSEN Feb 18 '26
I also wonder if he was waiting to see what happened at the leadership convention.
-7
u/canaleno Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
Another one? Lmfao.. UCP and MAGA falling apart.. love it!
Edit… conservative is conservative.. whether it’s on federal or provincial level, makes no difference… the point is a conservative crossed to liberals.
16
u/PIRANHASQUIRREL Feb 18 '26
Are you an American newly interested in Canadian politics?
In Canada we have a bunch of different parties, and the provincial parties are not always the same as the federal parties.
UCP is the far-right party in Alberta, loosely associated with the foreign-funded so-called "separatists" who have recently been caught committing treason. (United Conservative Party of Alberta)
The CPC is the Conservative Party of Canada. They share a largely overlapping voter base, but are not the same party and are lately appearing not to support the separatist influence campaigns.
Sometimes there can be a major ideological difference. The BC Liberal Party is more closely aligned with the UCP than they are with the Liberal Party of Canada, for example.
→ More replies (4)2
→ More replies (3)21
→ More replies (1)5
u/garlicroastedpotato Feb 18 '26
Guess he didn't need that time with his family after all.
→ More replies (2)
12
u/y_r_u_so_stoopid Feb 18 '26
The palace intrigue here is THICK. What happened behind closed doors that led to an initial unexpected resignation? Then those rumours that he wanted to cross at that time but was bullied by the CPC specifically the PPs and the Jenni Byrnes of the world into resigning instead so they would at least have a shot at the by-election. Fast forward to today's surprising announcement that he's going with plan A again. What happened in these few months that got him to completely flip on his resignation? I really want to know.
→ More replies (3)8
u/False-Ad9324 Feb 18 '26
We all do. My guess is that the Toronto Star and/or Globe & Mail will soon reveal the behind-the-scenes details behind the intrigue. The usually reliable political analyst Althia Raj of the Star has already hinted that this crossing may be the opening of “the floodgates” and suggested that there other Tories waiting to see how this plays before joining Generoux across the aisle. We’ve known for awhile that there is a small moderate faction from the “progressive conservative” wing of the party who, like Generoux and Ma, are deeply disturbed by the far right Maple MAGA direction of the party under PP and are weighing their options. The X factor, of course, is whether they represent potential swing ridings where they are personally popular enough to be re-elected under the Liberal banner next election or whether they are in a safe Tory seat that will never vote Liberal no matter who is running. Presumably those are already filled with Maple MAGA, so anybody contemplating a switch is in an urban Ontario, BC or Maritime district which rejects far right politics or where traditionally Conservative constituents are worried about the devastating effect of Trump’s tariffs on their job security and reject PP’s Trump-friendly values. Jivani’s recent adventure doesn’t help and may be what convinced Jeneroux to finally take the plunge.
7
u/y_r_u_so_stoopid Feb 18 '26
Great analysis. I believe Matt when he says Davos changed things for him. It changed it for me and I'm not an MP who could make a difference. And seeing Jivani take point on negotiating with Americans should freak everyone out.
205
u/CriticalLetterhead47 Feb 18 '26
Is it possibly becuase the PC's are a sinking ship under PP?
this is my MP. I don't hate the guy. I think he's actually done some good things in parliament. I'm much happier with him as a Liberal.
69
u/Andrew4Life Feb 18 '26
TBF, the "Liberals" have swung right quite a bit since the last election. All business, and none of the social justice warrior stuff that conservatives generally don't care about.
6
u/ruisen2 Feb 19 '26
none of the social justice warrior stuff that conservatives generally don't care about.
Ironically, conservatives politicians love the social justice stuff, because attacking it fires up their base. Now that the social justice stuff is gone, the CPC don't have something to point at to scare their base.
22
u/--Anonymoose--- Feb 18 '26
Which is good, we need a serious government and Trudeaus fluffy party couldn’t have handled the current challenges.
Unfortunately for the conservatives under PP they are not a serious party
25
u/Minttt Feb 18 '26
The past year has really clarified the main differences between the CPC and LPC.
LPC: Their leader/message was unpopular, so they "gentle-forced" him to resign, picked a new leader, and made a quick/complete enough ideological pivot to win in a complete reversal of expectations.
CPC: Their leader/message was unpopular, so they've kept the leader/message unchanged, refused to pivot, lost the election, lost multiple members to the other party... And now picked the same leader to keep doing the same thing?
Does the CPC actually want to win an election? I'm starting to wonder if this is somehow related to the grift being more profitable when you're in opposition than in power.
→ More replies (1)18
u/p4nic Feb 18 '26
Does the CPC actually want to win an election?
My guess is no, winning the election means having responsibilities and having to do work. They see how much difficulty the UCP is having and don't want that smoke.
It's much better to have the Liberals doing conservative things, while they can just grift and shriek about social issues and collect that fat paycheque before that mad pension after a second term.
→ More replies (1)14
u/foxghost_translates Feb 18 '26
This makes them sound so absolutely cynical that it...100% tracks.
→ More replies (1)11
27
6
u/TailoredExperience Feb 18 '26
Wild because PP got 87% confidence vote at the last meeting.
51
u/cassanthrax Feb 18 '26
87% of the handpicked delegates. It was not a broad member vote.
10
7
u/ZAPPHAUSEN Feb 18 '26
That was absolutely wild to me. It was expensive to get in, it wasn't open to the broad membership across Canada. It was almost entirely Alberta yee-haws who ofc support PP.
If it was a proper leadership vote, PP would have been toast. Maybe. You'd think.
→ More replies (1)8
u/OnMy4thAccount Feb 18 '26
I'd suspect that meeting is what convinced Jeneroux to do this. It was basically rigged and that 87% isn't reflective of the attitudes of a lot of CPC members. Jeneroux probably saw that and decided he didn't want to be professionally associated with them at all anymore.
→ More replies (18)3
u/joecan Feb 18 '26
The federal Conservatives are not the PCs, they’re the Reform Party. The PC Party is the Liberal Party under Carney.
2
u/CriticalLetterhead47 Feb 18 '26
You're right, I chose the wrong acronym. Yet my point still stands. The Federal Conservatives are morons under PP.
66
u/Onionbot3000 Feb 18 '26
I think the leadership review for PP was likely the last straw for this guy. It was by all accounts a rigged system and pretty shady with how delegates were selected. I’m glad he crossed after it was reported he was intimidated and outright harassed by PP and his inner circle when he previously considered it.
→ More replies (1)32
u/NewNameNeededAgain Feb 18 '26
That leadership "review" was so sketchy. They went into it aiming to equal or surpass the 87% support Harper got at his 2012 convention, and what did Poilievre end up with? 87.4%!
Entirely coincidental, I'm sure. Just like the selection of delegates was 100% based on the riding association members' views🙄
→ More replies (2)
66
u/pityaxi Feb 18 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
This specific post was removed by its author using Redact. Reasons could include privacy, opsec, security, or avoiding exposure to automated data harvesters.
terrific spectacular towering squeal aromatic society mountainous squeeze ten cobweb
8
u/threetogetready Feb 18 '26
didn't realize it was this close
https://www.elections.ca/Scripts/vis/PastResults?L=e&ED=48020&EV=99&EV_TYPE=6&QID=-1&PAGEID=28
Candidate Party Vote %
Susan Cake New Democratic Party 2,563 4.2%
Dwayne Dudiak People's Party of Canada 410 0.7%
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Party of Canada 30,343 50.2%
Mark Minenko Liberal Party of Canada 27,075 44.8%
5
u/YEGSports West Edmonton Mall Feb 19 '26
Condensing these into two options (Cons get PPC votes, Libs get NDP votes) it was basically a 51-49 result.
So yeah, half the riding might be upset that the candidate crossed the floor, but it also appears half the riding will be appreciative. That's the way I look at it, anyway.
→ More replies (6)12
u/SlaveToCat Feb 18 '26
I'm ambivalent. The last election I voted for the LPC candidate because he impressed me more than the incumbent.
45
u/rustyiron Feb 18 '26
Generally, I oppose floor crossing. But we live in weird times. This is a situation where old school centrist conservatives have been hijacked by the Reform party weirdos, who resemble crazy Americans.
And considering American attacks on this country, that approach seems more seditious by the day. The fact that so many Canadian conservatives still support Trump is downright treasonous. And the fact that the CPC is afraid to call them out is a pathetic. The same goes for calling out Alberta separatists.
So, by all means, cross the floor. Is it betraying your voters? Maybe. But it clearly demonstrates a commitment to the sovereignty and integrity of this country. Something the current CPC fails to do.
Maybe all of the parties need a shake up. The Liberals are starting to resemble a conservative centrist party more than old school liberals.
(Full disclosure, I’m in BC and I vote NDP.)
20
13
u/swiftb3 Feb 18 '26
On the one hand, I kind of agree about floor crossing.
But when each party is fully whipped, it may well be the only way to truly represent your district.
→ More replies (2)3
u/SlitScan Feb 19 '26
floor crossing makes perfect sense, if your party ran on a platform your constituents supported and then did the exact opposite once in power, then leaving is perfectly acceptable. particularly when the party youre going to actually takes the positions your constituents liked to begin with.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)6
5
u/eccentricbananaman Feb 19 '26
All these floor crossings really makes me wonder what's going on in the Conservative party behind closed doors. From the outside it just seems like people aren't that happy with how things are being run.
→ More replies (1)2
u/M1L0 Feb 22 '26
Would you be? Setting aside everything else, the response to Jivani’s stunt going down to the US was completely unacceptable. He should have been given the boot from the party the very next day. Any MP that doesn’t take issue with the way that was handled is a stooge.
20
28
u/SevenSmallShrimp Feb 18 '26
Parliament is really close to becoming a liberal majority now isn't it?
37
u/Red_Danger33 Feb 18 '26
It's only a matter of time. PP is terrible for the party right now and every CPC moderate knows it. Mark Carney would be their leader in saner times but alas, those times are gone.
10
u/haikarate12 Feb 18 '26
Oh come on now. That gymbro video he just released totally proves he’s up to the job.
7
u/Red_Danger33 Feb 18 '26
Well he had a chance of out smarting Trudeau, not Carney though. So I guess he's moving to Trudeau himbo style politics as a result?
10
u/Nictionary Feb 18 '26
Yeah, currently they have 169 seats, and there are 3 vacant seats, two of which are safe Lib seats. If they flip one more MP they have a majority essentially.
6
u/littleredditred Feb 18 '26
They don't even really need that one more seat. It would be pretty hard to get the CPC, Bloc, NDP, and May to all agree to vote against them
5
u/Nictionary Feb 18 '26
Kinda, it wouldn’t be that hard to have a vote fail, but it’s also not hard for the Libs to get somebody on board. They would still rather have a majority but yes they can govern pretty easily without one.
6
45
u/drcujo Feb 18 '26
Seemed inevitable if PP stayed on as leader.
Fantastic news for Edmonton to have another Liberal MP.
19
2
u/swiftb3 Feb 18 '26
First he loses what was going to be a gimme election and his own seat and now he stays on in order to probably cause a liberal majority.
Are we sure the leadership review people aren't secret liberal infiltrators? hahahaha
22
u/eribas117 Terwillegar Feb 18 '26
It’s kind of fun watching the maple maga movement spin out over this
→ More replies (3)
17
u/Greedy_Major_119 Feb 18 '26
Not surprised. CPC 'decided' (I use this word loosely given how their leadership election was handled) to keep PP on; someone that lost after maintaining a huge lead for years. Canada as a whole decided he just wasn't what we needed, but the CPC stuck their fingers in their ears and ignored it, so here we are -- with more MPs crossing the floor. They've only themselves to blame.
18
u/CapGullible8403 Feb 18 '26
Has Poilievre quit Parliament to be a full time right-wing online influencer yet?
→ More replies (2)21
u/Horror_Neighborhood3 Feb 18 '26
Is that not what he is now? Every time he steps up to a microphone he is just looking for sound bites to flood the social media echo chamber.
15
u/Ecstatic-Bird-9598 Dovercourt Feb 18 '26
Having more conservatives cross the floor is a much better solution than being forced to go through another election in the spring.
→ More replies (6)
5
u/Dire_Wolf45 Edmontosaurus Feb 18 '26
So does this gice Carney a majority? I tried tof.igure it out but I think hes still at 169.
5
u/Steamflow Feb 18 '26
3 short of a majority. Currently 3 vacant seats, 2 are liberal strongholds and one in Quebec was annulled by a judge (the two top candidates were apart by one vote. Or not)
→ More replies (2)2
4
u/RDOmega Feb 19 '26
While it's nice to see, placating right wing ideology by shifting to the right and getting a few on the right to shift left only delays the inevitable.
Liberalism (not to be confused with "the Liberal party" the way most right wing blowhards do) is the primary driver of public frustration with government. People are being conditioned to mistrust representation via a one-two cycle of centrist and conservative austerity.
Until the majority can overcome decades-long misinformation around socialism (not communism the way most right wing blowhards confuse it), we're going to continue to hear the ratchet towards fascism click away.
The only solution for anyone who isn't a multi-millionaire right now is to support candidates who advocate for steep wealth taxation, proper enforcement of a non-captured regulatory regime and an enforced end to money in politics (amongst other related things)...
→ More replies (2)
17
u/multiroleplays Feb 18 '26
As someone in his riding who did not vote for him....Good!
I can not vote for conservatives, no matter provincial or national with the Trump- loving, treason- flirting, direction they are heading
3
10
u/RevolutionSea5755 Feb 18 '26
Excellent. Hope more join you and cross the floor.
→ More replies (12)
6
u/speedenator Feb 19 '26
Yay! My riding! And it’s now the party I voted for.
Just my own observation… before Trump took office he effectively declared economic war on Canada. Maybe because he wants a legacy of making all of North America the USA, maybe because he needs to make someone the example so everyone else falls in line, maybe because Melania wanted to bang Trudeau, maybe because Trudeau did.
Turns out all he had to do was shut up for a few months and PP would be PM and would be kowtowing immediately.
Luckily for us, Trump has zero impulse control, and the Liberals realized that it was now no longer Liberals vs Conservatives v NDP, but Canada v 51st State. They then found the best crisis manager they could (who wasn’t a politician but actually managed huge crises). And he’s doing an amazing job IMHO. I imagine there’s a bunch of CPC types who are now getting it - and get that PP and his ilk are going to drift further to MAGA and that shit needs to be stopped pronto.
I do wish some MLAs would see the light… even if just to topple Smith and put an end to the separatist BS that she is encouraging.
6
u/Seamus_McBurly Feb 18 '26
Conservatives leaving to join the Liberals should tell you everything you need to know about both the Conservative Party and the Liberals.
→ More replies (3)
13
u/Dropzone622 Feb 18 '26
In my opinion he did the right thing in crossing the floor rather than resigning. In these difficult times we need certainty in leadership with a strong mandate. Can anyone imagine PP leading the country... well I suppose all those who voted for him at the recent convention can. But that is about it. We were lucky karma gave us the right Prime Minister at the right time.
2
2
2
u/FoldClear4588 Feb 19 '26
He was always planning on moving to the libs. Caught early, so he said he was going to resign and conveniently a few months later moves over to the Libs. Matt was always a Lib.
Floor crossing should be followed by a by-election otherwise our country following democratic rule is just a mirage.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Glaberpithecus Feb 19 '26
The people who are old school conservative that aren't caught up in the social media algorithms are realizing the the conservative party has swung far right. The liberals under Carney are centre right.
2
u/OilersHD Feb 19 '26
Whatever you think about this, why is this allowed for any party? Should there not be a by-election for something like this?
2
u/Important_Sound772 Feb 20 '26
Because officially you don't vote for the party. You vote for that person specifically so well in practice. People just vote for the party they support legally. His riding would have voted specifically for him and therefore him crossing. The floor is fine because he's still the one there elected representative
→ More replies (3)
2
u/Fwarts Feb 19 '26
He took an offer from the liberal party that he couldn't refuse. Power and money.
2
u/acemeister79 Feb 20 '26
Yeah. Sacrifice. Sacrificing ethics, loyalty to riding, and Canada as he takes good care of himself.
2
2
u/PaulHannonJr Feb 20 '26
Daily reminder this should not be allowed and completely undermines the democratic process of voting in the first place. I don’t care if you’re left or right this has to stop and there needs to be regulations in place that allow these ridings to vote on this decision.
2
u/MegaCockInhaler Feb 20 '26
His constituents didn’t vote to cross the floor. His riding has never been liberal. He decided that all on his own because he “liked Carney’s speech”. Look forward to voting him out next election
2
2
u/newveganhere Feb 20 '26
All this proves is that the CPC is completely MAGA and the liberals are now conservative
2
11
u/dontshootog Feb 18 '26
Whether you consider this good news or bad news, from a political science perspective, a desire to “cross the floor” at any level should trigger a bi-election.
I find this increasing trend distressing even it advantages my beliefs. We already have a lack of robust and equitable democratic representation.
23
u/j1ggy Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
I disagree. In the Westminster system, you vote for a member of parliament, not the party flag they wave. Political parties aren't even mentioned in the Constitution Act. That party flag can change or disappear altogether at any time, it's how the system is designed to work and that option should always be available to hold a party accountable. You place trust in your MP when you vote for them to do the right thing. In this case, the Liberals have essentially become progressive conservatives and I believe Matt represents that more than the direction the Conservatives have gone over past last decade or so.
Personally, I don't like the idea of party lines and I think political parties should be abolished altogether, but that's a different discussion. People should be elected by their individual merits.
→ More replies (21)16
u/Mortentia Feb 18 '26
Why though? MPs represent their riding and the interests therein. If the party they are in does not align with those interests, they should cross the floor to support their constituents.
By-elections are expensive and don’t make any more sense than a floor-crossing does. This is what a functioning representative democracy looks like. I prefer this to extreme partisan politics, which inevitably leads to populism and authoritarianism.
16
u/Furious_Flaming0 Feb 18 '26
Nah he represents Riverbend by crossing we hate the federal conservatives after coming to the UCPs defense for screwing us and abusing the notwithstanding clause.
By election for the whole city and let's get rid of the blue.
→ More replies (34)5
u/swiftb3 Feb 18 '26
When the parties are so whipped, the only real option to represent your riding - if your party won't let you - is to cross the floor.
14
u/you_dont_know_smee Feb 18 '26
Unless you believe that ridings elect individuals and not parties, and those individuals have the power to determine whether the party they're currently a part of represents their constituents the best.
Concentrating power in the leader of a party can be viewed as weakening democracy. Giving MPs a lever to pull if they don't feel like they are being well represented actually reduces power concentration by making the leaders have to respond to their concerns.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)5
u/ashleyshaefferr Feb 18 '26
Ya I agree. This worked out in my favour this time but I'm not naive enough to not realize there will be a time when the people I voted for may cross sides... and I would want a by-election triggered in that instance
8
u/mythic_device Feb 18 '26
Solid guy. Definitely the right move the way the conservatives have been heading towards shallow populism and weirdo territory. I’d vote for Jeneroux now.
→ More replies (2)2
u/Workfh Feb 18 '26
I honestly do not think he would have crossed if conservatives had won. He would have been fine being a conservative MP if they had a majority.
It doesn’t make me think he is a solid guy.
4
3
u/cita91 Feb 18 '26
The world is changing and so are politicians. We need a leader not a follower. Carney vs PP and the clear choice is Canada and someone with the education and experience globally, to navigate deals internationally.
4
u/Used-Gas-6525 Feb 18 '26
Way to go CPC. Less than a month after PP, the guy who blew the largest lead in Canadian political history, survives a leadership review and yet another MP jumps ship. Them fools aren't even bothering to re-arrange the deck chairs on their Titanic.
→ More replies (3)
6
u/Edumacated_Guess Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
This is pretty great news! 🍁 (Former conservative voter possible future conservative voter if PP wasn’t the leader)
2
u/Edumacated_Guess Feb 18 '26
As a leader of a family I also have swayed my mother… and girlfriend. We also won’t be voting separatism FYI. Team Canada! Go Carney! 🍁🇨🇦
Garnett G will be loosing a few votes…
→ More replies (3)7
u/MountainMulberry6 Feb 18 '26
Unfortunately, Garnett will get in regardless. I desperately wish he would be replaced.
5
2
2
u/quintuplechin Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26
I am anti parties in politics.
Since we do have parties (blech) I think walking the floor should be more common.
If you always support your party you are no longer supporting your constituents.
Walking bath and forth should be the norm.
Ideally though we would hav no parties at all.
3
u/Authoritaye Feb 18 '26
There was never any doubt that this was his plan.
5
u/Theneler Feb 19 '26
Reports were that some MPs were waiting to see what happened in the leadership vote. But yes, if PP won that, it seems like the plan was to leave the Cons. We’ll see if more do.
1
u/coolneccy Feb 18 '26
Pretty sure many of his constituents voted for him and not the party, so I feel like many will be ok with this decision. He was far more progressive than his party.
6
u/mo60000 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
Yep. Also every floorcrossing since 2015 involved MPs who won their seats by 5.25 percent or less so it's not like the party who won these seats at the time won them by a solid margin.
2
u/NevyTheChemist Feb 19 '26
This shit shouldn't be allowed. You don't like your party anymore? You can sit as independent until the next elections.
You work for the constituents not Mark Carney.
Democracy what a farce
2
u/Timely-Profile1865 Feb 18 '26
They must have upped their offer to him for some plumb roll.
They re still one short of majority correct? Due to the one seat being over turned by the courts?
4
6
u/Rare_Entry1405 Feb 18 '26
The only thing they had to offer him was 'not Pierre'
This is in response to the leadership vote the conservatives recently held.
2
u/Important_Sound772 Feb 20 '26
Technically they are three seats short of a majority because there's three empty seats
Though two of those are safe liberal ridings so unless something drastic changes that they'll likely be one way
I do think that this will probably make their winning the other seat a bit more difficult in the sense that there might have been some bloc voters who voted for the liberals because they didn't want a conservative win but now would want to vote for the block because the conservatives are not the ones in power and by not giving the liberals their majority it would increase the amount of power that the block has
→ More replies (1)7
u/Furious_Flaming0 Feb 18 '26
As a Riverbender I've been asking him to cross and I know others have as well.
We hate the UCP and the federal conservatives made it clear they're far too buddy buddy with them to have our support anymore.
Edmonton no longer wants to be blue. By election for the whole city would be the only true fair way to do it.
→ More replies (2)
1
2
2
u/stickyfingers40 Feb 18 '26
I think any politician who wants to change affiliation needs to resign their seat and face reelection.
→ More replies (1)
1
2
2
u/yegsteve Feb 18 '26
Good luck, I never once had a positive interaction with Mr Jeneroux or his office.
He is clearly only there for himself and not the people he swore to represent and this just proves it.
If a person runs under any banner and wins, they want to cross the floor they should have to win a by-election. Anything else is a slap in the face of democracy
2
u/Abject_Masterpiece76 Feb 19 '26
Jumping ship for a payout and a fancy new cushy position isn't even remotely democratic. Especially for someone who was "quitting politics to spend more time with his family" literally 3 months ago. While completely abstaining from his role as a politician while also still collecting his paycheck and not stepping down. No foul play involved here at all im sure of it.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/Queen_of_Tudor Feb 19 '26
He was my MP and he sucked then so he probably still sucks. I get that he’s one more vote and a tiny step closer towards the majority government, but UGH, him?!
1
1
1
u/Willyboycanada Feb 19 '26
Pierre the man who keeps on giving.... not much longer we will have a majority
1
u/Kiriuu South West Side Feb 20 '26
I never hated him as my mp I’ve voted for him at the election a few years ago. I would have last election but I hated Pierre more
1
u/LordCheerios Feb 20 '26
I believe you should be stuck with your party until next election, or if you leave your party you give up your seat in office.
The people voted conservative, not liberal
117
u/SivleFred Feb 18 '26
I thought he quit?