Roundup: A melodramatic floor crossing

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So there was a bit of drama in the House of Commons yesterday as Liberal MP Leona Alleslev gave a speech that served as her rebuke to her own party and her signal that she was crossing the floor to the Conservatives. It’s unusual that this was done on the floor of the Commons as opposed to the usual manner of a surprise press conference where the leader comes out with his or her new MP, and they give a repudiation of the deserted party along the way. And while Alleslev told Power & Politics that she hadn’t made her mind up until the last minute, when she was giving the speech, she had reached out to Andrew Scheer in August and had conversations with him then. But considering that Scheer had already called a press conference for just before QP far earlier in the morning (after Candice Bergen already gave a press conference on the party’s plans of the fall), I’m calling bullshit on that explanation.

While I will defend the rights of floor crossers with my dying breath (and I have a column to that effect coming out later today), there’s something else in Alleslev’s speech that sticks in my craw:

“The government must be challenged openly and publicly. But for me to publicly criticize the government as a Liberal, would undermine the government and, according to my code of conduct, be dishonourable.”

This is ridiculous and wrong. Plenty of Liberal MPs have openly criticized the government. Some have faced minor punishments for it, others not, but I have yet to hear anyone saying that Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, for example, undermined the government. It’s the role of backbenchers to hold government to account, just as much as it is the opposition – they’re not supposed to be cheerleaders (which is especially why it’s frustrating that they treat their QP questions as suck-up opportunities, with the exception of Bill Casey). Government backbenchers get the added ability to have no-holds barred discussions behind the caucus room door with the PM and cabinet, which can be even more effective than opposition questions under the right circumstances. And her former caucus members have expressed some disbelief in her excuse that she’s said that – particularly that there were no warning signs (and I’ve heard this from numerous MPs).

I’m also a bit dubious with the reasons she’s given for why she’s decided to cross the floor, particularly because she recited a bunch of Conservative talking points that don’t have any basis in reality, such as the apparent weakness of the economy (seriously, the gods damned Bank of Canada says our economy is running near capacity and unemployment is at a 40-year low), and her concern about military procurement (she does remember the Conservative record, right?). Never mind the fact that she’s suddenly reversing positions she publicly held just weeks ago, as people digging up her Twitter history are demonstrating.

There is also a question of opportunism here, not only for what she thinks she may get by switching her allegiance to Scheer, but she may have read the tea leaves from the provincial election and gotten spooked. Whatever the reason, she made her choice as she has the agency to do, and her constituents will get to hold her to account for it, which is the beauty of our system.

Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt wonders if Alleslev’s defection means that Trudeau isn’t keeping pace with the rapid change of pace in politics (though I disagree with her on the calculations around prorogation).

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau had a one-on-one with Paul Wells last night (highlights here and here).
  • A clip is circulating about Trudeau getting frustrated with a Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations meeting going overboard. FSIN says they didn’t leak it.
  • While the Commons deals with enabling legislation for the TPP, Chrystia Freeland plans to return to Washington to talk NAFTA later in the week.
  • The government is signalling that they’re looking to recruit a retired judge, possibly a former Supreme Court justice, to guide the consultations for Trans Mountain.
  • Members of the flood-prone Kaschechewan First Nation were on Parliament Hill, and were promised interim and long-term solutions including relocation.
  • The Privacy Commissioner wants more powers to keep tabs on political parties’ use of data. Good luck to him with that.
  • The government is looking to delay Abousfian Abdelrazik’s lawsuit trial to “review the evidence,” which could delay things for years.
  • The ban on trans fats in foods is now in effect in Canada.
  • While Trump may rail about Canadian dairy protections, American protections around their sugar industry are far worse.
  • Here’s a look at Maxime Bernier’s Trump-esque social media strategy.
  • The Libertarian Party is contemplating letting Bernier’s new party take over theirs, but they have policy disagreements on things like drugs and open borders.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the value of written questions and answers in Parliament.
  • Chris Selley regales us with the gong show that was the midnight sitting of Queen’s Park on Monday.
  • Andrew Coyne laments the dysfunctional systems – including leadership selection – which led to Ford and his ability to abuse power.
  • Colby Cosh wonders about Maxime Bernier’s plans to run a full slate of 338 candidates, and how that may be his undoing more than anything else.
  • Kevin Carmichael writes about the shift in the government’s thinking when it comes to trade promotion, no longer content to let companies off the hook.

Odds and ends:

In this week’s Law Times, I write about the Supreme Court of Canada opting not to hear an appeal in the TREB case, and what that means for competition law.

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One thought on “Roundup: A melodramatic floor crossing”

  1. As a recovering partisan myself, I suggest you might want to relax just a little bit, Dale. You’ve got a whole year left to get Justin & Co. re-elected. No need to make that the prime objective of each blog post. The strain is starting to show.

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