There was a somewhat shocking turn of events yesterday as Green MP Jenica Atwin suddenly crossed the floor to the Liberals, after weeks of turmoil within the party over the policies around Israel. When Atwin made comments about Israel being an apartheid state, one of leader Annamie Paul’s advisors threatened her position, and she decided it was time to go. Remember also that the NDP have a Thing about floor-crossing, and wouldn’t have accepted her, leaving her with just the Liberals as a potential home rather than staying an Independent – no doubt increasing her chances at re-election. She insisted that all of her previous comments and votes stood, no matter that she was now a Liberal, so perhaps she will remain among the more “maverick” MPs in the caucus who don’t all toe the line in the same way.

Annamie Paul’s statement on Jenica Atwin’s defection to the Liberals. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/jmWDTgHXfn

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 10, 2021

Paul Manly and Elizabeth May are pointing fingers with Atwin’s defection. The Green Party’s internal drama continues. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/evxygbX1po

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 10, 2021

https://twitter.com/DavidWCochrane/status/1403096836383166465

And there is the Conservative spin on the Atwin floor-crossing. https://t.co/oQ7TSqknCH

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 10, 2021

Of course, with any floor-crossing, we get the same tired chorus of voices demanding that anyone who does cross must immediately resign and run in a by-election, which is nonsense in the broader context of how our system works. We elect MPs – we don’t elect parties, even if that’s your calculation when you go into the voting booth. Why this distinction matters is because we empower MPs to act on our behalf, regardless of the party banner, and then we get to judge them for their performance in the next general election. Sometimes MPs will need to make decisions to cross the floor for a variety of reasons, but usually because it’s intolerable in their current situation, and they make the move. We empower them to do so because our electoral system gives them agency as an individual – they’re not a name off of a list because the party got x-percentage of a vote.

This absolutely matters, and we need to enshrine their ability to exercise their ultimate autonomy if we want our system to have any meaning. Otherwise we might as well just fill the seats with battle droids who cast their votes according to the leader’s wishes, and read pre-written speeches into the record that the leaders’ office provided. The trained seal effect is bad enough – we don’t need to erode any last vestiges of autonomy to please the self-righteous impulses of a few pundits who think that this kind of move is heretical or a betrayal, or worse, to appeal to the desire by certain parties (in particular the NDP) to have their power structure so centralized that they see their MPs as a mere extension of their brand rather than as individuals. Parliament means something – the ability of MPs to make ultimate decisions needs to be respected in that context.

Good reads:

• The government is moving to extend sittings to get legislation passed, which people seem to forget is something that tends to happen at the end of each sitting.
• Dominic LeBlanc says that the short list for the next Governor General will be turned over to the prime minister in the next couple of days.
• Carolyn Bennett says that the government is reaching out to Indigenous communities to let them know about funding to help search for more grave sites.
• The government tabled a bill to make pardons cheaper and easier to obtain (though it’s not going to advance anywhere before the fall).
• The Privacy Commissioner reports that the RCMP broke privacy laws by using Clearview AI’s facial recognition in mass surveillance, and then lied to him about it.
• There was an eruption in the Senate after Senator Plett asked if Senator McCallum holding an eagle feather fan during a speech counted as a prop. (He withdrew).
• The Ethics committee tabled their report on the WE Imbroglio, and it’s full of demands to give yet more powers to unaccountable Officers of Parliament.
• Ralph Goodale told the Commons transport committee that because Iran continues to lie about what happened to Flight PS752, Iranian airspace remains unsafe.
• Here is a look at how the Conservatives are starting to change their tune around Islamophobia, ever so slowly, since the days of the M-103 debates.
• Heather Scoffield argues that our need for new immigrants for economic reasons needs to be coupled with our need to fully embrace diversity and inclusion.
• Colby Cosh walks through the court decision on Ontario’s pre-writ spending limits and Doug Ford’s decision to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause to counter it.
• My Xtra column is an introduction to Senator René Cormier, who is sponsoring the conversion therapy-ban bill in the Senate.

Odds and ends:

MP Qaqqaq just told #INAN that the Kamloops discovery was provincially funded. Media had originally reported that, but the band had pointed me to federal funding.

This is the Canadian Heritage grant: https://t.co/sBtD2QFG9S pic.twitter.com/GsfwTx9oac

— Dylan Robertson (@withfilesfrom) June 10, 2021

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