EDITORIAL – Trying to solve the floor-crossing dilemma is a waste of time

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

CROSSING THE FLOOR is a wonderful thing if you’re the recipient party. If you’re the party losing a Member of Parliament, not so much. Just listen to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. In the wake of the latest defection from his party to the Liberals (Ontario MP Marily Gladu), he’s had a lot to say.

“Mark Carney is saying to Canadians: ‘Your vote does not count,’ he says, describing recent floor crossings in which he’s lost several MPs as “dirty backroom deals.”

In 2018, Liberal MP Leona Alleslev crossed the floor to the Conservatives. It had all the earmarks of opportunism. But nobody in the Tories said the party should have turned her away.

The results for Alleslev, career wise, were mixed. She was re-elected as a Conservative in 2019 and became then-leader Andrew Scheer’s deputy leader. She lost her seat to a Liberal in 2021 but tried for the Conservative leadership, failing to raise enough money.

Then, she decided to run for the Conservatives again in 2025 but soon gave up on that option.

Point is, federal political parties are always on the lookout for potential defectors from other parties and if they become available, they never turn down the opportunity.

And it’s all perfectly legal. Yet three in four Canadians, according to a recent poll, don’t like it, and believe changes are needed. There are several “better” ways of dealing with floor crossings. One is to legally ban them. Another is to impose a 30-day cooling off period before a floor crossing becomes finalized.

And, possibly the most popular option, is a requirement that any politician who wants to change parties in mid-stream should be required to resign and run again in a by-election.

All of them have flaws. As the late MP and Senator Len Marchard used to say, “We aren’t robots.” Politicians have brains, he said, and they have their own opinions and principles not dependent on party affiliation.

A so-called “cooling-off” period would be ridiculously stressful to the entire political system. And calling a by-election every time an elected representative contemplated switching sides would be an expensive imposition.

There are various reasons for floor crossings. One might be that an MP’s politics simply fail to align with the original party of choice. Another might be good old opportunism. Or unhappiness with one’s leader. Or a simple wish to be on the winning side for a change.

For their part, voters have different reasons for making their choices, too. Some vote for the party, some for the leader, some for the candidate. And some just close their eyes and make their mark.

There’s no easy way to fix all that — assuming it needs fixing — nor to guarantee any sort of consistency or fail-safe process. And the fact is, most people get over any misgivings about floor crossings very quickly. There are more important things to worry about.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.