As everybody in Canada surely knows by now, Alberta Member of Parliament Matt Jeneroux has crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals, who whether you like it or not appear still to be the Natural Governing Party of Canada.
Jeneroux made the announcement in a letter published on social media in which he said after listening to Carney’s world-famous Rupture Address in Davos last month he had concluded we are living through a moment “that demands steady leadership, constructive collaboration between all Parliamentarians, and a willingness to stand up and serve even when the path is not easy.”
Accordingly, he continued, dropping his metaphorical bombshell: “After further reflection with my family, and conversations with colleagues and constituents, I will be continuing to serve in Parliament – and I will be working with Prime Minister Mark Carney as part of his new government …” Boom!
In a social media statement, Prime Minister Carney added that he was “honoured to welcome Matt Jeneroux to our caucus as the newest member of Canada’s new government. Building a stronger, more resilient, and more independent country will require ambition, collaboration, and occasionally, sacrifice.”
Naturally, the Opposition Conservatives are apoplectic. They must have thought last fall when there were rumours Jeneroux might be pondering executing a floor crossing that they had successfully bullied the former “progressive conservative” Edmonton MP into shutting up for the time being and then quitting quietly this summer.
Apparently things were bad enough at that time that Jeneroux felt compelled to issue a social media statement saying, no, no one had threatened him. He announced his plans to remain in Parliament for a spell, then quit, in the same fashion.
Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who blew a 27-point lead in the polls to lose last April’s federal election and his own Ontario seat, immediately said Jeneroux had “betrayed the people of Edmonton Riverbend who voted for affordable food and homes, safe streets, and a strong resource sector.”
Well, one can feel a certain sympathy with that point of view and still not feel very sympathetic with Poilievre, who has too much of a whiff of the MAGA about him for a lot of Canadian voters.
There’s no question Poilievre has been wounded again by Carney’s strategy. With Poilievre now back in the saddle as the just-re-ratified Conservative leader and back in his native Alberta as short-term MP for Battle River-Crowfoot, he appears to be a liability both for the Conservatives and the folks in his riding who are stuck with him for the indeterminate future.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Carney has found an unconventional route to building the majority he couldn’t quite win last April 28. Every time Poilievre scrambles back to his feet he gets knocked down again, just as he was in November when Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed to the Libs and in December when Ontario MP Michael Ma did the same thing. There are probably more Conservative MPs waiting in the wings, and maybe some New Democrats too if the party chooses the wrong leader next month.
We haven’t seen anything quite like this out here in Tory Blue Alberta since April 20, 1977, when Cactus Jack Horner of the Conservative Horner political clan made the same trip from the Opposition benches to Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government’s side of the House. That made 4/20 a day that lived in infamy in Alberta until PM Justin Trudeau’s government legalized cannabis in in 2018, which may account for a certain amount of forgetfulness among much of the Conservative base.
Horner went straight into the Liberal cabinet, where he remained until 1979, when he was defeated along with the elder Trudeau’s Liberal government. By 1980, the Liberals were back, but without Horner, who was punished by the voters of his Crowfoot riding – perhaps ironically essentially the same territory as that now represented by Poilievre.
So those things may or may not be a harbinger of what will happen to Jeneroux, who may or may not have plans to remain in politics after the next federal election. In the meantime, he is said to abide in Vancouver when he’s not in Ottawa.
For the time being, Carney said in his statement: “As a new special advisor on economic and security partnerships, Matt’s leadership will contribute to strengthening Canada’s alliances and trade partnerships, advancing Canada’s leadership in global security cooperation, and building our strength at home.”
It’s a pity that the late Alberta Premier Jim Prentice isn’t still around to observe this demonstration of the right way to organize a mass floor crossing.
Prentice briefly appeared to be some kind of political genius on December 17, 2014, when it was revealed he had persuaded Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith and eight of her MLAs to cross the floor of the provincial Legislature en masse to join his Progressive Conservative government.
Alas for all concerned, astonishment soon turned to outrage, Smith’s political career quickly soured for a long spell, and the ensuing brouhaha played a significant role in the election of Rachel Notley’s NDP in May 2015.
Probably the first political casualty of the mass floor crossings of 2014 was Rob Anderson, MLA for Airdrie at the time, who in 2010 had quit the PCs and crossed the floor to join the Wildrose Party and then crossed back with Smith, making him a double floor crosser. In January 2015, presumably reading the handwriting on the wall, he announced he was leaving politics.
Unfortunately for Alberta, it could be argued, like Smith, Anderson found a second life in politics with the United Conservative Party. She’s the premier and he’s her chief of staff, an intemperate social media commentator, and a co-author of the separatist Free Alberta Strategy that appears to have been fully adopted by the party.
Carney, meanwhile, is demonstrating a more effective way to use floor-crossings to keep his political opponents off balance is to make one bombshell announcement at a time.
