Conservative Mp Joins Canada’s Liberal Government, Moving Carney Closer To Majority Government

OTTAWA — A Conservative MP has crossed the floor to join Canada’s Liberal Party, moving Mark Carney one step closer to securing a majority government. The move reflects a concerted push from the Liberals to ensure Carney’s legislative agenda is safe until 2029.

"After serious consideration and thoughtful conversations with constituents and my family, I came to a clear conclusion: there is a better path forward for our country,” Nova Scotia MP Chris d'Entremont said in a statement Tuesday. "Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering that path.”

Earlier in the day, d’Entremont told POLITICO he was thinking about crossing the floor, and that he would decide “in the next few days” after reviewing the federal budget.

Shortly after the story was published, he resigned from the Conservative caucus and joined the Liberal Party.

"After five years of serving in opposition, the people of Acadie-Annapolis and all Canadians know that the moment we face today needs all of us to lead — not with complaint, but with confidence in a strong future,” d'Entremont said in his statement.

"This is an important moment for the country to come together, and I am looking forward to working with the Prime Minister to build the strong economic future that all our communities deserve."

The Conservative Party didn’t respond to a request for comment.

d'Entremont had pointed to his narrow margin of victory in the last election — he beat the Liberal candidate by 1.1 percent — and said he is looking at what’s best for his constituents.

If two more additional Conservatives MPs join the Liberals, Carney’s majority would be secured. d'Entremont said the Liberals have been courting other Conservatives who view themselves as centrists, but he would not disclose who.

“You’d have to ask them,” he said. He also declined to say who was doing the courting, and whether or not conversations included the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Nova Scotia MP had a recent falling out with his party after its caucus refused to back him as speaker for House of Commons, a position d'Entremont has sought more than once. He previously served as deputy speaker of the House.

His views are more in step with Carney, who is seen as leaning further right than previous Liberal leaders. He is also well-liked within the Liberal Party, and is not known to buy into the right-wing populist movement that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre embraces.

d'Entremont's stunning comment came before Carney unveiled his first federal budget, which pledged "generational investments” and is up for a critical confidence vote in the House of Commons that could make or break his government.

He did not sit with the Conservatives when the budget was read aloud in the House. He walked out of the House with the budget in his hand. “Chris made a decision, and he made a decision not to fight inflation and not to lower the cost of food and not to do any of the things that he was sent here to do by his constituents,” Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman said Tuesday.

Some of his former caucus colleagues expressed shock at the announcement.

“It is hard to find the words,” Conservative MP David Bexte told reporters. Other Conservative MPs had only nice things to say about d'Entremont, with one MP comparing his defection to a divorce.

Government whip Mark Gerretsen said there is room for more additions. “We always have seats on our side for anybody that wants to join our party. We're a big tent party,” Gerretsen said.

“The reality is, what we’re seeing in the Conservative political party is that that progressive movement is dead,” he added. “Chris d'Entremont is a progressive conservative and he's looking for a new home.”

Carney, a former central banker who campaigned on being a bulwark to Donald Trump, was elected in April with a minority government — just three seats shy of a majority mandate.

In recent weeks, Poilievre, a right-wing populist leader, has faced criticism from within his caucus for calling the past leadership of the national police force “despicable,” accusing the former brass of covering up for then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s scandals.

Poilievre later walked back the comments, but Conservative MPs who lean moderate were put off by his comments. It exposed a rare sign of disagreement within the party’s typically united front, and came as Poilievre works to convince his party to keep him on as leader ahead of a leadership review in January.

Trump’s rise stateside killed Poilievre’s favored odds of winning government earlier this year after voters chose Carney’s economic credentials over the career Conservative politician.

Carney's rightward shift of the Liberal camp has served a strategic purpose. By consciously distancing the current iteration of the Liberal Party from progressive predecessor Trudeau, Carney hopes to court more Conservative support.