Floor-crossing is suddenly all the rage in Ottawa, and each time an MP bolts their party to sit with another, it results in the usual gnashing of teeth and cries of outrage that somehow democracy has been thwarted.
Run in a byelection, some say. It’s unfair to the people who elected you in the first place, others insist.
To which I say: nonsense.
The fact is that our elected representatives at both the federal and provincial levels cross to different political parties quite frequently, albeit for vastly different reasons sometimes.
Some cross to a governing party because being in government is decidedly more rewarding than toiling away in Opposition. Others cross because their own party is falling apart, and they need to get out before everything crashes.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has so far been able to poach four Conservative Party MPs and one NDP MP, and it appears he is not done with wooing others into his party’s fold. But again: this is nothing new.
In fact, in the last 15 years, about 80 federal MPs and provincial MLAs have switched parties.
This province has a colourful and historical record when it comes to floor-crossers.
Eight current B.C. MLAs – Bruce Banman, Lorne Doerkson, Elenore Sturko, Teresa Wat, Trevor Halford, Ian Paton, Peter Milobar and John Rustad – all quit the B.C. United Party and crossed over to the B.C. Conservative Party and were all elected under that party’s banner.
One of the most important floor crossers in B.C. political history was W.A.C Bennett, who started his political career as a Conservative MLA, then was part of the Coalition Party and finally joined an obscure party called Social Credit.
He turned that party into a political dynasty, and he was premier for 20 years. His son, Bill Bennett, rebuilt the Social Credit party in the early 1970s by convincing B.C. Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis to cross over to his party and then successfully wooed three B.C. Liberal MLAs – Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer and Allan Williams – into the Socred tent.
With the help of those floor-crossers – all four of them became powerful cabinet ministers – Bennett went on to be premier for more than 10 years.
One B.C. riding – Atlin – has the unique distinction of being represented by two floor crossers in a row: Frank Calder, who went from being an NDP MLA to crossing over to the Social Credit Party. He was defeated in the next election he faced by Al Passarell of the NDP, who crossed to the Socreds a few years later.
In the 1990s, in the “get out while you still can” category, four Social Credit MLAs quit that disintegrating party to create the Reform Party of B.C. and two of them were re-elected.
Also in the 1990s, Gordon Wilson went from being B.C. Liberal leader to found the Progressive Democratic Alliance party to join the provincial NDP.
As you can see, floor crossing is an important part of our political culture, at both levels of government. Sometimes it is done for purely selfish and opportunistic reasons, other times for strategic reasons that pay off down the road.
The term itself originates, like so much of our political traditions and rules, in the London House of Commons, where the two main parties sat on benches across the floor from each other.
The most famous floor crosser of all sat in that chamber for decades.
His name?
None other than Winston Churchill, who started out as a Conservative MP and then crossed over to the Liberals, with whom he spent 20 years. He then crossed back to the Conservatives in 1924.
The odds are good that Carney will attract more Conservative MPs who may be tired of Pierre Poilievre’s leadership, or NDP MPs who want no part of new party leader Avi Lewis’ radicalism.
Floor crossing: get used to it.
Keith Baldrey is the legislature bureau chief for Global TV.
Keith.Baldrey@globalnews.ca
