Floor-crossing ends with leader-tossing

Quiz time. Who made these statements?

“A politician who crosses the aisle has shown tremendous courage in putting their principles first.”

“Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, I believe members of Parliament should have that freedom [to cross the floor to another political party]…In my observation, the only parties that really have this as an obsession are the parties that no one ever crosses to.”

And, my personal favorite: “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.”

The first two speakers are former Conservative Party leaders Andrew Scheer and Stephen Harper, respectively. The last quote is attributed to one Winston Churchill, who you may have heard of.

The greatest Parliamentarian of all time may or may not have actually uttered those words (and, given that Churchill was possessed of a formidable wit, it’s likely he did). But this much is true: Churchill crossed the floor of the British Parliament more than once. In 1904, from the Conservatives to the Liberals. In 1924, he journeyed back to the Conservatives. In between, he was an anti-socialist independent.

Churchill was a human weathervane: he went wherever the political winds took him.

So, to all of you Tories kvetching about the pro-convoy so-con kook Marilyn Gladu leaving the Conservatives to join the Liberals? Take a Valium. Chill out. It happens.

And your party has benefitted from floor-crossing, too.  Leona Alleslev left the Grits to join the Tories, for example. So did David Emerson, and was rewarded with a cabinet post for doing so. And, at the provincial level, your team has benefitted from floor-crossers many, many times - including just a couple weeks ago, when a Member of Quebec’s National Assembly jumped from the government to the Conservative Party of Quebec.

So, it’s like Prime Minister Harper said: the people who complain about floor-crossing are usually the ones watching the receding backs of a former colleague. Stop your complaining, and focus on the real problem.  

Your real problem, to put a fine point on it, is the trim, smiling guy in the front row: Pierre Poilievre.

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