The Canadian prime minister’s path to control of the House runs through disaffected Conservatives.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is not denying he’s in talks to woo more opposition lawmakers to join his Liberal government to secure a critical majority mandate.
“My view is, always, I will talk to anyone,” the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Carney’s government moved one step closer to locking a majority Tuesday after Chris d’Entremont resigned from the Conservative caucus and joined the Liberals. The bombshell caught Conservatives off guard and risks growing into more trouble for leader Pierre Poilievre months before a high-stakes leadership review.
The shock floor-crossing came about after POLITICO reported that d’Entremont was thinking about changing parties pending his take on the budget Carney’s government released Tuesday.
“He wanted to test what we were going to do in the budget and the scope of what’s required and to see that there was the alignment — and you can see that there is that alignment,” Carney said of d’Entremont.
The Liberals are now two seats away from gaining a majority number of seats to safeguard Carney’s ambitious legislative agenda until 2029.
Carney walked into the Liberal caucus meeting alongside d’Entremont. The room erupted with applause, and Cabinet ministers and MPs hugged d’Entremont as soon as he entered.
Liberal MPs won’t say who else they’re trying to poach.
While Conservative MPs aren’t putting to bed rumors that additional members could cross, they are largely avoiding reporters and taking back doors into their caucus room.
“I think it’s shameful. I’m angry,” Conservative MP Aaron Gunn told reporters Wednesday before heading into his caucus meeting.
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani piled on: “He’s an idiot!”
Government Whip Mark Gerretsen says he’s picked out a seat for d’Entremont in the House with the Liberal class of 2019.
The newest member of Carney’s government said Poilievre’s incompatible leadership style factored into his decision to quit the party.
“I didn’t find I was represented there, that my ideals of an easterner, of a red Tory, quite honestly,” d’Entremont said, joining Carney at his press conference at a train garage.
Shortly after d’Entremont’s resignation, members of the Conservative caucus started mudslinging, calling him a “coward.” Senior leaders of the party accused him of betraying the constituents of his Nova Scotia riding.
“I think they should look at themselves and see if they’re offering the right thing to Canadians, of trying to build for the world,” he said about the insults levied by his former colleagues.
“We have a great opportunity here in Canada, and rather than knocking people down, we should try to find ways to work together, and that’s what I’ve always tried to do.”
d’Entremont represents a rural riding with a military base, where fishery and agriculture are major economic drivers — demographics he said would be beneficiaries of Carney’s budget, a factor that contributed to his decision. He was elected by his peers in the House of Commons to be deputy speaker, the first person of Acadian descent to hold the position.
But he says his progressive Conservative stripe made him feel increasingly alienated in a party that has been moving more to the right under Poilievre.
Conservative MPs on the Hill on Wednesday insisted their party is a big tent that is welcoming to those who view themselves as more centrist. “Our party has lots of room for everyone who wants to make life more affordable for Canadians and Mr. d’Entremont seems like he’s not interested in doing that,” Conservative MP Michael Barrett told POLITICO.
Asked if not being backed by the Conservatives caucus in his bid to be speaker earlier this year played into his decision to cross the floor, d’Entremont said it was an “awkward” time.
Conservatives saw it as a political strategy to back a Liberal so the governing party would lose a vote in the House, given Carney’s thin minority margin.
“I think it was an awkward time. I was hopeful, as many people would be hopeful, but I did move on,” he said, adding that fundamentally his decision came down to “leadership styles.”