COLUMN: Think Again – Unprincipled floor crossings make everyone look bad

It seems that hardly a week goes by when we don’t hear about yet another politician crossing the floor. Earlier this month, former B.C. Conservative MLA Amelia Boultbee, who left the Conservative caucus in October 2025 to sit as an independent, officially crossed the floor to join the governing NDP.

Unsurprisingly, B.C. Premier David Eby was more than happy to hold a press conference with the newest member of his caucus. The addition of one more MLA to the B.C. NDP gives the governing party of that province a little more breathing room, which means their razor-thin majority no longer hangs by a thread.

Of course, the most high-profile floor crossings took place at the federal level. Four Conservative MPs and one NDP MP left their respective parties earlier this year to join Mark Carney’s Liberal caucus. These defections moved the Liberals from a minority government to a majority.

Probably the most shocking defection was when former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu crossed over to the Liberals. Gladu had a long-established fiscally and socially conservative voting record, and she hailed from a riding with a solid history of voting Conservative. Her defection made no sense. Naturally, this led some observers to speculate that Gladu was promised something for her support.

I can only imagine how upset many of Gladu’s former supporters must feel by her betrayal. They worked hard to elect a Conservative MP only to see her turn around and join the governing Liberals. If voters in her riding wanted a Liberal, they would have voted for the Liberal candidate in last year’s general election. They elected Gladu because they wanted a Conservative MP, which they no longer have now.

Defenders of these floor crossings are quick to point out that there is nothing new about politicians leaving one party and joining another. Throughout Canadian history, we can find plenty of examples of politicians crossing the floor for one reason or another.

One of the most famous examples would be former Conservative MP Belinda Stronach dramatically crossing to the Liberals in 2004, thereby providing Paul Martin’s minority government the extra vote he needed to survive a crucial confidence vote. Stronach was immediately rewarded with a prominent cabinet position.

A similarly dramatic crossing took place in 2006 when former Liberal MP David Emerson immediately joined Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet after the Liberals were defeated.

These are the kinds of floor crossings that leave a bad taste in most people’s mouths. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that opposition politicians who brazenly join the government caucus and then go straight into cabinet are putting their own interests first.

However, not all floor crossings are the same. Some politicians leave their party over clearly defined points of principle. For example, former Liberal MP Leona Alleslev left Justin Trudeau’s government in 2018 to join the opposition Conservatives because she disagreed with the Liberal government on economic policy and foreign affairs. Notably, Alleslev didn’t receive any reward for crossing the floor since the Conservatives were in opposition and had nothing to offer her.

Clearly, there is a big difference between politicians who leave a government caucus over a point of principle and those who join the government caucus for no obvious reason other than personal advancement. Seeing one politician after another defect to the government caucus over the last few months gives all politicians a bad name.

We need fewer politicians like Marilyn Gladu and Amelia Boultbee who cross the floor for no reason other than simply wanting to be in government. These are the kinds of floor crossings that reflect badly on everyone.

Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.