Though I don’t claim to follow Canadian politics particularly closely, I couldn’t miss the chance to highlight an interesting Crossing the Floor story. Last week, on Wednesday the 5th of November, Chris d’Entremont quit the Conservative Party to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal party. This was particularly dramatic as it came after Carney presented his budget to the Commons. The MP from Nova Scotia said he “wasn’t feeling […] aligned with the ideals of [the Conservative Party Leader, Pierre Poilievre]” and that he felt there was “a better path forward for [the] country”. Following the defection the Liberals are now only two votes short of a majority and Chris d’Entremont teased there were other Conservatives MPs “in the same boat” as him.

In a blow to Liberal hopes of further defections, Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux announced he’d be resigning his seat on Thursday after much speculation he too was considering crossing the floor. Though disappointing news for Prime Minister Carney, it’s hard to see how the Conservatives losing two MPs in the space of a few days is anything but bad news for Poilievre. Conservative Party brass have reportedly been making concerted efforts to quell any further haemorrhaging to the Liberals and appear happy they’ve stopped additional defections in the short term. Several MPs like Quebec MP Dominique Vien have taken to social media to reassure constituents and party faithful they won’t be party switching.

I’m writing this on the 7th of November and scheduling it to publish on the 12th so it’s quite possible there will have been further developments by the time this short blog releases.

If I were to offer some brief final thoughts and analysis, it’s important to note the narrow margin that Chris d’Entremont won his consistency by in the 2025 General Election. He defeated the Liberal candidate Ronnie LeBlanc with a mere 533 votes and was the lone Conservative to win a federal riding in Nova Scotia in the 2025 election. In this light of such a close race, his party switch seems unlikely to have a negative impact on his future electoral chances. In fact, the news coverage brought by his party switch will in all likelihood raise his profile on both a national and constituency level.

Defections have been a somewhat rare phenomena in recent Canadian political history with only 3 occurring in the last 10 years. Whether thats all about to change remains to be seen. The balance of Carney’s government may depend on it…