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Toronto-area Liberal MP Leona Alleslev crosses the floor to join Conservatives

Halifax Tar

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Ontario MP Leona Alleslev is crossing the floor from the Liberals to join the Conservative party caucus — the first such loss for the governing party since the last election.

The floor crossing is a coup for the opposition Tories, who are counting on a breakthrough in suburban Toronto-area ridings like the one held by Alleslev to win the next federal election.

This is the first floor crossing the Liberals have faced since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assumed leadership of the party in 2014.

Alleslev cited her concerns over the government's handling of the economy, foreign affairs and trading relationships, and what she calls inadequate military spending, as the reasons motivating her to jump from the government benches to the Tories.

"My attempts to raise my concerns with this government were met with silence," Alleslev said in a speech in the House of Commons announcing her move. "It's my duty to stand and be counted. Our country is at risk. The government must be challenged openly and publicly."​

More on links:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-floor-crosser-leona-alleslev-1.4826567
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/liberal-mp-crosses-the-floor-to-join-conservative-caucus-1.4097289
 
Oh boy here we go...

Cue the hypocrisy, the outrage as well as the apologists and sympathisers.

Interesting to see someone cross the floor from the governing party...
 
Remius said:
Oh boy here we go...

Cue the hypocrisy, the outrage as well as the apologists and sympathisers.

Interesting to see someone cross the floor from the governing party...

While I am happy to see a new Con, I dislike floor crossing.  In my opinion it should trigger an election in that riding.
 
Meh. Her constituents will get to have a say at the next election. It will be on her to articulate and defend her actions.
 
Brihard said:
Meh. Her constituents will get to have a say at the next election. It will be on her to articulate and defend her actions.

Maybe she’s was reading the tea leaves and figured she had a better chance of being elected as a CPC.  Her riding was won with only a few thousand votes difference.

As for a by election, given that we will be in an election year her floor crossing will be assessed soon enough
 
Normally I would say they should be an independent, until they have had a chance to connect with their constituents to confirm their choice. 
 
From the MP herself: "To my Liberal colleagues, thank you. But my oath is to country, not party and my sacred obligation is to serve my constituents."

It doesn't get any more plain than that. Something may be going very wrong in the LPC for a statement like that clarifying to whom one owes allegiance. 
 
whiskey601 said:
From the MP herself: "To my Liberal colleagues, thank you. But my oath is to country, not party and my sacred obligation is to serve my constituents."

It doesn't get any more plain than that. Something may be going very wrong in the LPC for a statement like that clarifying to whom one owes allegiance.

Well there are a few ways to read this.  First is as its presented.  She disagrees with the governing party and believes the opposition benches are a better option to represent her constituents.

There could be lots of other more selfish reasons.  Not a big enough voice, alienation of the Manley Liberals (haha I just realized manly and Manley... for the feminist PM... so funny), better offer from the CPC... etc...
 
Concur on the election triggering when someone crosses the floor, however I think in this case since we're less than a year from the writ being dropped for the election, she'll face her constituents soon enough. Would be a waste to do a byelection and 6 months later do the full election over again.
 
PuckChaser said:
Concur on the election triggering when someone crosses the floor, however I think in this case since we're less than a year from the writ being dropped for the election, she'll face her constituents soon enough. Would be a waste to do a byelection and 6 months later do the full election over again.

I respectfully disagree.  We elect our individual MP as our representative in Parliament, we do not elect a party to represent us.  Yes, they do choose to affiliate with a party, but I would much rather my MP have a brain and the free will to represent my riding in the way that he or she deems best rather than simply voting sheep-like along party lines. 

To my mind the parties have taken too much power away from the individual MPs and I would rather see a caucus that exerts power and influence upward on the leadership than the system we have now where the leadership makes all the decisions and expects the caucus to just do what they are told.

I voted for my MP and if I don't like what he/she does I can vote him/her out next election.  I didn't vote for the Prime Minister...and I have no interest in switching to a Presidential system in order to do so.

:2c:
 
whiskey601 said:
From the MP herself: "To my Liberal colleagues, thank you. But my oath is to country, not party and my sacred obligation is to serve my constituents."

It doesn't get any more plain than that. Something may be going very wrong in the LPC for a statement like that clarifying to whom one owes allegiance.

Maybe.  But this is politics. Some people look for opportunity.  Like I mentioned she won her riding by a thin margin and provincially her riding also went conservative.  It’s  easy to see that might be a reason.  Maybe not but I’m sure her riding will be watched closely at election time.
 
Remius said:
Maybe she’s was reading the tea leaves and figured she had a better chance of being elected as a CPC.  Her riding was won with only a few thousand votes difference.

This was my immediate thought. Feels like a job security move, depending on the issues facing her riding, with such a close race in her last contest she would probably know if her chances as a Liberal have gone south.
 
GR66 said:
I respectfully disagree.  We elect our individual MP as our representative in Parliament, we do not elect a party to represent us.  Yes, they do choose to affiliate with a party, but I would much rather my MP have a brain and the free will to represent my riding in the way that he or she deems best rather than simply voting sheep-like along party lines. 

To my mind the parties have taken too much power away from the individual MPs and I would rather see a caucus that exerts power and influence upward on the leadership than the system we have now where the leadership makes all the decisions and expects the caucus to just do what they are told.

I voted for my MP and if I don't like what he/she does I can vote him/her out next election.  I didn't vote for the Prime Minister...and I have no interest in switching to a Presidential system in order to do so.

:2c:

To an extent GR, yes.  But she ran under a liberal banner with liberal funding and liberal power.  She would never have been elected as an independant.  Maybe but doubtful. She may be looking out for her riding but she ran under a banner that linked her to that party one way or another. 

Floor crossings is not against the rules but some people voted for her because of her party and because of her leader like it or not and despite the way our system works.  I suspect some people that did vote for her are none too happy.  Only two months ago she was more than happy to have her leader in her riding touting how awesome he was.  Seems out of the blue...
 
Remius said:
To an extent GR, yes.  But she ran under a liberal banner with liberal funding and liberal power.  She would never have been elected as an independant.  Maybe but doubtful. She may be looking out for her riding but she ran under a banner that linked her to that party one way or another. 

Floor crossings is not against the rules but some people voted for her because of her party and because of her leader like it or not and despite the way our system works.  I suspect some people that did vote for her are none too happy.  Only two months ago she was more than happy to have her leader in her riding touting how awesome he was.  Seems out of the blue...

I understand what you are saying here.  But I think floor crossing is one of those traditions that helps reduce the already to tight of grasp parties have on our electoral system.  Automatically triggering a by election seems a bit too much IMHO.  People can wait until the general election.
 
I have a feeling anybody associating themselves with Conservatives in Toronto is not going to generate much job security in politics until memory fades from Doug Fords antics.  If she was good with PMJT 2 months ago, and not now, what happened? I’m assuming all the other reasons she stated did not just happen within two months.
 
If she crosses back, she'd be in good company :)

"Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat."

Winston Churchill, remark in 1923 after rejoining the Conservatives, having left them earlier to join the Liberals; reported in Kay Halle, Irrepressible Churchill (1966), p. 52–53. http://quotes.yourdictionary.com/author/quote/575877
 
Here’s her full statement: fwiw it doesn’t seem to me like enough to change parties, as if the Conservatives would or have behaved any different on the issues she raises.  https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/read-the-speech-this-mp-delivered-before-quitting-the-liberals-and-crossing-the-floor-to-join-the-tories
 
whiskey601 said:
I have a feeling anybody associating themselves with Conservatives in Toronto is not going to generate much job security in politics until memory fades from Doug Fords antics.  If she was good with PMJT 2 months ago, and not now, what happened? I’m assuming all the other reasons she stated did not just happen within two months.

I don't think the mass protests are going to happen the way the media is portraying them. The protester video I've seen has only about a dozen people out there. The daytime protests had about 30. Not exactly earthshattering discontent.
 
She won the '15 federal election by about 1000 votes; the provincial Tories took it by about 15,500 votes in the '18 provincial election.

I don't think there's a need for much more analysis than that - job security.
 
whiskey601 said:
I have a feeling anybody associating themselves with Conservatives in Toronto is not going to generate much job security in politics until memory fades from Doug Fords antics.  If she was good with PMJT 2 months ago, and not now, what happened? I’m assuming all the other reasons she stated did not just happen within two months.

Perhaps he had a negative interaction with her.
 
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