A day later, the Ma floor-crossing is being dissected with more questions about what this means for Poilievre’s leadership of the Conservative party now that he’s lost two MPs to floor-crossings and one to a very suspicious resignation. We have learned that Tim Hodgson played a part in Ma’s decision, and that their wives are friends (and it is worth noting they are from neighbouring ridings). And now you have Conservatives telling the National Post of all places that they expect another couple of defections because Poilievre is so unable to read the room in his own caucus. Oh, and there’s also a whole side note about how Ma was apparently the “secret Santa” for Jamil Jivani and Jivani didn’t get his gift.
https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3m7tbupdrrs2p
Government House Leader Steve MacKinnon proclaimed that he knows more disgruntled Conservatives and hinted that there yet may be another floor-crossing, and this has everyone wringing their hands about “backroom deals,” and saying dumb things like “Canadians didn’t elect a majority,” and that cobbling one together is somehow illegitimate. Poilievre himself is making this particular argument. But that’s not how elections work. We elect 338 individual MPs. Not parties. Canadians can’t select “majority” or “minority” on their ballots. In fact, parties have become political shorthand for how MPs sort themselves into configurations to achieve confidence in the Chamber, but at its core, we elect individual MPs, and they get to make their own decision including who they sit with, and on how to determine how a government is given confidence, and yes, that can include so-called “backroom deals” and floor-crossings, and if voters don’t like it, they can punish them in the next election. That’s how parliamentary democracy works.
If there is another defection or two, and it puts the Liberals into a majority, the most dramatic effect will not be just the fact that every confidence vote isn’t going to rely on Andrew Scheer and Scott Reid hiding behind the curtains to count abstentions, but rather that it will force the committees to be rebalanced, at which point the Conservatives and Bloc will no longer be able to team up to obstruct all business, as they have been doing. That will be a material change for the ability of this Parliament to get things done, and maybe finally break the dysfunction and deadlock that has plagued it since 2019.
Ukraine Dispatch
Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports, damaging three Turkish vessels, one of them carrying food supplies. Russia also attacked energy facilities in Odesa region. Ukraine, meanwhile, hit two Russian oil rigs in the Caspian Sea, the Yaroslavl oil refinery, and two Russian vessels carrying military equipment. President Zelenskyy visited Kupiansk, as Ukrainian forces are encircling the Russians in the area, weeks after Russia claimed to have captured it.
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1999435026300076425
Good reads:
- Steve MacKinnon announced that the first leg of the high-speed rail project will between Ottawa and Montreal, as it’s flat, and can train crews in both provinces.
- The Defence Investment Agency announced that they will purchase six Bombardier jets to replace the remaining fleet of Challenger aircraft used to shuttle VIPs.
- The CRA spent $18 million on its chatbot that mostly doesn’t give correct answers.
- Canada Post promises to retain their interlibrary loan rates after legislative changes to their mandate, but libraries say they need more than just a commitment.
- Two of Canada’s richest families jointly bought the original Hudson’s Bay charter for $18 million, and have donated it to four different museums.
- Climate lawyers discuss the government’s backsliding on climate goals as exemplified by the Alberta MOU that undermines the national regulations.
- Members of the legal profession are concerned about the attacks by premiers like Danielle Smith and David Eby on the judiciary.
- The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled to order a fresh trial in a case where the police made an arrest without a warrant.
- PEI has a new premier, Bloyce Thompson, after Rob Lantz stepped down to contest the leadership of his party full-time (and return to being premier).
- Elections Alberta was given an extra $6.7 million budget to deal with the onslaught of recall petitions.
- Alberta has signed a one-year extension of their child care agreement.
- Jared Wesley offers concrete suggestions for how people can push back against democratic backsliding in Alberta (which is applicable everywhere).
- Colin Horgan contemplates the end of neoliberalism, how Trudeau tried to transition from it, and Carney facing its new global reality.
Odds and ends:
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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T02:01:04.435Z
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