Federal Liberals on Tuesday denied a report saying three of their party’s MPs were interested in crossing the floor to join the Tories.
Liberal MPs Ken Dryden and Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday the talk was Conservative mischief and said it was an attempt to sow dissension in the party.
A report in the Toronto Star on Tuesday cited an anonymous Conservative government official who said the party had discussions with three Liberals in the last month about crossing the floor.
The Conservatives hold 143 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons and would need 12 more MPs to form a majority government.
Adding three members from another party wouldn’t aid the Conservatives in their quest for a majority, but it would be another public relations blow for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who has seen his party’s popularity decline in recent months and faced criticism for his handling of the appointment of a Liberal candidate in Quebec.
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I don’t know why the CPC would want them. A traitor to his/her party can easily become a traitor to his/ her new party. This could also mess up candidate selection for the next vote. Does the turncoat get a free pass to candidacy with his/her new party?
mid island mike
Re: #1 — “I don’t know why the CPC would want them.”
Neither do I Mike but a stampede starts with one cow and goes from there. Who knows what “Ringo” has up his sleeve? Ralph Goodale anyone? How about Hedy Fry?
Heh…
How about Billy Bob Rae? He likes to switch parties.
The good thing about this , if it’s true , is that he doesn’t have to offer them a cabinet post . Just a chair on a boat that ain’t the Titanic .
The “read my lips” denials are coming from downtown Toronto and downtown Montreal. Too funny. The PM is setting his team up for a grand slam without the benefit of disgruntled Liberals. Cheers.
What we definitely should not do is:
- kill the possibility of floor crossing.
- offer Belinda type Cabinet posts and bribe it to happen.
Sure, it is risky to take in someone like Freddy Hy or whatever that cross burning hallucinater’s name is. I’d be apprehensive about Freddy. But let’s consider each on their own merits, because this is how the Berlin Wall fell , one brick at a time or “a stampede starts with one cow and goes from there.”
If we take no risk, we get no reward. Furthermore these floor crossers are acting in their own interest, the very key to the free markets. They are recognizing their future as a Liberal is imperiled, wow. There’s no more solid conservative than a neo-con … a Liberal mugged by reality.
Finally, it is entirely possible the floor crossers love Canada more than they love the Liberal Party which has been busy doing nothing but bash Canada simply because their Liberal regime isn’t in charge.
Rats fleeing the sinking ship should be left to drown. Crooked Liberals.
And just maybe all this talk of floorcrossers are from some lib, trying to create another faux scandal-PMSH raiding lib benches.
The PM should tell them, if it is true, they can sit as independants and vote with the government. Should they decide to run as conservatives, in their riding, they will be accepted only if no credible true conservative wants to run.
We do not want IRuby.
And just maybe some libs are tired of iffy dissing their country, especially when our Finance Minister has just been voted Finance Minister of 2009, by a very respected economic magazine.
Goodale on cbc now saying the whole story is planted by the PMO.
Crossing the floor is a time-honoured way of keeping a leader honest. Nothing gets a party leader’s attention faster than having the MPs walking away to the other party, regardless which party. When it comes to points of principle, MPs must be able to walk away if their party goes in a direction with which they fundamentally disagree. Yes, they can go ‘indy’ but it seems to have more impact if they go over to the “other side”…
Although we (the partisan bloggers) don’t want iRuby, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Conservatives accepted her… however I don’t expect they would reward her like Big Paulie did Belinda…
How about panic about a vote they might ” win ” causing a mutiny and disintegration of Party discipline ? This might lead to some floor crossing, a ” coup ” inside the Liberal Party or ” BLOCK ” type splitting of the Liberals into Blue Liberals who could ally themselves with the Conservatives and Red Liberals going way to the left with a few joining the NDP ?
As far as accepting floor crossers it might depend on which floor crossers ! Some more right leaning Liberals feeling very much less at home in a way left Liberal Party might be very close in mindset to Conservatives ? ( No cabinet posts rewards until after the next election if they win their seats as Conservatives, assuming we win again ).
Oh, and maybe some ” intelligent ” Liberal MPs not being able to continue following ” orders ” they consider suicidal and frankly stupid ?