PETERS: Floor-crossing in Ottawa is stinky, but it’s not going anywhere

The opposition parties who are bleeding MPs may not like it, but there’s nothing to suggest it’s wrong and those same parties wouldn’t love it if they were on the other side of the equation.

The individual MPs haven’t changed, nor have their constituencies – just the colour of the banners standing behind them during their news conferences.

In practical terms, though, most Canadians don’t like it.

Most Canadians don’t go into voting booths looking at the names of individual candidates. They vote for parties.

They have seen, for decades now, MPs representing the will of their partisan alliances first and foremost in Ottawa, so it makes the most sense to support the team rather than the player.

In that context, floor-crossing becomes a betrayal of the will of the constituents.

In that context, Mark Carney’s Liberals are inching toward a majority in parliament and a degree of stability they weren’t afforded by voters in last year’s election.

It seems sneaky and slimy. Backroom deals in return for the numbers the government needs.

The obvious solution is to have every MP who wants to cross the floor be made to resign and run in a by-election.

That’s what opposition parties have been seeking for years, but it’s not going to happen for two reasons.

First, as we said before, it doesn’t have to.

An MP changing parties doesn’t actually change the election result in their riding.

Second, MPs who cross the floor are rarely re-elected under their new party banners.

That means the Liberals know, in this case, this is likely a short-term measure to achieve a short-term goal.

Who’s going to push to change that in the House of Commons? Certainly not the Liberals, if it’s going to work in their favour as it has been.

We’re all going to have to live with floor-crossing MPs, as malodorous as the practice may be.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: Floor-crossing in Ottawa is stinky, but it’s not going anywhere

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