Jim Jones

Jim Jones, a Progressive Conservative MP for Markham in Ontario, defected to the newly formed Canadian Alliance in September 2000. Jones had been expelled from the PC caucus in July 2000 by leader Joe Clark, who was fiercely opposed to any cooperation with Stockwell Day's Alliance. Jones believed the only way to defeat Chrétien's Liberals was for right-of-centre parties to unite, and he jumped to the Alliance when it was created from the Reform Party in 2000. His crossing was an early indicator of the pressures that would eventually force the PC-Alliance merger in 2003.

Jones ran as a Canadian Alliance candidate in the November 2000 election and was defeated, as the Alliance struggled to gain traction in Ontario. His crossing was premature — the full merger of the PCs and Alliance would not happen until December 2003, when Peter MacKay (controversially breaking his leadership deal with David Orchard) agreed to merge with Stephen Harper's Alliance. Jones's early defection demonstrated that the pressure to unite the right extended beyond Alberta's base.