Ralph Wesley Stewart

Ralph Wesley Stewart, a Liberal MP from British Columbia, crossed the floor to join the Progressive Conservative Party in 1979. Stewart's crossing came during a period when the Liberals were struggling in western Canada as Trudeau's popularity waned amid economic difficulties. Like several western Liberal MPs, Stewart calculated that his political future lay with the ascendant PCs under Joe Clark rather than with a Liberal Party increasingly seen as an eastern-focused institution hostile to western interests.

Stewart's crossing was part of a broader pattern of Liberal erosion in western Canada during the late 1970s. The 1980 election would see the Liberals win a majority government but with zero seats west of Manitoba — a stark illustration of the regional polarization that Stewart's crossing both reflected and anticipated.