All Floor Crossings

Ma was the second Conservative MP to cross to the Liberals. His crossing was especially significant because it brought the Liberals within just one seat of a majority government…

Tom Osborne

2012Notable

Progressive Conservative → LiberalMHANewfoundland

5/5

Osborne, a long-serving PC MHA, left the PC caucus and joined the Liberals, citing dissatisfaction with the party's direction.

Casey, PC MLA for Colchester North, crossed to the Liberals in 2011 after clashing with PC leader Jamie Baillie.

David Emerson

2006Notable

Liberal → ConservativeMPBritish Columbia

5/5

This is one of the most controversial crossings in Canadian history. Emerson was elected as a Liberal, and just TWO WEEKS later, he crossed to join Stephen Harper's new Conserva…

Belinda Stronach

2005Notable

Conservative → LiberalMPOntario

5/5

In one of the most dramatic moments in Canadian parliamentary history, Stronach crossed the floor to join Paul Martin's Liberal cabinet. Her single vote helped save the minority…

Dennis Fentie

2002Notable

NDP → Yukon PartyMLAYukon

5/5

Fentie left the Yukon NDP and joined the Yukon Party.

Buckley Belanger

1998Notable

Saskatchewan Liberal → Saskatchewan NDPMLASaskatchewan

5/5

Belanger, Saskatchewan Liberal MLA for Athabasca, crossed to the governing NDP, joining the party he felt better served his northern riding's interests.

Neufeld left the Reform Party of BC to join the BC Liberals, the new dominant centre-right party, as Reform faded provincially.

Gilles Duceppe

1990Notable

Independent → Bloc QuébécoisMPQuebec

5/5

Gilles Duceppe made history on August 13, 1990, when he won the by-election in Laurier—Sainte-Marie as an Independent sovereigntist — the first explicitly pro-sovereignty candid…

Louis Plamondon, a Progressive Conservative MP for Richelieu since 1984, left the Conservative caucus in June 1990 in the wake of the Meech Lake crisis and joined the nascent Bl…

Ramsay, Ontario NDP MPP for Timiskaming, left the NDP to join the Ontario Liberals under David Peterson.

Rideout, a Newfoundland Liberal MHA, crossed to the PCs over his opposition to the federal government's handling of offshore resource ownership, siding with Brian Peckford's pos…

Three BC Liberal MLAs crossed to Social Credit as the free-enterprise coalition consolidated against the NDP. This effectively merged the BC Liberals into Social Credit.

Curtis, a BC Conservative MLA, crossed to Social Credit as part of the consolidation of the free-enterprise coalition against the Barrett NDP government.

Bud Olson

1967Notable

Social Credit → LiberalMPAlberta

5/5

Olson, MP for Medicine Hat, left the declining Social Credit Party to join the Liberals under Pierre Trudeau, who offered him a cabinet position.

René Lévesque, the charismatic former journalist and Quebec Liberal cabinet minister, had become increasingly convinced that Quebec needed sovereignty to protect its language, c…

Rolston, a BC Progressive Conservative MLA, crossed the floor to join W.A.C. Bennett's new Social Credit government.

Greenlay, a Manitoba PC MLA, crossed the floor to join the Liberal-Progressive government of Douglas Campbell, who was a childhood friend. He was immediately appointed Provincia…

Thomas Alexander Crerar

1930Notable

Progressive / United Farmers → LiberalMPManitoba

5/5

Thomas Alexander Crerar, the founder and first leader of the Progressive Party of Canada, had resigned the party leadership in 1922 and later sat as a United Farmers of Manitoba…

Five Quebec Liberal MLAs — Alexandre Chauveau, Edmund James Flynn, Louis Napoléon Fortin, Étienne-Théodore Pâquet, and Ernest Racicot — crossed the floor to the Conservatives in…

Joseph Howe

1869Notable

Anti-Confederate → Liberal-ConservativeMPNova Scotia

5/5

Howe led the fight against Nova Scotia joining Canada. When that fight was lost, he negotiated better financial terms for Nova Scotia, then joined the government.

Richard John Cartwright

1869Notable

Liberal-Conservative → LiberalMPOntario

5/5

Cartwright believed he deserved to be Finance Minister. When Prime Minister Macdonald gave the job to someone else, Cartwright left the party in anger.