All Floor Crossings

The Conscription Crisis of 1917 shattered the Liberal Party along linguistic and regional lines. When Prime Minister Robert Borden introduced the Military Service Act to impose …

Louis-Joseph Papineau

1911

Liberal → ConservativeMPQuebec

2/5

Papineau, Liberal MP since 1908, ran and was re-elected as a Conservative in the 1911 election. He later reversed course in 1917, leaving the Conservatives to oppose conscriptio…

David-Arthur Lafortune, a Quebec Liberal MP, broke from the Liberal caucus to sit as an Independent Liberal around 1909, reflecting internal tensions within the Quebec Liberal c…

Henri Bourassa

1900Notable

Liberal → IndependentMPQuebec

4/5

Henri Bourassa, grandson of Louis-Joseph Papineau and Liberal MP for Labelle, resigned his seat in 1899 to protest Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier's decision to send Canadian tro…

John Costigan

1900Notable

Liberal-Conservative → LiberalMPNew Brunswick

3/5

John Costigan had served as a Conservative MP for over 30 years and had been a cabinet minister under four Conservative prime ministers — John A. Macdonald, John Abbott, John Th…

James Domville

1896

Conservative → LiberalMPNew Brunswick

4/5

James Domville, a Conservative MP from Kings County, New Brunswick, and former militia colonel, switched to the Liberal Party around 1896 as the Conservative coalition showed si…

Dalton McCarthy

1893Notable

Conservative → IndependentMPOntario

1/5

D'Alton McCarthy, one of the most prominent Conservative MPs and a close ally of John A. Macdonald, broke with the Conservative Party over the Manitoba Schools Question — whethe…

Joseph-Israël Tarte

1893Notable

Conservative → LiberalMPQuebec

4/5

Joseph-Israël Tarte, a Quebec Conservative journalist and politician, had been one of the party's most effective organizers in Quebec. However, he became disillusioned with the …

Guillaume Amyot

1887

Conservative → NationalistMPQuebec

1/5

Amyot, Conservative MP for Bellechasse, left the Conservative caucus to sit as a Nationalist, protesting the execution of Louis Riel and the government's treatment of French Can…

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…

Newton LeGayet MacKay

1873

Conservative → LiberalMPNova Scotia

3/5

MacKay, Conservative MP from Cape Breton, crossed to the Liberals in 1873 during the Pacific Scandal crisis that brought down John A. Macdonald's government.

Alfred Gilpin Jones

1872Notable

Independent → LiberalMPNova Scotia

4/5

Alfred Gilpin Jones, elected as an Anti-Confederate in 1867 and then sitting as an Independent, gradually aligned with the Liberal Party by 1872 as the anti-Confederation moveme…

When Joseph Howe negotiated better terms for Nova Scotia and joined the federal cabinet, 14 remaining Anti-Confederate MPs followed suit, joining the Liberal-Conservatives or Li…

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.

Campbell, elected as an Anti-Confederate MP from Nova Scotia, joined the Liberal-Conservatives as the Anti-Confederate movement dissolved after Confederation.

Wetmore, an Anti-Confederate in the New Brunswick colonial legislature, switched sides and supported Confederation after the pro-Confederation forces prevailed.