Floor-crossing hands Pierre Poilievre a fresh embarrassment — and raises new questions about his grip on Conservative caucus.
By Mickey Djuric 02/18/2026
OTTAWA — Canada’s Conservatives continue to bleed seats to Mark Carney’s Liberals, who are another step closer to forming a majority government.
Prime Minister Carney announced Wednesday that Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux, who is from one of Canada’s most reliably Conservative regions, has crossed the floor to the Liberals.
Jeneroux’s defection marks the latest in a series of high-profile Conservative floor-crossings that are reshaping Canada’s political landscape. The rare break in party ranks shows Carney is able to appeal with centrist and disaffected voters by successfully distancing himself from former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s progressive agenda.
The two met in Edmonton on Wednesday, where Carney traveled to officially welcome him to the party.
“I deem it a great honor to be on the same team as you at a crucial time for this city, for this province, for this country,” Carney told his new MP.
The Edmonton lawmaker will serve as a special adviser on economic and security partnerships, Carney said. Jeneroux, who is a founder of the Canada-ASEAN Parliamentary Group with contacts in NATO and the Indo-Pacific, will lend his expertise to Carney as he works to diversify trade away from the United States.
“Matt’s leadership will contribute to strengthening Canada’s alliances and trade partnerships, advancing Canada’s leadership in global security cooperation, and building our strength at home,” Carney said in a statement.
Jeneroux’s decision to defect to the Liberals reverses a decision he made last fall to retire from politics altogether.
Two Liberal MPs previously told POLITICO that Jeneroux was close to joining the Liberals in November and had even met with the prime minister. After the Conservative Party caught wind of his plan, Jeneroux announced he would instead resign from the Conservative caucus, then later clarified he planned to leave for family reasons.
In a statement, Jeneroux pointed to Carney’s speech in Davos, which led him to “reflect on the gravity of the moment that our country is living through.”
“It opened a lot of eyes for Canadians, Albertans, Edmontonians — just how serious this national unity crisis truly is,” Jeneroux told reporters ahead of his meeting with Carney.
“For me, it felt disingenuous and quite simply, wrong, to be sitting on the sidelines.”
Jeneroux said he had reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office to join the Liberal caucus.
He says that like many families over the holidays, he held several conversations around the kitchen table about how he can stand up for each other, and the country “that we all love, and to which we all belong.”
“I couldn’t be more proud,” said Jeneroux, who had been a Conservative MP since 2015.
Jeneroux “betrayed” the people in his district, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a statement on social media, and accused Carney of “trying to seize a costly Liberal majority government that Canadians voted against in the last election through dirty backroom deals.”
Two previous Conservative caucus members, Chris d’Entremont and Michael Ma, have resigned under Poilievre’s watch and crossed the floor to the Liberals.
Although Poilievre received an over 87 percent approval rating at his party’s convention in Calgary last month, he remains deeply unpopular with the Canadian public.
“You don’t win elections at conventions. You win elections across the country. So let’s see what happens if the prime minister decides to call an election,” Ford said.
Ford has criticized Poilievre’s handling of the federal election, accusing him of not pivoting to address voters’ concerns about President Donald Trump and his tariff threats, ultimately handing the Liberals their fourth mandate.
Despite courting three Conservatives to the Liberal side within four months, Carney remains three seats shy of a majority Parliament.
Three district seats have become vacant in recent weeks, including the seat of Chrystia Freeland, who is now an economic adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Special elections to fill those seats are expected soon.
A Liberal majority government would be able to pass bills and approve spending without support from any other party — and it would sideline Carney’s chief rival for another three years.
No comments:
Post a Comment