List of Canadian politicians who have crossed the floor

This is a list of Canadian politicians who have crossed the floor, in that they have changed party affiliation. These are Members of Parliament (MPs) unless otherwise noted.

See also List of Canadian politicians who have switched parties.

Pre-confederation

1860s

1870s

1880s

1910s

  • 1911: Louis-Joseph Papineau, Liberal MP since 1908, re-elected as a Conservative in 1911.

As a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917, Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden forms a Union Government in an attempt to win support across party lines. Opposition leader Sir Wilfrid Laurier refuses to support the new government but many of his MPs cross the floor to support the new government either as Unionist or Liberal-Unionist candidates in the Canadian federal election of 1917. Those loyal to Laurier run as Laurier-Liberals. Conversely, a number of Quebec Conservative MPs abandon Borden over the conscription issue and join the Liberals.

  • 1917: Louis-Joseph Papineau, leaves the Conservatives to run as a Laurier-Liberal as a result of the Conscription Crisis.
  • 1917: Robert Lorne Richardson, elected in the 1911 election as a Liberal (but previously sitting as variously a Liberal, Independent Liberal, Independent, and Independent Conservative) runs in the 1917 election as a Unionist.
  • 1917: Honoré Achim crosses the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals over the conscription issue. Does not run for re-election.
  • 1917: William Andrew Charlton leaves the Liberal Party of Canada to run successfully as a Liberal-Unionist in the 1917 election over conscription.
  • 1917: John Gillanders Turriff, who sat as a Liberal since 1891, runs successfully as a Unionist in the 1917 election.
  • 1917: Alphonse Verville, Labour MP since 1906, runs and is re-elected as a Laurier-Liberal in 1917.
  • 1917: Levi Thomson, a Liberal MP since 1904, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Frederick Forsyth Pardee, Liberal MP since 1905, re-elected as a Liberal-Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Edward Walter Nesbitt, Liberal MP since 1908, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Hugh Havelock McLean, Liberal MP since 1908, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Thomas MacNutt, Liberal MP since 1908, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Alexander Kenneth MacLean, Liberal MP since 1900, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: William Stewart Loggie, Liberal MP since 1904, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Hugh Guthrie, Liberal MP since 1900, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: William Stevens Fielding, Liberal MP since 1896, re-elected as a Liberal-Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: James McCrie Douglas, Liberal since 1909, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Michael Clark, Liberal since 1908, re-elected as a Liberal-Unionist in 1917.
  • 1917: Frank Broadstreet Carvell, Liberal MP since 1900, joins Borden's Cabinet as Minister of Public Works in October 1917 and runs as a Liberal-Unionist in the subsequent election.
  • 1917: William Ashbury Buchanan, Liberal MP since 1911, re-elected as a Unionist in 1917.
  • 1919: Andrew Knox, elected as a Liberal-Unionist in 1917, joins the Progressives in 1919.
  • 1919: George William Andrews, elected as the Liberal-Unionist MP for Winnipeg Centre in 1917, becomes an independent on June 2, 1919, in protest of the government's handling of the Winnipeg General Strike.

1920s

  • 1925: William George Baker, Saskatchewan Labour MLA, becomes a Labour-Liberal MLA and then later solely a Liberal Party of Saskatchewan MLA in 1938.
  • 1929: Charles Agar, Saskatchewan Progressive MLA, joins Liberal Party of Saskatchewan.

1930s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Other changes

The following list contains items that, while not generally considered crossing the floor, may be similar in nature.

  • In 1979, Pauline Jewett, who had been a Liberal MP from 1963 to 1965, returns to Parliament as a New Democrat.
  • February 2, 2004: André Bachand, Joe Clark, and John Herron remain Progressive Conservative MPs (and are officially designated as independent Progressive Conservatives) when the Progressive Conservative Party merges with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada. Herron runs as a Liberal candidate in the 2004 election but is unsuccessful.
  • In 2004, Canadian Alliance MP Chuck Cadman lost his party renomination race, but ran for re-election as an independent and won. The election resulted in a minority Liberal government, and Cadman's controversial vote to support a 2005 Liberal budget amendment, a confidence vote, was decisive in sustaining the Liberal government.
  • In 2004, former NDP MP Chris Axworthy, who had resigned from Parliament in 1999, attempts to return to the House of Commons as a Liberal but is unsuccessful. He suffers a second defeat in 2006.
  • Former British Columbia NDP Premier Ujjal Dosanjh was elected as a Liberal MP in the 2004 federal election.
  • Former Ontario NDP Premier and MP Bob Rae announced his candidacy for the leadership of the federal Liberals in 2006, and was re-elected to Parliament as a Liberal in 2008. He served as interim Liberal leader between 2011 and 2013.
  • Françoise Boivin, a former Liberal MP who was defeated in the 2006 election, left the Liberal Party in 2008 and ran as a candidate for the New Democratic Party in the 2008 election. She was subsequently elected as a New Democrat in 2011.
  • Jean Charest, the former Premier of Quebec from 2003–2012 and leader of the Quebec Liberal Party from 1998–2012 was also the leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party from 1995–1998 and a Progressive Conservative MP prior to that.
  • Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the New Democratic Party 2012–2017 was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the Quebec Liberal Party from 1994–2007, when he announced he would not run in that year's provincial election. Later that year, he stood as the NDP candidate in a federal by-election.
  • NDP MP Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury) resigned his seat in order to be appointed the Ontario Liberal Party's candidate in a 2015 provincial by-election. He was briefly re-designated as an independent MP before his resignation became official.
  • In 2019, Lenore Zann, MLA (Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River), left the Nova Scotia NDP to run as a federal Liberal Party candidate in the federal election; she served as an independent MLA until she formally resigned her seat.

See also

References

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