List of Canadian politicians who have crossed the floor

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See also: List of Canadian politicians who have switched parties

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

  • MPPs are Members of Provincial Parliament of Ontario
  • MNAs are Members of the National Assembly of Quebec
  • MHAs are Members of the House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador
  • MLAs are Members of the Legislative Assembly of other provinces
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by with reliable sources.

Pre-confederation[]

1860s[]

1870s[]

1880s[]

  • 1887: Guillaume Amyot leaves the Conservative caucus to sit as a Nationalist. He later changes his designation to Nationalist Conservative.

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[]

  • October 14, 1935: Henry Herbert Stevens, Minister of Trade and Commerce in the Conservative government of R.B. Bennett, leaves the party to form the Reconstruction Party of Canada, but then rejoined the Conservatives in 1938.

1950s[]

  • 1952: Tilly Rolston, British Columbia Progressive Conservative MLA, crossed the floor to join the British Columbia Social Credit Party of W.A.C. Bennett.
  • 1955: Ross Thatcher, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) MP from Saskatchewan, leaves the party to sit as an independent. He runs as a Liberal in the 1957 election but is defeated. Subsequently, becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan and then Premier of Saskatchewan.
  • 1955: Sam Drover leaves the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador to become the province's first MHA representing the CCF, losing his seat in the next year's election.

1960s[]

  • 1962: Failed New Democratic Party (NDP) leadership contender and former CCF leader Hazen Argue crosses the floor to the Liberals.
  • 1967: Social Credit Party of Canada MP Bud Olson crosses the floor to the Liberals.
  • 1967: René Lévesque, Quebec MLA for Montreal-Laurier, leaves the Quebec Liberal Party to sit as an independent. Lévesque later formed the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association and then the Parti Québécois, on whose ticket he was re-elected in 1976.
  • 1968: Social Credit leader and MP Robert N. Thompson joins the Progressive Conservative Party.
  • 1969: Liberal MP Perry Ryan (Spadina) quits the Liberal Party to sit as an independent because of the Trudeau government's policies on NATO and its decision to recognize the People's Republic of China. In 1970 Ryan joined the Progressive Conservatives, but lost his seat (coming 3rd) in the 1972 federal election.

1970s[]

  • 1971: Paul Hellyer, who had left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent Liberal and subsequently attempted to form a new party, Action Canada, joined the Progressive Conservatives, and sought its leadership in 1976. (In 1982, outside of Parliament and the political spotlight, he rejoined the Liberals, in 1995 formed the Canadian Action Party, and in the 2000s sought to merge it with the NDP.)
  • 1972: Raymond Rock physically crossed the floor from the Liberals caucus to join the Progressive Conservatives.
  • 1974: Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and , all BC Liberal MLAs, crossed to Social Credit.
  • 1974: Hugh Curtis, BC Conservative MLA crossed to Social Credit.
  • 1975: Frank Calder, MLA for Atlin since 1949, crossed floor from NDP to Social Credit.
  • 1977: Jack Horner left Progressive Conservatives to join Liberals, ultimately as part of Pierre Trudeau's cabinet. Defeated as Liberal candidate in 1979.
  • 1977: Colin Thatcher, Saskatchewan MLA for Thunder Creek, defected from Liberals to the Conservatives.
  • 1978: James Armstrong Richardson leaves the Liberals by physically crossing the floor to sit as an independent MP.

1980s[]

1990s[]

  • 1990: Lucien Bouchard, MP, quit the Progressive Conservatives to sit as an independent; with other MPs, he later formed the Bloc Québécois.
  • 1990: David Kilgour, MP, quit the Progressive Conservatives to sit as an independent, then later joined Liberals. In 2005, Kilgour left the Liberal Party to again sit as an independent.
  • 1990: Jean Lapierre, Liberal MP for Shefford, Quebec, leaves Liberal caucus to sit as a member of the Bloc Québécois. Lapierre would eventually return as a Liberal and was elected to the House of Commons in 2004.
  • 1992: Richard Holden, Quebec MNA for Westmount, left the Equality Party to sit as an independent, finally joining Parti Québécois. This move was seen as unusual as the Equality Party, a federalist English-rights party, was the ideological opposite of the PQ.
  • 1993: Dennis Drainville quit the Ontario New Democratic Party caucus to sit as an independent to protest the Rae government's decision to allow casino gambling in the province.
  • 1993: Gordon Wilson and Judi Tyabji, British Columbia MLAs, left British Columbia Liberal Party to found the Progressive Democratic Alliance.
  • 1993: Glen McPherson leaves the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan and joins the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan.
  • 1994: Jag Bhaduria leaves the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent. In 1996, he styled himself Liberal Democrat; while not a registered political party, this identification was recognized in Hansard. In 1997, he re-ran for his seat as an independent and was defeated.
  • 1995: Richard Neufeld, Lyall Hanson, Len Fox and Jack Weisgerber, MLAs, left Social Credit to join Reform Party of British Columbia.
  • 1996: John Nunziata, expelled from the Liberal caucus as a result of voting against the 1996 budget in protest, claiming a broken promise on the elimination of the Goods and Services Tax. He was re-elected as an independent in 1997.
  • 1997: Richard Neufeld, MLA, left Reform Party of British Columbia for the British Columbia Liberal Party.
  • 1997: Gordon Wilson, after being re-elected as a Progressive Democrat, left the Progressive Democratic Alliance to join the British Columbia New Democratic Party and was appoint to Glen Clark's cabinet.
  • 1997: Bob Bjornerud, June Draude, Ken Krawetz, and Rod Gantefoer leave the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan to help form the Saskatchewan Party.
  • 1997: Bill Boyd, Don Toth, Ben Heppner and Dan D'Autremont leave the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan to help form the Saskatchewan Party.
  • 1997: leaves the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan to sit as an independent.
  • 1997: Arlene Julé leaves the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan to sit as an independent.
  • 1998: Alex Cullen, Ontario MPP, left the Ontario Liberal Party to sit as an independent, then joined the Ontario New Democratic Party eight days later.
  • 1998: Buckley Belanger, Saskatchewan MLA, resigned as Liberal Party of Saskatchewan MLA to run for the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party. He won re-election as a New Democrat with the second highest percentage of vote in Saskatchewan history.
  • 1997: Arlene Julé joins the Saskatchewan Party and is no longer an independent.
  • 1999: Angela Vautour leaves the New Democratic caucus for the Progressive Conservative caucus.
  • 1999: Anna-Marie Castrilli, Ontario MPP, left the Ontario Liberal Party to join the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario after losing the Liberal nomination in York Centre to Monte Kwinter (a reduction in ridings had forced the two MPPs to compete for the nomination). However, rather than running in York Centre, Castrilli runs in the 1999 provincial election in Parkdale—High Park against Liberal MPP Gerard Kennedy and is defeated.

2000s[]

  • April 2000: André Harvey, MP, left Progressive Conservatives to sit as an independent.
  • September 12, 2000: David Price, MP, and Diane St-Jacques, MP, left the Progressive Conservatives to join Liberals; André Harvey, former PC MP but independent since April, also joined the Liberals at the same announcement. St-Jacques and Price reportedly told PC leader Joe Clark months earlier that they would leave the party.
  • September 27, 2000: Rick Laliberte, NDP MP, sits as a Liberal and later switched to independent for the 2004 election.
  • 2001: Jean-Guy Carignan, Liberal MP, changes to Independent-Liberal, to back to Liberal, then finally to sit as independent.
  • 2001: Jim Melenchuk and Ron Osika leave the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan when the party leaves the coalition with NDP. Both decide to continue to support the government and stay in cabinet. In the 2003 election both run for the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan and are defeated.
  • 2001: MPs Art Hanger, Chuck Strahl, Gary Lunn, Jim Pankiw, Val Meredith, Grant McNally, Jay Hill, Jim Gouk, Monte Solberg, Andy Burton, Brian Fitzpatrick, Deborah Grey, and Inky Mark were either expelled from or voluntarily left the Canadian Alliance caucus after publicly criticizing party leader Stockwell Day, and sat as an "Independent Alliance Caucus". Hanger, Gouk, Solberg, Fitzpatrick and Burton returned to the Alliance at the end of the summer; the remaining MPs continued to sit as the Democratic Representative Caucus. All but Mark and Pankiw eventually rejoined the Alliance by 2002.
  • 2002: Inky Mark, Democratic Representative Caucus MP, changes to independent, then later to the Progressive Conservatives.
  • 2002: Jim Pankiw, Democratic Representative Caucus was denied permission to rejoin the Canadian Alliance and sat the remainder of his term as an independent MP.
  • May 2002L Dennis Fentie, MLA for the Yukon New Democratic Party, leaves the party to join the conservative Yukon Party.
  • 2002: Joe Peschisolido, changes from Canadian Alliance MP to Liberal.
  • 2002: Ghislain Lebel, changes from Bloc Québécois MP to independent.
  • 2003: Pierre Brien, changes from Bloc Québécois MP to independent.
  • December 11, 2003: Scott Brison, Progressive Conservative MP, joins Liberals on the former's merger into the Conservative Party. Also Robert Lanctôt, Bloc Québécois MP, joins Liberal.
  • February 17, 2004: John Bryden, Liberal MP, sits as an independent.
  • February 25, 2004: John Bryden, independent MP, sits with the new Conservative Party. He subsequently lost the Conservative nomination in his riding held shortly after his switch.
  • January 14, 2004: Keith Martin, Canadian Alliance MP, sits as an independent and announces he intends to seek the Liberal Party's nomination for his riding to protest the former's merger into the Conservative Party. He subsequently won the nomination, won the election and sat in the Liberal caucus until his retirement in 2011.
  • June 8, 2004: Anne Cools, appointed to the Senate as a Liberal, announces that she will be crossing the floor to sit as a Conservative.
  • June 29, 2004: Gary Masyk, Alberta MLA, crosses the floor from the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party to the Alberta Alliance Party.
  • November 22, 2004: Carolyn Parrish, Liberal MP, was suspended from the caucus on November 18 after public comments about the Liberal party and Prime Minister Paul Martin. She decided to sit as an independent member four days later.
  • 2005: David Kilgour, MP, changes from Liberals to independent.
  • May 17, 2005: Belinda Stronach, MP, leaves Conservative Party to join Paul Martin's Liberal cabinet.
  • June 6, 2005: Pat O'Brien, leaves Liberals to sit as an independent MP.
  • October 17, 2005: Bev Desjarlais, NDP, sits as an independent MP after losing her party's nomination for an upcoming election
  • January 13, 2006: Frank Branch, dean of the New Brunswick legislature and MLA for Nepisiguit, switches his affiliate from Liberal to independent pending a police investigation into his business practices.
  • February 6, 2006: David Emerson, MP, changes from Liberals to Conservatives and joined Stephen Harper's cabinet two weeks after the election.
  • February 21, 2006: Michael Malley, New Brunswick MLA for Miramichi-Bay du Vin, changes from Progressive Conservative to independent, after being turned down for a New Brunswick cabinet position and other demands. This move changed the balance of power from a majority government to a minority government in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly.
  • April 13, 2006: Michael Malley switches from independent back to Progressive Conservative while serving as speaker. This is seen as setting a precedent.
  • January 5, 2007: Wajid Khan, MP, leaves the Liberals and joins the Conservatives.
  • March 29, 2007: Tim Peterson, MPP in Ontario, leaves the Liberals to sit as an independent. On June 6, 2007, Peterson joins the Progressive Conservatives.
  • April 17, 2007: Joan MacAlpine-Stiles and Wally Stiles, spouses and MLAs in the New Brunswick legislature, leave the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick and join the governing New Brunswick Liberal Association.
  • August 30, 2008: Blair Wilson, independent MP who resigned from the Liberal caucus due to allegations of financial impropriety, joins the Green Party of Canada becoming its first ever Member of Parliament.
  • October 23, 2008: André Riedl and Pierre-Michel Auger, Quebec MNAs, cross the floor from the ADQ to the governing Liberals.
  • November 6, 2009: Quebec MNAs Éric Caire and Marc Picard leave the ADQ to sit as independents. In 2011, they join the Coalition Avenir Québec.

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 provincial cabinet minister and former Quebec Liberal MNA Lawrence Cannon was elected as a Conservative MP in the 2006 federal election and subsequently became Minister of Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities and later Minister of Foreign Affairs.
  • 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.
  • Cris Aglugub, who had been New Democratic Party of Manitoba MLA for The Maples from 1999 to 2007, was the 2011 Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba candidate in the newly created riding of Tyndall Park, where he placed third.
  • 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.
  • On January 1 2017, Dominic Cardy resigned both as leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party and as a member of the provincial and federal New Democratic Parties. Cardy had not been elected to a public office as a New Democrat. On January 27 he accepted a position with the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, initially as strategic issues director and in April as chief of staff to party caucus. In the 2018 provincial election he was elected PC MLA for Fredericton West-Hanwell, which he had previously contested unsuccessfully as a New Democrat. He entered the provincial PC cabinet.
  • 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.
  • In 2021, Belinda Karahalios, MPP, having previously been removed from the Ontario PC caucus after voting against Bill 195, co-founded the New Blue Party of Ontario, alongside her husband Jim Karahalios.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Kupfer, Matthew; Florence Ngué-No; The Canadian Press. "Ottawa-area MPP Jack MacLaren expelled from PC caucus", CBC Ottawa, May 28, 2017.
  2. ^ Benzie, Robert. "MPP Jack MacLaren was quitting before PC Leader Patrick Brown fired him", Toronto Star, May 29, 2017.
  3. ^ Jones, Allison (May 29, 2017). "Ontario MPP Jack MacLaren questions official reason for his removal from PC caucus". Global News. The Canadian Press. Retrieved May 29, 2017. He is now technically sitting as an independent, since the Trillium party doesn’t have official party status.
  4. ^ Cochrane, David (10 June 2021). "Green MP Jenica Atwin crossing the floor to join the Liberals". CBC News. Archived from the original on 10 June 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2021.

External links[]

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