{"id":263737,"date":"2025-11-05T17:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263737\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T17:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:01:08","slug":"liberals-pursue-conservative-mps-after-chris-dentremont-joins-carneys-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263737\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals pursue Conservative MPs after Chris d\u2019Entremont joins Carney\u2019s caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with MP Chris d’Entremont, who crossed the floor from the Conservative caucus to join the Liberals, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Nov. 5, 2025.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The minority Liberal government is pursuing other Conservatives to cross the floor after Nova Scotia MP Chris d\u2019Entremont<\/a> stunned Pierre Poilievre\u2019s party by defecting to Mark Carney\u2019s caucus.<\/p>\n

Two Liberal sources say the governing party has been in discussions with a number of Conservative MPs to gauge their willingness to either cross or sit as independents before a vote is held on the federal budget<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources as they are not authorized to discuss internal party matters. <\/p>\n

One of the Liberal sources said there are promising leads but no firm commitments from other Conservative MPs, whom they would not name. <\/p>\n

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Mr. d\u2019Entremont\u2019s move on Tuesday evening means the Liberals now have 170 seats out of 343 in the House of Commons, two short of a majority. The government will still need opposition votes to pass their budget. <\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia politician, an MP since 2019 and the only Conservative elected in his province during the April 28 election, appeared with Mr. Carney at a press conference Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney welcomed the former Conservative to the government caucus and made a pitch for more opposition MPs to cross the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is better for Canada to have a majority for this budget,\u201d he said in French.<\/p>\n

While declining to provide specifics on other MPs the Liberals may be recruiting, Mr. Carney said he speaks regularly with many MPs from both sides of the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is I will talk with anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mr. d\u2019Entremont said for months he had felt disconnected from Mr. Poilievre\u2019s approach to federal politics, that he \u201cwasn\u2019t feeling I was aligned with the ideals of what the leader of the Opposition had been talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing this moment \u201cin Canadian history,\u201d he said he felt \u201cit\u2019s time to actually try to lead a country, to try to make it better and not try to knock it down \u2013 not to continue to be negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. d\u2019Entremont told reporters he believes there are other MPs who are considering also crossing the floor.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. d’Entremont is embraced by Liberal MP Alexandra Mend\u00e8s, as he arrives at a Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Nov. 5, 2025.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Other Conservatives criticized the defection.<\/p>\n

Ontario MP Jamil Jivani called Mr. d\u2019Entremont an \u201cidiot\u201d while walking past reporters into caucus. <\/p>\n

Scott Aitchison, who ran against Mr. Poilievre in the last leadership race, said he is behind his leader 100 per cent and so is the caucus. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s got the right prescription for solving the problems that Canadians face,\u201d he said of Mr. Poilievre. The MP added he thinks Mr. d\u2019Entremont\u2019s move was \u201ca mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

After April\u2019s election, Mr. d\u2019Entremont had publicly expressed disappointment in his party\u2019s performance, saying he didn\u2019t think the Conservatives moved fast enough to address Canadians\u2019 fears about U.S. President Donald Trump and his protectionist policies. <\/p>\n

Two Liberal MPs said talks with Mr. d\u2019Entremont have picked up steam in the last two weeks. The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources as they are not authorized to discuss internal party matters. <\/p>\n

They said many in their caucus have had casual conversations since the April election with a handful of their Conservative colleagues about joining their party. <\/p>\n

Mr d\u2019Entremont\u2019s defection, meanwhile, has sown suspicion and confusion within the Conservative caucus about who else may be considering an exit, and renewed doubts about Mr. Poilievre\u2019s future as leader. <\/p>\n

Conservative MP Matt Strauss told reporters Wednesday he was disappointed, saying Mr. d\u2019Entremont\u2019s move was \u201cpretty obviously careerist.\u201d <\/p>\n

Conservative MP Glen Motz said Mr. d\u2019Entremont\u2019s constituents voted for a Conservative MP, and he feels Mr. d\u2019Entremont betrayed the trust and confidence they placed in him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a friend. I\u2019m disappointed in him personally, and it\u2019s a choice that he made,\u201d he told reporters. <\/p>\n

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he is not aware of other Conservatives looking to cross the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are deeply personal decisions, and I\u2019ll leave it for other people to share news if they have it,\u201d Mr. Fraser said as he arrived at West Block.<\/p>\n

Asked if Mr. D\u2019Entremont should run in a by-election, Mr. Fraser said, \u201cWe\u2019re happy to have Chris here. His community elected him not just based on a party brand but based on a stellar reputation he\u2019s built up over the course of his career. He\u2019s been elected to represent the community. He\u2019s going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reports from Emily Haws and Ian Bailey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with MP Chris d’Entremont, who crossed the floor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1397,49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-263737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-appwebview","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}