{"id":484922,"date":"2026-02-19T08:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T08:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484922\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T08:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T08:59:10","slug":"alberta-conservatives-fume-as-edmonton-mp-matt-jeneroux-jumps-ship-for-the-liberals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484922\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta Conservatives fume as Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux jumps ship for the Liberals"},"content":{"rendered":"

As everybody in Canada surely knows by now, Alberta Member of Parliament Matt Jeneroux has crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s Liberals, who whether you like it or not appear still to be the Natural Governing Party of Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre \u2013 unsurprisingly, he\u2019s not happy (Photo: Facebook\/Pierre Poilievre). <\/p>\n

Mr. Jeneroux made the announcement in a letter published on social media<\/a> in which he said after listening to Mr. Carney\u2019s world-famous Rupture Address<\/a> in Davos last month he had concluded we are living through a moment \u201cthat demands steady leadership, constructive collaboration between all Parliamentarians, and a willingness to stand up and serve even when the path is not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accordingly, he continued, dropping his metaphorical bombshell: \u201cAfter further reflection with my family, and conversations with colleagues and constituents, I will be continuing to serve in Parliament \u2013 and I will be working with Prime Minister Mark Carney as part of his new government \u2026\u201d Boom!\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a social media statement, Prime Minister Carney added<\/a> that he was \u201chonoured to welcome Matt Jeneroux to our caucus as the newest member of Canada\u2019s new government. Building a stronger, more resilient, and more independent country will require ambition, collaboration, and occasionally, sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, the Opposition Conservatives are apoplectic. They must have thought last fall when there were rumours Mr. Jeneroux might be pondering executing a floor crossing that they had successfully bullied the former \u201cprogressive conservative\u201d Edmonton MP into shutting up for the time being and then quitting quietly this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apparently things were bad enough at that time that Mr. Jeneroux felt compelled to issue a social media statement<\/a> saying, no, no one had threatened<\/a> him. He announced his plans<\/a> to remain in Parliament for a spell, then quit, in the same fashion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The late Jack Horner, Conservative and Liberal Member of Parliament (Photo: Provenance unknown, by way of the Milton Historical Society).<\/p>\n

Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who blew a 27-point lead in the polls to lose last April\u2019s federal election and his own Ontario seat, immediately said Mr. Jeneroux had \u201cbetrayed the people of Edmonton Riverbend who voted for affordable food and homes, safe streets, and a strong resource sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, one can feel a certain sympathy with that point of view and still not feel very sympathetic with Mr. Poilievre, who has too much of a whiff of the MAGA about him for a lot of Canadian voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question Mr. Poilievre has been wounded again by Mr. Carney\u2019s strategy. With Mr. Poilievre now back in the saddle as the just-re-ratified Conservative leader and back in his native Alberta as short-term MP for Battle River-Crowfoot, he appears to be a liability both for the Conservatives and the folks in his riding who are stuck with him for the indeterminate future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Carney has found an unconventional route to building the majority he couldn\u2019t quite win last April 28. Every time Mr. Poilievre scrambles back to his feet he gets knocked down again, just as he was in November when Nova Scotia MP Chris d\u2019Entremont crossed to the Libs and in December when Ontario MP Michael Ma did the same thing. There are probably more Conservative MPs waiting in the wings, and maybe some New Democrats too if the party chooses the wrong leader next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t seen anything quite like this out here in Tory Blue Alberta since April 20, 1977, when Cactus Jack Horner<\/a> of the Conservative Horner political clan made the same trip from the Opposition benches to Pierre Trudeau\u2019s Liberal government\u2019s side of the House. That made 4\/20 a day that lived in infamy in Alberta until PM Justin Trudeau\u2019s government legalized cannabis in in 2018, which may account for a certain amount of forgetfulness among much of the Conservative base.<\/p>\n

\"\"The late Jim Prentice, Progressive Conservative premier of Alberta (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). <\/p>\n

Mr. Horner went straight into the Liberal cabinet, where he remained until 1979, when he was defeated along with the elder Mr. Trudeau\u2019s Liberal government. By 1980, the Liberals were back<\/a>, but without Mr. Horner, who was punished by the voters of his Crowfoot riding \u2013 perhaps ironically essentially the same territory as that now represented by Mr. Poilievre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So those things may or may not be a harbinger of what will happen to Mr. Jeneroux, who may or may not have plans to remain in politics after the next federal election. In the meantime, he is said to abide in Vancouver when he\u2019s not in Ottawa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the time being, Mr. Carney said in his statement: \u201cAs a new special advisor on economic and security partnerships, Matt\u2019s leadership will contribute to strengthening Canada\u2019s alliances and trade partnerships, advancing Canada\u2019s leadership in global security cooperation, and building our strength at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pity that the late Alberta Premier Jim Prentice isn\u2019t still around to observe this demonstration of the right way to organize a mass floor crossing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Double floor-crosser Rob Anderson, now Alberta Premier Smith\u2019s chief of staff (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). <\/p>\n

Mr. Prentice briefly appeared to be some kind of political genius on Dec. 17, 2014, when it was revealed he had persuaded Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith and eight of her MLAs to cross the floor of the provincial Legislature en masse<\/a> to join his Progressive Conservative government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alas for all concerned, astonishment soon turned to outrage, Ms. Smith\u2019s political career quickly soured for a long spell, and the ensuring brouhaha played a significant role in the election of Rachel Notley\u2019s NDP in May 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Probably the first political casualty of the mass floor crossings of 2014 was Rob Anderson, MLA for Airdrie at the time, who in 2010 had quit the PCs and crossed the floor to join the Wildrose Party and then crossed back with Ms. Smith, making him a double floor crosser. In January 2015, presumably reading the handwriting on the wall<\/a>, he announced he was leaving politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A businessperson\u2019s comment on Mr. Anderson\u2019s activities in 2014 (Photo: Facebook). <\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Alberta, it could be argued, like Ms. Smith, Mr. Anderson found a second life in politics with the United Conservative Party. She\u2019s the premier and he\u2019s her chief of staff, an intemperate social media commentator, and a co-author of the separatist Free Alberta Strategy that appears to have been fully adopted by the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney, meanwhile, is demonstrating a more effective way to use floor-crossings to keep his political opponents off balance is to make one bombshell announcement at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, they call \u2019em the L-shaped party for a reason, and they sure can execute a smuggler\u2019s turn on policy when necessary, faster than their Conservative rivals seem to be able to manage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brace yourselves, Albertans!
premier to bloviate on immigration<\/p>\n

\"\"Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, to speak on immigration today (Photo: Alberta Government\/Flickr).
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of Mr. Anderson, he was tweeting<\/a> busily yesterday in preparation for Premier Smith\u2019s address to the Peoples of the New West later today, calling the high immigration rates that just months ago the UCP was demanding \u201cabsolute insanity.\u201d Another trooper in Ms. Smith\u2019s effort to Trumpify Alberta, her Calgary office manager Bruce McAllister, screeched online<\/a> that \u201cthe people orchestrating this reckless, unsustainable mass immigration into Canada fill me with profound disgust.\u201d In case you doubted where he was coming from, he continued: \u201cWhy import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here?\u201d You can\u2019t make this stuff up. Presumably Ms. Smith will outline her plans for ICE Alberta in her little fireside chat tomorrow at 6:45 p.m. on CTV, Global, Rogers and the usual social media hellholes.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As everybody in Canada surely knows by now, Alberta Member of Parliament Matt Jeneroux has crossed the floor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[78630,49,48,15148,23752,195547,2659,126157],"class_list":{"0":"post-484922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-alberta-politics","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canadian-politics","12":"tag-edmonton","13":"tag-floor-crossing","14":"tag-mark-carney","15":"tag-matt-jeneroux"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484922","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=484922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}