Crossing the Floor: Canadian Style

Gary Valcour

Having waltzed up the aisle a couple of times, Belinda Stronach has now tried her luck by waltzing across it. As Scott Fitzgerald observed, “The rich are different from you and me.” A wealthy, petulant dilettante can presumably afford to cast aside husbands, lovers and jobs with the same gay abandon she might use in replacing her wardrobe. One would think it more difficult for a politician to treat political beliefs as merely interesting accessories. Perhaps it’s easier to do when those principles have had less than a year to take root – even more so when the ground is arid.

Ms Stronach, has, however, raised the bar in the daring speed and timing of her treason. Looking back at the history of floor crossers in Canadian politics, none have seduced and abandoned their constituents with greater alacrity. Like Ms Stronach, most have alleged a Saul-like conversion rooted in principle and, oddly enough, most had failed in their bids to take over the party they dumped. Very few made the effort to start a Party just so they could discard it. So, who are these political will o’ the wisps and what, if anything other than lessons in selfish treachery, can they teach us about Canadian politics?

The list, in no particular order, includes Paul Hellyer, John Bracken, Hazen Argue, Maurice Duplessis, René Lévesque, Pauline Jewitt, Lucien Bouchard, John Crosbie, David Kilgore, Elijah Harper, Nancy Betkowski (Macbeth), Jean Charest and Scott Brison. Over the years, the Conservatives of whatever name have suffered more abandonment than any other party. Butkowski, Kilgour, Charest, Duplessis, Brison and now Madonna, sorry, Belinda, all started their political life as Conservatives. Duplessis helped mould the ALN, the Action liberale nationale and the Conservatives into the Union Nationale in Quebec and built his reputation largely by exposing the misconduct and patronage of the Liberal government Louis-Alexandre Taschereau. Misconduct and patronage by Liberals in Quebec; plus ca change! Except for Mr. Kilgour (and maybe Ms. Stronach down the line), the others all stayed with their newfound friends in the Liberal Party.

The Liberals had four high-profile defectors: John Crosbie who went on to fame and fortune with the Conservatives; Pauline Jewett who took her principles and found kindred spirits among the NDP; Rene Levesque who left the Liberals in 1967, the hundredth year of Confederation, then sat as an Independent for three years until he could get the Parti Quebecois up and running; and Paul Hellyer about whom, more later.

The NDP lost two big names over the years. Hazen Argue, having lost the leadership of the newly minted NDP to Tommy Douglas, took the rejection poorly and crossed the floor to join the Liberals where he went on to serve in the Trudeau cabinet. Mr. Argue died in some disgrace and is, to my knowledge, the only former leader of the CCF or NDP whose portrait is not on the walls of NDP headquarters. Elijah Harper in 1981 became the first Treaty Indian to be elected as a provincial politician. He achieved national fame by holding an eagle feather when he took his stand in the Manitoba legislature and refused to accept the Meech Lake Accord. The NDP rejected him as a candidate in the 1993 federal election so he joined the Liberals. He lost the seat to an NDP candidate in the 1997 election and again in 2000.

John Bracken was a political outsider in 1922 when he became Premier of Manitoba by agreeing to take the helm of the leaderless United Farmers of Manitoba who had just won the Provincial election without a leader. Twenty years later a weak national Conservative Party asked him to take over as their leader. He agreed but only on condition they change their name to the “Progressive Conservative Party”. A western populist, he was distrusted by the party’s eastern establishment and was unable to build the party (sound familiar?). He lost his seat to a Liberal in 1949 and left political life.
David Kilgour may have thought himself in the running by changing from Conservative to Independent to Liberal and back to Independent, but the prize for most conversions on the road to Damascus goes to Paul Hellyer, the poster-boy for aisle crossing. Winston Churchill, an old floor crosser himself having scurried from the Conservatives to the Liberals and back again, wryly observed that "Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat." In those terms, Paul Hellyer may be the most ingenious fellow ever to buy a membership in a Canadian political party. In order to re-rat frequently, it helps to start young. When he was first elected, as a Liberal in 1949, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons. From there he jumped ship to sit as an Independent, then tried to start his own party (anyone see any themes here?) then converted to Conservatism, then back-slid to the Liberals, then started his own party, the Canadian Action Party and there was some talk not long ago of Mr. Hellyer considering a run as an NDP candidate. It must be very confusing to remember which principles one is abandoning and which one is adhering as one crosses and re-crosses the floor.

If history, both political and personal, offers any lessons, Paul Martin might do well to dust off his Shakespeare and consider Julius Caesar’s line about one of his conspirators, “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look.” It shouldn’t be long before Belinda cranks up her own party, the Belinda Stronach or BS Party. Millionaires Unite! You have nothing to lose but your Gucci’s!