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Floor-crossing MP praised Trudeau government in weeks before departure

canada-man

Well-known member
Jun 16, 2007
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Toronto, Ontario
canadianmale.wordpress.com
Dafuq?


Leona Alleslev heaped public and private praise on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his senior ministers in the weeks before she started a secret process to defect to the opposition Conservatives, according to an email and an audio recording obtained by CBC News.

On July 11 — when Alleslev was part of the Canadian delegation at the NATO summit in Brussels — the MP for Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill sent a emotional email to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

"Want to tell you that the hug and kiss you gave me on the way out was just truly the best — you made me cry!" Alleslev wrote in the email, supplied to CBC News by a Liberal source.

"You and the PM and Harj (Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan) were truly awesome today. This is not only who we are as Canadians – but also who we are as global citizens – and that was on full display today."

She ended the note by thanking Freeland for "everything you do!"

Alleslev delivered a similar message just nine days later on July 20, when Trudeau headlined a fundraiser in her riding and the then-Liberal MP made a statement.

"The greatest thing about being a member of Parliament in this prime minister's government is that we are each and every one of us valued for the contribution that we bring to the team," Alleslev said, according to a recording of her remarks.

Just weeks later, in early August, Alleslev was sitting down with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer at a Pearson airport hotel outside Toronto, discussing the terms of her defection from the Liberals.

Alleslev — who cited what she called Trudeau's failures on foreign policy and defence as her motivation for crossing the floor — also praised the prime minister's performance at the NATO summit.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/leona-alleslev-floor-crossing-1.4828822?cmp=rss?cmp=FB_Post_News
 

essguy_

Active member
Nov 1, 2001
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I'm not against floor crossing as we supposedly elect MP's to represent us, not parties (at least in theory - the reality is very different). Having said that, when a person crosses then it is perfectly fair to question motives as well as ethics. In this case, you can make a lot of legitimate criticisms of Alleslev. First - she did this on the first day of the Fall Sitting. Defenders will say that this was her first opportunity but that's completely wrong. An MP can declare their defection at any time. Clearly she had already communicated this to Scheer since he had a place for her in his party and announced it coincident with her crossing. But none of her former Liberal colleagues had any idea or notice - neither did anybody from her riding association (the people and volunteers who helped get her elected). So she kept up a facade of being a Liberal, participated in strategy meetings ahead of the Fall Session (INCLUDING the recent caucus retreat in Saskatchewan). This is underhanded and unethical.

As soon as Alleslev started having doubts about her future in the party (and remember that she was demoted in the party) she should have recused herself from meetings. She didn't. So her ethics are certainly questionable even though she did nothing wrong according to the rules. Another point that bothers me is that she has said that she placed "country over party" to explain her move. Nonsense. IF that was the case, she would do what MP's like Brent Rathgeber did and sit as an independent. This was opportunism, not "patriotism" - and you could argue that she has hurt her own country by making a floor crossing while her party and Govt are negotiating NAFTA against a President who views any sign of weakness as an excuse to dig in further. So nothing to applaud here.
 

oldjones

CanBarelyRe Member
Aug 18, 2001
24,495
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Pretty clearly a natural-born pol, with an inborn talent for saying whatever her listeners want to hear, if she thinks it will improve her interests. I'm not sure about federal Conservatives, but she'd fit right in with the OPCs.
 

jcpro

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2014
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I oppose floor crossing, on principle. But, we're talking politics, here so no principle is sacred. Ultimately, her constituents will have the final word.
 

Frankfooter

dangling member
Apr 10, 2015
79,716
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I oppose floor crossing, on principle. But, we're talking politics, here so no principle is sacred. Ultimately, her constituents will have the final word.
Floor crossing should trigger an automatic new election for that riding.
 

oldjones

CanBarelyRe Member
Aug 18, 2001
24,495
11
38
Floor crossing should trigger an automatic new election for that riding.
Only if you believe voters picked the Party as more important than the person. After all, they're still being represented by the same person they thought was the best of the bunch who were in the contest.

If you believe that Party choice was paramount, then indeed the voters have been betrayed. But of course they were already swindled by the First Past the Post system that gave the Liberals more seats than their vote count earned.
 

Frankfooter

dangling member
Apr 10, 2015
79,716
17,561
113
Only if you believe voters picked the Party as more important than the person. After all, they're still being represented by the same person they thought was the best of the bunch who were in the contest.

If you believe that Party choice was paramount, then indeed the voters have been betrayed. But of course they were already swindled by the First Past the Post system that gave the Liberals more seats than their vote count earned.
Its a question worth discussing.
 

oldjones

CanBarelyRe Member
Aug 18, 2001
24,495
11
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When I first voted, party names weren't even printed on the ballot. Although there were heated discussions about it around every election, the justification was that Canadian voters were not picking a Party (like those benighted Europeans with their proportional representation and MPs named from Party Lists) We were choosing among independent voices to send the best representative of our local interests to the Capital. And it might well be argued — and was — that switching from one Party to another would get your town the wharf, or power plant or airport it needed.

That all made sense over coffee cups but as soon as you took even a casual glance at how things really worked you could see it was mostly malarkey. Parties count. Which is why they got listed on ballots, and why I favour PR, because the 'counting' that mismatches seats and votes is screwier than ever.

As for thr MP we're discussing: It seems very clear that she has as much party loyalty as her successive Party choices have firm principles. Obviously all she cares about is getting on the winning side, and all they care about is having her boots on the ground doing the door-to-door gruntwork. I can't see how those attitudes serve any but their entirely selfish interests.

They're the natural result of our current system, and a disservice to the constituency and the country.
 
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