Juno News - September 18, 2018Trudeau's mismanagement of country causes Liberal MP to jump ship
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Summary
Aurora MP Leona Alsav has crossed the floor of the House of Commons and left the Liberal caucus. What does that mean for the rest of her term? And what does it mean for Justin Trudeau's government?
Transcript
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The Conservatives are attracting new people and the Liberals can't even keep their own caucus on board.
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That's the narrative that's shaping up with the crossing of the floor.
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Literally, she actually walked across the floor in a session of the House of Commons by Leona Alislav,
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a GTA Member of Parliament representing an Aurora riding that she only narrowly captured in the 2015 election.
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Now, Leona Alislav was not a household name, but she certainly is now as one of the more disruptive players in Canadian politics.
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She said that she did not believe Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were equipped to do the things that are necessary in Canada,
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especially on issues like defence, foreign policy, and even more broadly, the economy.
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Now, this is a woman who knows what she's speaking of.
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She was an Air Force captain, she worked in the private aerospace sector,
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and in fact, on paper, looks like she belonged with the Conservatives in the first place.
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For whatever reason, she wanted to run for the Liberals.
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And in the last three years, somewhere along the line, she felt that her party and her government had lost her way,
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and she said that her commitment is not to her party, but rather to her constituents and her country.
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And for that reason, she has to continue to serve the remainder of her term from the Conservative benches
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This is, I think, a fascinating case, because in a tweet the day of her departure,
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Alislav said that the Conservatives are unafraid to deal with the real issues.
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They get to present themselves as a big tent party and a big tent movement with room for everyone.
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And we know that a path to a majority victory for the Conservatives, especially in the GTA,
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means picking up a lot of votes and support from disgruntled, disenfranchised Liberals,
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Here's where things get a little bit tricky, though.
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Andrew Scheer has to present the image that his party is one that has room for everyone,
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while also dealing with the schism caused by Maxime Bernier's departure.
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oh, well, this woman never really belonged in the first place.
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In fact, government house leader, Bardis Chagher, was on Power in Politics,
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well, you know, she needed to make a decision for herself and that was that.
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And, you know, the Liberals go forward as though nothing ever happened.
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They're pretending that the confidence of even Liberal caucus members
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has not been eradicated or at the very least diminished.
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And if they're losing their Liberal MPs, what about Liberal voters,
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What's going to happen here is going to be very interesting.
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We are now just over a year before the federal election,
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is all part of that lead-up to when Canadians go back to the polls in October of 2019.
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There's no such thing as a political system in which we aren't paying attention,
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at least for the next year, because everything matters.
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And this is going to be, if we can say the writing is on the wall,
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which I think we can, danger for Justin Trudeau.
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For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lawton.