Another Canadian Conservative lawmaker joins Carney’s governing Liberal Party

TORONTO (AP) – A Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker defected from his party and joined Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals on Thursday, a move that leaves the Liberal Party just short of a simple majority of the seats in Parliament.

Michael Ma, who represents Markham-Unionville, is the second Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker to join Carney’s Liberals in just over a month.

Ma said he entered politics “to focus on solutions, not division.”

“I have concluded that Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering the steady, practical approach we need to deliver on the priorities I hear every day while door knocking in Markham-Unionville,” Ma said in his statement.

The move puts the Liberals one seat shy of a majority government and being able to pass any bill without the support of an opposition party.

Carney joined hands and welcomed Ma at the Liberal Party Christmas party on Thursday night.

“Wow, such a big welcome,” Ma said.

Carney noted his coalition of supporters is growing.

“You are going to have a much better time spending Christmas with us than Christmas with the Kranks. We are all about Santa, not about the Grinch,” Carney joked.

The defection is a blow to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who is facing a leadership review vote in January. Poilievre lost the last election in April and even his own seat in Parliament, but has since rejoined the House of Commons.

“Michael Ma was elected as a Conservative by the constituents of Markham-Unionville to fight against Liberal inflationary spending driving up the cost of living in his community,” Poilievre said in a statement on social media. “Today, he chose to endorse the very policies he was elected to oppose.”

Poilievre has lost three Conservative lawmakers in recent weeks. A third Conservative announced his resignation after talking to Carney about possibly crossing the floor.

Until this year, Poilievre was seen as a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd his Conservative Party back into power for the first time in a decade. Then, President Donald Trump declared economic war on the U.S.’s neighbor to the north and even threatened to make Canada the 51st state.

Carney has moved the Liberals to the center since replacing Justin Trudeau as prime minister and winning national elections.

“Two floor crossings in such a short period of time is rare, and other defections are always possible so the Conservative establishment must be extremely nervous right now,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“If another Conservative MP would cross the floor to join the Liberals, they would have a majority government, which would probably mean no federal elections any time soon and give more time to Poilievre’s adversaries within the Conservative Party of Canada to organize against him.”