NDP MP Says She Rejected Offer to Join Liberal Party

NDP MP Lori Idlout says she will not be crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party after being asked to do so by party members and some of her constituents.

“I am proud of what my fellow NDP Members and I have been able to accomplish during my 2 terms as MP… As such, I will not be crossing the floor and will be staying with the NDP caucus,” Idlout said in a Jan. 8 statement to The Epoch Times.

Idlout did not say who specifically had asked her to cross the floor, but previously told CBC News that both Liberal Party members and constituents in her riding had asked her.

Idlout said she had met with “leaders, elders, and many Nunavummiut” to discuss the issue, and heard “overwhelmingly how important it is to do what is best for my constituents.” The MP said she will continue working with “any party” to advance indigenous rights.

Idlout, who has represented the riding of Nunavut since 2021, also told CBC News that a large part of her job involves highlighting when her territory is not being respected or not getting the resources it needs. She said if she joined the Liberal Party she would not be as free to criticize the federal government while advocating for the people of her riding.

Interim NDP Leader Don Davies said in a statement to The Epoch Times that it was “no secret” that Liberals are approaching MPs from other parties to try and form a majority government, but that his caucus “stands united.” Davies said Idlout is a core member of the NDP, and the caucus will be visiting Nunavut in the coming weeks for its winter meeting.

Conservative MP Scott Anderson also recently announced he had been approached by the Liberal Party to cross the floor, which he says he rejects as he doesn’t want to betray his constituents.

“I have no intention of crossing the floor today, tomorrow or ever, regardless of what you offer me. It would be a betrayal of my constituents, a betrayal of the office to which I have been elected, and a betrayal of my own personal core beliefs,” Tory MP Scott Anderson said in a lengthy Jan. 5 social media post.

The Liberal Party is currently one seat shy of a 172-seat majority government. Two Conservative MPs crossed the floor in recent months to join their ranks, which boosted the party’s seat count from 169 to 171.

Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont announced he was leaving the Conservatives to join the Liberal Party on Nov. 4, 2025, and Toronto-area MP Michael Ma announced the same on Dec. 11. Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux also announced on Nov. 6 that he planned to resign this spring, and since that announcement he has not voted with the Tories on several pieces of legislation in the House of Commons.

Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland also announced on Jan. 5 that she would step down as an MP on Jan. 9. She has already resigned as Carney’s special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine after being named an economic development adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.