Tory MP Publicly Rejects Liberal Invitation to Cross Floor

A B.C. Conservative MP says the Liberals recently asked him to cross the floor to join their party, a move he says he has “no intention” of making.

“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 Jan. 5 post on Facebook.

Anderson said the Liberal Party is “pulling out all the stops to lure Conservative Members of Parliament to cross the floor so they can have a majority,” and have been promoting the idea that there is a movement within the party to get rid of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“They’d prefer a milquetoast Conservative leader and not a fighter who stands up to their lies and omissions,” he said.

Anderson, who was elected as an MP in April 2025 and previously served as interim leader of the B.C. Conservatives from 2017 to 2019, said crossing the floor to join the Liberals would be a “betrayal” of both his constituents and his personal beliefs.

Poilievre described Anderson in an X post as a “man of integrity and principle” for rejecting the Liberals’ offer and accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of “trying to manipulate himself a costly majority that Canadians voted against.”

The Liberal Party is currently one seat shy of a 172-seat majority government. Two Tory MPs crossed the floor in recent months to join their ranks, boosting the party’s seat count from 169 to 171. Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont announced he was joining the Liberal Party on Nov. 4 and Toronto-area MP Michael Ma announced the same on Dec. 11.

D’Entremont told reporters a day after making his decision that he wanted to support his constituents and did not feel he was “represented” in the Conservative Party as a “Red Tory.” Ma said in a statement that he became an MP to “focus on solutions, not division,” and that Carney had the “steady, practical approach” needed to support Canadians.

Tory MP Matt Jeneroux also announced on Nov. 6 that he planned to resign this spring, and since his announcement he has not voted with the Conservatives on several pieces of legislation in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland announced on Jan. 5 that she would step down as an MP in the coming weeks. 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.