A Conservative riding association wants floor-crossers to pay back their campaign costs

Prime Minister Mark Carney raises the hand of Michael Ma, a former Conservative member of Parliament who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in late 2025. A riding association in B.C. has drafted a proposed policy that would force floor-crossers to pay back their campaign costs. (The Canadian Press)Social SharingCrossing the floor to another political party should come at a cost, says the president of a federal Conservative riding association in B.C.

The Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay electoral district association is calling on the Conservative Party to adopt a policy requiring MPs to agree to repay campaign expenses should they cross the floor or choose to sit as an Independent. 

Chris Pequin, the riding association's president, says that when an MP ditches their party mid-term, it's "a slap in the face" to the volunteers who spent thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars to get them elected.

"There's a real sense of betrayal," Pequin told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "So we just thought that one of the ways that we could at least protect the members of the party who donated their hard-earned money to campaigns would be to find a way to get that money back."

Four Conservative MPs and one NDP MP have crossed the floor to the ruling Liberals since the April election, helping the party secure a majority in Parliament. B.C.'s provincial Conservative caucus has also seen a recent exodus of lawmakers.

Peguin says he accepts that floor-crossing is an established legal tradition within parliamentary democracy, and acknowledges the Conservatives have celebrated the practice when it works to their advantage.

Nevertheless, he says, grassroots party members who donate their time and money deserve to be shielded from the changing whims of candidates who run with the party when it's polling high, only to abandon ship when the tides change.

"I think it'll attract people of maybe stronger character, more integrity, potentially, to the system," he said.

Chris Pequin is the president of the Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay electoral district association. (Submitted by Chris Pequin)His riding association has written a three-page draft proposal of a contract between candidates and their riding associations called the "Candidate Funding and Party Loyalty Agreement." 

It would require floor-crossers to repay riding associations for money spent on their election campaign, minus what Elections Canada reimburses. That money could come directly out of the MP's pocket, he says, or their new party could pay.

"Honestly, I don't think we're as concerned with where that money comes from," he said. 

There are still details to be ironed out, he says, including working with Elections Canada to ensure the repayments can be made in a way that's enforceable and adheres to elections financing regulations. 

But overall, he says the proposal was well-received by members of other Conservative EDAs who met to discuss it on Thursday.

"There is a sense of frustration," he said. "As Conservatives, we like to pride ourselves on being grassroots and that our elected members are accountable to the people."

But not everyone's convinced the policy stands a chance of passing at a national convention and becoming part of the Conservative Party's constitution. 

"Does the national party want the topic of floor crossing in the news?" said Alex Marland, a political science professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.

"My instinct is they probably don't, because it just creates more conversation about people leaving the Conservatives."

Alex Marland is a political scientist at Acadia University who has written about floor-crossing and party loyalty in Canadian politics. (Acadia University)Even if it did pass, he says, there's no guarantee it would work.

"I don't even think that they would ever see any money because they would probably have to go through the courts to get it," he said.

Don Davies, the NDP MP for Vancouver Kingsway, says he understands where the riding association is coming from. 

"It's just another approach that speaks to what I think is a fundamental question of accountability and trust that's owed to the voters of this country," he said.

Davies has introduced a bill to Parliament that would require MPs who wish to join another party to first obtain consent from their constituents through a byelection, or sit as an Independent until the next general election.

NDP member of Parliament Don Davies says floor crossing raises a fundamental issue of trust and accountability with constituents. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)The last time the NDP introduced a motion like this, the Conservatives and Liberals both voted against it. Given how many MPs the Conservatives have lost this year to Carney, Davies says he hopes they'll have a change of heart this time around.

"I think it all speaks to the same general idea, which is that in a democracy, elected people owe a duty to remain consistent and have integrity with respect to their campaigning," he said.

"And if something material changes, like, for instance, the party that they claim to support or represent, there should be consequences. And I think power must reside always in the voters who send us to represent them."

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