Liberal MP McDonald says he's rebuffed Conservatives' overtures three times, but won’t rule out crossing the floor or sitting as an Independent

Three-term Liberal MP Ken McDonald, who has voted against his own party twice on the carbon tax, says he has rejected Conservative Party overtures to cross the floor three times, and although he is happy in the Liberal caucus, he won’t rule out the possibility of joining the Conservatives or sitting as an Independent if the need arises down the road. McDonald, who won the last election with 50.1 per cent of the vote, has not fulfilled the Liberal Party’s conditions to run as a candidate without going through the nomination process. “I don't think anyone would rule out the possibility, but it will take a lot for me to stand up and say, 'Listen ,” said McDonald (Avalon, N.L.) in an interview with The Hill Times. “After voting the way that I have, it has shown me that you can still get across your point and still be a Member of the Liberal Party, and I don't know of any other party that would allow me to do that twice, and there'd be no reprimand for .” The carbon tax has been one of the key issues that has dragged down the Liberal Party’s public support in Atlantic Canada, a key bloc in the party's red wall. McDonald has broken ranks twice with his own party in the Commons and voted against carbon pricing. He’s the only one out of 158 Liberal MPs who voted with the Conservatives on this issue. Other Liberal MPs from the Atlantic provinces have also pushed their government internally to make adjustments to the government’s policy to help out their constituents. In late October, the federal government finally bowed to this pressure and exempted home heating oil from the carbon tax for three years, doubled the rural supplements rebate program, and announced other programs to help rural Canadians transition to electric heat pumps. The party under leader Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) carried all 32 Atlantic seats when they first came to power in 2015. This number was reduced to 26 in 2019, and 24 in the 2021 election. McDonald said that before he voted against his government, he got a call from the Prime Minister's Office's Atlantic assistant, urging him to reconsider his decision. Chief Government Whip Steven MacKinnon (Gatineau, Que.) also held an in-person meeting with McDonald, but was unsuccessful in convincing him to change his mind. McDonald said that he did not feel any pressure from either of the meetings, and has not faced any consequences. He’s still the chair of the House Fisheries Committee. After his vote, McDonald said, he has been approached three times by three different Conservative MPs on different occasions to ask him to cross the floor, but he declined each time. “They just thought that I might be interested because of the way I was voting,” said McDonald with a chuckle, describing the Conservatives’ overtures without mentioning the names of MPs. “There was no discussion 'We'd like to do this for you or that for you,' like that. It was just because of the way I voted, they assumed that would be right for ," he said. "But no, I'll stay, I'm happy where I am, I've got a great lot of friends around me in the House of Commons, and I have friends on the other side as well. So it has enabled me to make a lot of friends, actually.” But he has not ruled out the possibility of crossing the floor or sitting as an Independent if a situation were to arise where he felt he has to take that step. McDonald declined to share any possible scenario under which he would take that step. He has also not met the conditions set by the Liberal Party for incumbent MPs if they want to be acclaimed as candidates for the next election. The rules were announced in November 2022, and the deadline was March 1, 2023. According to these rules, if an MP wants to be acclaimed without a nomination challenge, they would need at least 65 per cent of the anticipated expense limit in their electoral district association bank account by March 1; have at least 40 more Victory Fund members compared to the number they had on July 1, 2022; and attempt to knock on at least 3,500 doors or make 7,500 phone calls together with their team of volunteers. McDonald’s reasoning not to meet these conditions is that he has not made a decision whether he wants to seek re-election. McDonald will make a decision one way or the other by his 65th birthday in June. He said that he wants to meet with his extended family to make that decision. Four-term P.E.I. Liberal MP Sean Casey says the Liberal Party's best hope to win the next election is Pierre Poilievre. The more the Conservative leader comes under spotlight, the more mistakes he will make, says Casey. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade “I will have a good sit down with my family, and have a good discussion about it, and that's not just my wife and children. It would be my extended family, my brothers, my sister, my sister-in-law, and even my mother-in-law, because none of us are getting any younger,” said McDonald. “I'll be 65 in June. I don't know if I want to spend another four years flying back and forth to Ottawa, because I think, if you run, you've got to be committed to staying for whatever the term that is—whether it's a two-year term or a four-year term, you have to be committed to that. And for me to do that, it'll take some good conversation to convince me to run. And it may take some good conversation to convince me not to run.” McDonald won by a margin of 38 per cent of the votes in 2015, 15 per cent in 2019, and 16 per cent in 2021. But the Liberals are now running far behind the Conservatives in national public support. His riding is one of 34 Conservative to Liberal defector ridings that were with the Conservatives in 2011, but went Liberal in 2015 and stayed there through to 2021. But, according to a recent poll by Innovative Research, the Conservatives are leading by 10 points in these 34 ridings. A Nanos polls suggested last week that the Liberals are 19 points behind the Conservatives nationally. This poll suggested that the Liberals were in third place behind the Conservatives and the NDP. The Conservatives were at 40 per cent, the NDP 27 per cent and the Liberals 25 per cent. And an Ipsos poll released last week suggested that 72 per cent of Canadians and 33 per cent of Liberal voters want Trudeau to step down. In comparison, 91 per cent of Conservative supporters want Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.) to lead the party in the next election, and 78 per cent of NDP voters want Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, B.C.) to stay on as party leader. McDonald, however, said he’s not worried about his seat. Based on his interactions in his community, he said, people support him, and he has been getting a lot of “accolades” for standing up on the carbon tax issue. “I'm pretty secure,” said McDonald. “If I decide to run again, I will win that election. People that I bump into now, at events, some will come up to me and say you've got nothing to worry about in the next election. I actually had a lady at an event tell me that if my boot ran for election, it would win.” But McDonald conceded that the Liberal Party nationally is not as popular as it was in 2015, and if an election were to happen now, they would likely lose. In early November, McDonald was heckled by the Conservatives on a vote in the House to exempt all home-heating fuel from the federal carbon tax. In that vote, the Avalon MP voted with his own party and when he stood up to vote, he made a gesture with two fingers on the side of his head, in the midst of heckling, that Conservatives interpreted as giving a middle finger to Canadians. But McDonald told the House and told The Hill Times that he was scratching his head with two fingers, adding it is up to the Conservatives however they want to interpret that. He denied that he was flipping the bird to anyone. The next election will be the fourth consecutive time that Trudeau will seek a mandate to govern the country. In Canadian history, only two prime ministers have achieved this feat, and the last time it happened was more than a century ago. Most people expect Trudeau to make a decision in the next 90 to 120 days to make a decision about whether he wants to lead the party in the next election or not. McDonald said that like other members of the caucus, he would leave it up to Trudeau to decide if he wants to run again. “Everybody goes through that as a leader of a party, especially a governing party,” said McDonald. “People call it the best-before date, I suppose to some degree, but the prime minister still has got a lot left to give and he seems very energetic, very supportive and very committed to the role as prime minister.” Other Liberal MPs interviewed about the party’s tanking polling numbers and whether the prime minister should stay on said it will be Trudeau’s decision and they will respect that. “That's his prerogative,” said Liberal MP Sean Casey (Charlottetown, P.E.I.). “And that's his decision to make.” Casey said that he’s concerned about the drop in popularity for the Liberals, but he pointed out that before the 2015 election, the NDP was in first place and the Liberals in third. After the election, the Liberals ended up with a majority government, marking the first time in Canadian history that a party would leap from third to first place in the span of one election. He said that the more Canadians see Poilievre, the less they will like him. He predicted that Poilievre would make mistakes like those made two weeks ago as he comes under the spotlight. “He's probably our best hope,” said Casey. “Turning his back on Ukraine, and jumping the gun based on something that he heard on Fox News, we didn't cause that.” arana@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Liberal MP McDonald says he’s rebuffed Conservatives’ overtures three times, but won’t rule out crossing the floor or sitting as an Independent

The three-term Newfoundland and Labrador MP did not meet the March deadline of nomination conditions to run as his party’s unopposed candidate for the next election.

Become a Political Insider

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10