EDITORIAL: Don’t ban floor crossing just because Don Davies’ feelings are hurt

The ink was barely dry on the latest round of internal Conservative finger-pointing when the usual suspects started dusting off the old playbook: Ban floor crossing. You hear it from the fringes of the NDP caucus — former interim NDP leader Don Davies has made it a personal crusade — and you hear it from the cheap seats in the Conservative Party whenever an MP decides they’d rather take their chances with Mark Carney’s economic pitch than stick around for another lecture about the (non-existent) consumer carbon-tax.

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here.

An MP from the New Democratic Party and several from the Conservative Party decided that the respective parties they signed up for no longer represent the values they were sent to Ottawa to defend. And now, the leaders they left behind are throwing a temper tantrum, demanding that the rules of the game be changed so that nobody can ever do that again.

Here at this outlet, we make no secret of the fact that most of our staff thinks that Mark Carney is the serious adult in the room this country needs right now. But our support for the Carney Liberals has nothing to do with a desire to trap MPs in political cages.

In fact, if the Conservative caucus is bleeding members because those members actually believe in sound fiscal management and a rational approach to climate policy, positions Carney happens to embody, that’s not a flaw in the system. That’s the system working precisely as it was designed.

We do not elect party brands. We elect 343 individuals.