OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney touted his “big, broad, and growing Liberal tent” on Thursday night, buoyed by another MP jumping ship from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s caucus to join his, a year after the party appeared to be in dire straits.
“Some of you – and I salute you – have been Liberals your whole life. Some of you apparently came back from the dead to be with us here tonight. Others, like me, are new to politics … some may have just joined our party. Like literally, just joined our party,” said Carney, on stage at his first Liberal Party of Canada holiday party as leader.
He then gestured for the newest entrant – Ontario MP Michael Ma – to join him on stage, where he also thanked last month’s Conservative floor crosser Chris d’Entremont.
“You are going to have a much better time spending Christmas with us, than spending Christmas with the Kranks,” he said to the two of them.
The late Thursday politicking came after Poilievre – appearing to have no indication of what was coming – spoke to reporters on the Hill Thursday afternoon, declaring he was “very” confident his coming January leadership review will go his way.
In his remarks, he also accused Carney of being “the Temu version” of him – a reference to the Chinese shopping site known for deeply discounted goods.
“I told him, copy my ideas. Now, unfortunately he did only copy the words, but not the deeds,” Poilievre said. “It has been a gigantic counterfeit operation under Mark Carney that has left Canadians paying more, feeling more endangered, and more in debt.”
In Ma’s statement declaring his defection – one night after posing next to Poilievre and his wife in a photo at the Conservative Christmas party – he made note of the need for “unity” and the need to “focus on solutions, not division,” concluding Carney was the best man to deliver that.
Almost exactly two hours later, he was on stage at the Liberal holiday party, his arm being thrust in the air by the prime minister, to raucous applause.
When Carney’s speech was finished, emcees and Liberal MPs Mona Fortier and James Maloney returned to the stage, where Maloney – who is also the Liberal caucus chair – remarked about how they are both “so incredibly proud” to serve alongside Carney as prime minister.
The evening’s events, a marked contrast to the vibe in the same room just one year ago, when a then-embattled Justin Trudeau – facing growing calls to resign – quipped about families fighting over the holidays but finding their way through it.
What passed during Carney’s first full session?
Though one constant, through this Parliament and the last, were the flurry of accusations in the final days, of how productive the sitting was. While Carney said earlier this week that he thinks business in Ottawa is “functioning well,” Thursday’s early adjournment cast a sharper spotlight on how little got passed.
The Senate also adjourned Thursday, meaning just one piece of government legislation became law during the prime minister’s first full sitting since taking office: Bill C-3, the so-called “lost Canadians” citizenship legislation tied to a past Supreme Court ruling.
On Thursday, as part of the motion agreeing to wrap up, MPs also agreed to pass two other bills through the House: Bill C-4, regarding Carney’s tax cut promises that were already put into effect through regulations, and Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act.
Though, despite the Liberals’ assertions of a “productive” autumn, several other key bills have been left in limbo, including key crime legislation, as well as Bill C-15, the Budget Implementation Act.
“Since September, we have accomplished a great deal. It has been a hard grind because of this conservative obstruction, but we did get results for Canadians, and we will continue to do that when the House returns in the new year,” Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said.
As is usually the case this time of year, the Conservatives rejected any accusations of being obstructionist, asserting the Liberals are to blame for being unable to pass their agenda.
“The failure on this is completely on the Liberal side,” said Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer. “We’ve worked in good faith. We’ve offered roadmaps to get legislation passed that we support, and we’ve offered concrete solutions to make their bills better.”
Chances of 2026 election shifting?
“They’ve been very slow to realize that they don’t have a majority,” NDP interim leader Don Davies told reporters in the House foyer on Wednesday, pre-positioning the end of the sitting, days before the Liberals managed to get one seat closer.
Davies said then that the lack of legislative progress bolsters his pitch for Carney to advance changes to the Parliament of Canada Act to allow for his party to be granted the resource perks that come with an official party status designation.
The New Democrats lost that ranking after the last election, resulting in NDP MPs losing the ability to sit on House committees and diminishing their role in question period.
“If (Carney) wants this Parliament to work and he wants to do anything progressive, he’s going to have to reach out to New Democrats,” Davies said. “You can’t get anything done, nothing, in this House of Commons, unless the Liberals have the support of another party.”
Asked if this revived pitch was something the Liberals are considering, MacKinnon said it’s not a designation for the government to grant, and that such a move would require other parties to agree.
And now, amid calls to, as Davies said, “do a better job reaching across party lines,” in the New Year, or risk his government falling, the odds of Canadians being thrust into another snap election, may have just lessened.
