[LINK] "Federal NDP MP goes to the Ontario Liberals"

[rfmcdonald]

MacLean's' Aaron Wherry notes the defection of a northern Ontario NDP MP, Glenn Thibeault, to the Ontario provincial Liberals.

[Glenn] Thibeault becomes the sixth NDP MP to quit the party since the 2011 election, following Lise St-Denis, Bruce Hyer, Claude Patry, Sana Hassainia and Jean-Francois Larose. A seventh, Manon Perreault, is sitting outside of the NDP caucus at the NDP’s behest. The official opposition also lost its hold on Trinity-Spadina when Olivia Chow resigned and Liberal MP Adam Vaughan won a by-election.

In sum, a caucus of 103 has been reduced to 95.

None of the defections have gone in the same direction (one to the Liberals, one to the Bloc Québécois, one to the Greens, one to sit as an Independent, one to Forces et Democratie and now one to the Ontario Liberals) and until now they could be more easily described as low-profile figures. Thibeault, though, was the party’s critic for small business and consumer affairs and, until recently, chair of the national caucus. He was also the first New Democrat candidate to win the riding of Sudbury in a general election. (Save for a narrow victory by a New Democrat in a by-election in 1967, the riding had been entirely Liberal since 1949.)

On first glance, this thus seems more significant as a loss for the NDP than previous moves. There’s also a certain novelty to the move from federal New Democrat to provincial Liberal. In breaking the news this morning, the Star also made a vague reference to “strained” relations between Thibeault and Thomas Mulcair.