Mark Carney is swaggering about Canada with his new majority government, acting as if he’d just received a landslide mandate from the electorate. The truth is he acquired his precious majority not by climbing up on his soapbox and convincing voters, but by whispering sweet nothings to five MPs from other parties, upon which they mysteriously lost their political principles and crossed the floor. Does Carney believe in democracy? It’s hard to be sure.

Yes, his party did just win three special elections. But only one of those counted (the other two were held by Liberals already and in safe Liberal ridings, so made no difference to the number of seats the party held). Without the floor-crossings, Carney would be stuck with the minority he won last April.

What’s unusual about these floor crossings is that the MPs in question – four Conservatives and one from the NDP – didn’t seem to have any particular disagreement with their parties. Marilyn Gladu, their latest convert, has sat as a Conservative since 2015. She has been vocally prolife and anti-euthanasia the entire time. She backed the Freedom Convoy, opposed the ban on conversion therapy, and even ran for leader of the Conservative party. Yet suddenly a week ago, she announced she was crossing the floor.

Liberals turned pale with horror on hearing that such unprogressive........

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