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Jamie Sarkonak: Matt Jeneroux is trolling you

Conservatives have a recruitment and vetting problem

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After announcing months ago he’d be exiting politics last fall to focus “entirely” on his family — who live in Victoria — ex-Conservative Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux flew to the airport just south of his riding on Wednesday to announce his new allegiance to the Liberals.

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Jeneroux says that Mark Carney’s World Economic Forum address in Davos, Switzerland, inspired him to switch teams; after hearing it, “it felt disingenuine and quite simply wrong to be sitting on the sidelines anymore.”

Jamie Sarkonak: Matt Jeneroux is trolling you Back to video

Don’t get mad; he’s trolling you. The whole point is to rub it in your face in the most cortisol-spiking manner possible. If you can forget the partisan sting for a second, it’s funny, the equivalent of a Liberal-to-Conservative crosser claiming to have been motivated by Pierre Poilievre’s podcast clips about Bitcoin.

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It was no different from when the first two turncoats skittered to the opposing caucus: Michael Ma and Chris d’Entremont each got their parade, too. D’Entremont, of course, got to go out playing victim to a — gasp — party whip, and Ma was added to Carney’s China delegation. On Wednesday, independent journalist Sam Cooper reported that Ma is also the former director of a Chinese Communist Party-linked organization, which does not inspire confidence in the integrity of the system.

So, what’s to be done now? Some are calling to ban floor-crossing entirely and effectively blowing up the Westminster system. Most of these people would be more than happy to receive a turncoat if it were their party only a few seats from a majority, though. I suppose everyone has their own ways to cope.

Vengeance, in my view, is a better way to get over it. There should be punishment; there should be low blows in the form of releasing dirt to show other fairweather caucus members that betrayal comes with consequences. Whether we’ll get that is another question — Canadian political culture is allergic to such things, even though it really shouldn’t be. If the roles were reversed, the Liberals wouldn’t be so courteous.

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More rational is the conversation that should be had about who gets to stand for election. Clearly, Jeneroux was happy to walk and talk like a politician, collect the paycheque, enjoy the prestige — but wasn’t actually committed to the movement. No doubt he’s not the only one in the Conservative caucus like that. And you kind of wonder if the party likes it that way.

Every election comes with a similar pattern: a lot of Conservative candidates blur into a homogenized mass of talking-point reciters who often skip out on local debates. Among those who are successful, there are the standout MPs who grind hard and maintain a public profile, but plenty others drop off the map. Some are just there to vote with the party, fundraise, and be photographed from time to time.

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If the party is fine with having autopilot MPs who enjoy the pleasures of being a politician in Ottawa — paycheques and beyond — then it needs to accept that those individuals, untethered by any principle, will leave when a path of convenience appears before them.

You can squabble about banning floor-crossing, but it will be a waste of your time: it won’t happen while the Liberals are in power, and will stop being a concern for Conservatives the moment it assists them (as has been the case in the past). A better place for that energy would be in setting new expectations. Can the party headhunt quality allies for a change, instead of waiting for low-quality nomination-stacking point-reciters to fill the ranks? Could it perhaps vet out those with foreign connections?

Alas, no; the Conservatives wouldn’t even rule out non-citizen participation in party and nomination matters at their annual general meeting in January. That’s a different mechanic than candidate vetting, but it does speak to the attitude of the party’s most involved members, and it is disappointing.

Passivity is a losing strategy. It’s a net in the open ocean waiting for whatever comes by, a gamble that collects mostly bycatch. Meanwhile, the Liberals are luring, targeting, and bringing in big game one after another — as well as members of your own team. It just won’t do.

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