— Feature, Musings —11.12.2025 11:50 AM
The view from Nova Scotia: sorry, Pierre
HALIFAX – In Ottawa, the political centre of all things, Chris d’Entremont is a super big deal.
In Nova Scotia, the province from which d’Entremont hails? Not so much, bud.
On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, precisely nobody had anything to say to this writer when they were asked about Chris d’Entremont. When prodded for something, anything, they just shrugged.
Pierre Trudeau used to say, uncharitably but not inaccurately, that most Members of Parliament are nobodies when removed from Parliament Hill. In the case of Chris d’Entremont, that status seems to extend all the way to his home province. Out here, they’d much rather talk about the Blue Jays. Or the weather.
The profound disinterest in d’Entremont’s much-analyzed decision to slink across the Commons floor from the Tories to the Grits may be a Nova Scotia thing. In this province, rapid partisan flip-flops aren’t front-page news. Snowplow jobs, advertising gigs, paving contracts: they go back and forth between the two main parties like the flicking of a light switch.
Departed Atlantic Canada Tory guru Dalton Camp, who not infrequently benefitted from such partisan political assignments, had the best line about how Nova Scotians regard all this partisan chicanery: “Politics is largely made up of irrelevancies.”
So why is Chris d’Entremont, who is mostly irrelevant, being treated as relevant by every pundit in the punditocracy?
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Yep – agreed. Save for the few MPs who actually become notable cabinet ministers, the rest of them are essentially nobodies.
I always laugh when candidates run these campaigns highlighting all of their personal attributes. Guess what? Nobody cares. The vast majority of people vote for a party, not a candidate. The nature of our parliamentary system makes that the best play. You could elect a tree stump, and it wouldn’t really matter.
Therefore, when one of the tree stumps cross the floor, the only notable impact is the distribution of seats in Parliament, and the short-term nattering about the defector’s reasons. Then people go back about their business, and within six months say “Who?”
Best example is Bruce Fanjoy who thinks he is there because of his two years of campaigning. That is so cute! Many of the current Mps were nominated without fights and no one knew who they were.
They have that tree stump sitting at the back rarely trotted out(for good reason) and he right next to Chris whose 15 minutes of fame has expired.
Warren,
Floor crossers are only important to the extent that they are the ultimate evidence of confirmation bias. In this case, it speaks volumes about the likability of their former leader and his inability to play positively in the caucus sandbox. Pierre is all command and control just like Harper. But the big diff is that voters won’t ever be giving this leader the benefit of the doubt like they did with Harper during his first two mandates. Too bad that.
Nova Scotia isn’t generally as partisan as other parts of Canada – people there will understand that this member couldn’t stomach Polievre, so he switched. It’s because pp and their trump-like antics are gross – that’s why he left – because the Conservative Party is now the wacko party.
D’Entremont is just the latest in a long line of Tories who moved to the Liberals when the Tories swung hard to the right.
These are such cute takes as to his motivation! A less than impressive fairly young man(he makes Bill Blair look like a genius if you can imagine) with very few career prospects post politics who was upset because he didn’t get the Deputy Speaker gig(for good strategic reasons) and wanted to make sure he didn’t lose the next time because he wanted to lock in 2-3 years more of his MP pension to go with his provincial one. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a ridiculous partisan.
Martin,
All of the above may be true but to the average reader here comes off as nothing more than OLO talking points. So there’s that. But caucus is no different than Canadians in general with at least forty percent not thrilled with the leader’s style and especially his challenging and prickly personality. And no OLO talking points can change that pathetic reality. Election loss number FIVE here we come…
Let’s be direct. Mr. D’Entremont is a very self-centred person, and many are upset with him.
Gilbert,
And Pierre isn’t?
Gilbert,
And Pierre isn’t? Pierre is just like Harper was: he comes before the party. That dead silence you hear is coming straight from the CPC benches. Pathetic enablers, that sixty percent of MPs who really support Pierre.
Ronald, this is a thread about Chris and you even admit it is true. And the average reader is wrong. I am not sure where the disagreement is here.
Warren,
Dickwad-DipshitTM is trying to block me again but it seems I can get around him, at least for now. Of course, this means the truce is over and it’s back to full bore mode. I hope he’ll love it as much as I will!