Conservative MP Goes Public: 'The Liberals Tried to Recruit Me to Cross the Floor'

Kelly DeRidder refused. But her account confirms what critics have alleged — the Carney government is running an active floor-crossing recruitment operation targeting Conservative MPs.

For months, the official Liberal narrative has been that floor-crossings were organic — individual MPs who independently came to support the government's agenda. On April 28, 2026, Conservative MP Kelly DeRidder blew that narrative apart.

In a public statement that has drawn immediate attention, DeRidder revealed that the Liberals actively attempted to recruit her to cross the floor — and she refused. Her words were unambiguous:

"They tried to recruit me." — Conservative MP Kelly DeRidder, April 28, 2026

Who Is Kelly DeRidder?

Kelly DeRidder is a Conservative Member of Parliament elected in the April 28, 2025 federal election — the same election that delivered Mark Carney's Liberals a minority government, falling three seats short of a majority. Like her Conservative colleagues across the country, DeRidder was elected by constituents who voted Conservative — who trusted her to represent them from the opposition benches, not the Liberal side of the aisle.

Her decision to go public with the recruitment attempt is significant: it takes considerable political courage to expose what the government would prefer to keep behind closed doors.

The Recruitment: What She Says Happened

DeRidder says she was approached with an offer to cross the floor to the Liberal caucus. She declined. She has not remained silent about it — she went public specifically, she says, because Canadians deserve to know what is happening.

The Liberals have not denied the approach. The government has offered no public explanation for why an elected Conservative MP would be solicited to switch parties — outside of the obvious: the Carney government needed votes.

The Five Who Said Yes

DeRidder's account takes on greater significance when placed alongside the five MPs who did cross the floor to the Liberals between late 2025 and April 2026:

• Michael Ma — Markham–Unionville, Ontario (Conservative → Liberal, ~December 2025). Joined Carney on the official China trip weeks after crossing.
• Chris D'Entremont — West Nova, Nova Scotia (Conservative → Liberal, ~December 2025).
• Matt Jeneroux — Edmonton Riverbend, Alberta (Conservative → Liberal, February 2026). Crossing triggered Rebel News' "Fire MP Matt Jeneroux" campaign.
• Lori Idlout — Nunavut (NDP → Liberal, March 2026).
• Marilyn Gladu — Sarnia–Lambton–Bkejwanong, Ontario (Conservative → Liberal, April 8, 2026). Had publicly backed a petition calling for byelections when MPs cross the floor — just three months before she crossed herself.

Combined with byelection wins in two Toronto ridings on April 13, 2026, these five crossings pushed Carney's Liberals from a minority to a working majority — the first time in Canadian history a sitting PM has manufactured majority status through floor-crossing from a minority election result.

An Organized Campaign, Not Spontaneous Conversions

The Liberals have consistently framed the crossings as the organic decisions of individual MPs who "chose to work with the government." DeRidder's account makes that framing impossible to sustain.

If the Liberals were actively approaching Conservative MPs — recruiting them, making pitches, offering reasons to cross — then what happened wasn't a series of individual crises of conscience. It was a coordinated, deliberate campaign to change the composition of Parliament without going back to voters.

Pierre Poilievre called it directly: "Mark Carney is seizing a costly Liberal majority that voters denied him, and doing so through dirty backroom deals." An Ipsos poll found 62% of Canadians say MPs should not be allowed to switch parties after an election, and approximately 70% say floor-crossing should trigger an immediate byelection. More than 111,000 Canadians signed a parliamentary petition calling for exactly that.

None of that public opposition has slowed the recruitment operation. DeRidder's disclosure suggests it was larger than the five known crossings — that there were more MPs who were approached and simply didn't say yes. Or say anything.

Why This Matters

Mark Carney won 169 seats on April 28, 2025. Canadians did not give him a majority. The majority he now holds was assembled — by approaching, recruiting, and absorbing MPs who were elected to oppose him.

Every one of those crossings represents a constituency whose democratic representation was redirected without their consent. Sarnia–Lambton–Bkejwanong voted 53.1% Conservative. Edmonton Riverbend didn't elect a Liberal MP. Neither did Markham–Unionville, West Nova, or Nunavut under these circumstances.

DeRidder had the integrity to say no. That integrity cost her nothing except the goodwill of a government that clearly wanted her vote. But it gave the public something important: confirmation of what was actually going on.

DeRidder has opened a door. What's behind it, the Carney government would very much like to keep closed.