LISTEN: Conservative MP discusses Chris d’Entremont’s switch to Liberal party

Canada’s Liberal Party is celebrating after Nova Scotia Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor to join their party shortly after the 2025 federal budget was revealed.

Conservative MP for Regina-Lewvan Warren Steinley joined the Evan Bray Show on Wednesday to discuss what it means for the party and a closer look at the 2026 federal budget.

Listen here for the full transcript:

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Evan Bray: At first we heard Chris d’Entremont was leaving the caucus, and it wasn’t very long after that, he confirmed he was becoming a member of the Liberal Party. There’s all kinds of video of him walking into the room and the liberals were cheering him. Is this the start of something bigger, or is this a one off?

Warren Steinley: I definitely think it’s a one off, Evan. I think Chris will be judged by his constituents when that next election comes. Keep in mind this is a guy that’s been elected three times under the Conservative Party of Canada under Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, and then Pierre Poilievre, and the voters voted for him as a conservative, and he will have to answer for that.

The caucus is united and we’re in a really good place. I’m proud of all of our colleagues, and for myself, I just think Chris has to answer for the decision he made in the next election. And just so you know, Evan, no one has approached me to cross the floor.

Are you offended by that?

Steinley: No, I wear that as a badge of honour.

I had Brian Lilley on the show and he said that this is an all out offensive attack by the Liberals going out and trying to basically cultivate members that are willing to cross the floor. Do you think that was the case here, or was Chris unhappy for some reason and decided to move?

Steinley: I think it is both. Keep in mind, the Mark Carney liberals wanted the majority. The voters of Canada decided to give him a minority. Now what they are trying to do is basically find members to make up that majority which Canadians never wanted them to have in the first place.

One of the things that Chris d’Entremont said in a media scrum that he did, was that he was not treated well. He was bullied inside the Conservative Caucus as he was struggling to make this decision.  Is that something you’ve seen, is that something you’ve experienced?

Steinley: Absolutely not. I think this all comes down to the fact that Chris wanted to be deputy speaker. We have a process (and) we have an internal vote for a name that we’ll put forward. Chris lost that internal vote and I think he just had a tough time getting over that.

The Conservative MP from Alberta, Matt Jeneroux announced that he’s stepping away from politics, likely in the spring. Any relation from you know, strategy standpoint, to what d’Entremont did, or is this a completely separate case?

Steinley: No. Matt’s a good friend. A lot goes into being a member of parliament. He has a younger family and a lot of travel. I can relate to that. Matt made the decision that it was just time to pursue other options, and I wish nothing but the best for him and his family. It is a taxing job when you’re doing all that travelling. Matt made the best decision he could for his family, and I’m wishing for nothing but the best. There’s no relation whatsoever.

I’m sure there was a time where the door closes and your leader and the group start a bit of a group talk about this getting spun in the media a variety of different ways. Can you talk about what those conversations were, what the strategy is to try and deal with this? It seems like a good deflection from the Liberal government on those that are critical of their budget to focus on this. What is the strategy?

Steinley:  I don’t think the timing was a coincidence. I think they brought the floor crossing out on budget day because they’re embarrassed of their budget. If this budget holds true, it adds another $78.5 billion to the deficit, and the debt goes to $321 billion over five years. This was supposed to be their financial wizard, and they did everything they could to distract from that.

For us, communication is easy. Just tell the truth, like Chris wasn’t happy because he wanted a position that he never got. I think for Chris, it was just feeling that he wasn’t given the opportunity to be deputy speaker, and he took that as deciding to cross the floor.

From our standpoint, the communication strategy is to just tell people what was going on. We’re united.

Every poll you’ve seen in the last little while, we’re about 40 to 42 per cent in the polls, which is a good place to be. We’re excited for the opportunity to talk about this terrible budget that Mark Carney has brought forward in his Liberal team. Can you imagine adding $321 billion to the federal debt over the next five years and try to say that’s a good thing?

The other side of it is that people are saying this is the price of sovereignty. It’s a short-term pain for a long-term gain, but that long-term number one is not guaranteed to happen, and number two is likely years away.

Steinley: There is no gain for the average Canadian. You look at all the spending, it’s not going to lower the cost of food, it’s not going to lower the cost of housing, and we’re spending more on debt payment, $55.6 billion then they’re spending on Canada Health transfers.

I haven’t talked to one person that says this budget is going to help them in their day to day life to make life more affordable.

I don’t know if you have, but no one’s come and said these investments that may or may not come in five or six years are going to help me today. That’s what people are looking for, help for today, and they’ve done nothing to help Canadians make life more affordable.

Is this budget going to pass?

Steinley: The budget will pass, I think they’re going to find people obviously, Chris, with that vote, they have 170, so the budget will pass. I think Canadians are going to be able to judge this government on how little this budget provides over the next year, and they’ll be looking for change.

Would you welcome an election?

Steinley: I think Canadians will welcome an election when the time is right for them. I don’t know that Canadians want to go to the polls right now, and I’m just talking about what I’ve heard in my riding, but Canadians are disappointed in this budget and they want to make sure that they were going to get an affordable budget, which never happened.

For right now, going back to the polls after just six months, this prime minister has been in power for six months, and they have not delivered on anything.

He said he was the one to handle Donald Trump tariffs. He said he’s going to go make deals around the world. Every place he’s gone, we haven’t got a deal. India just added a tariff on peas, the tariff on canola. Every time this prime minister has gone on a trip, things have gotten worse. He hasn’t kept one promise, and I think more people see that, the more they’re going to want to change.

Do you think that if an election results that, let’s say, the budget doesn’t pass and an election results, will we see a different outcome? Are there enough people that have seen enough of Prime Minister Mark Carney and are disappointed in him that it will change the outcome, or would we see a replication of what happened in the spring?

Steinley: If an election does happen, it’s because the liberals and Carney didn’t work hard to get their budget passed.

Our leader, Pierre Poilievre, laid down some markers of whether he’d like to see for affordability and that did not happen.

When Stephen Harper was prime minister, he worked with other parties to get budgets passed when there’s a minority (and) this government is acting like they have a majority.

They’re not being collaborative with other parties and it’s their job to get their budget passed, and they’ve done nothing to reach out to other parties to get that budget.