You can’t tell the players without a scorecard, as the old baseball saying goes, so let’s pause and catch up with the chaos on the fringes of the House of Commons. The chamber contains seats for 343 bums, meaning that a party needs 172 members to have a technical majority. The Liberals stood at 169 when the votes in the 2025 were finally counted, or so it seemed. In November Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals, raising their total to 170 (which, with a few opposition MPs abstaining, was enough to pass the budget a few weeks later). Markham-Unionville’s Michael Ma followed d’Entremont across the aisle on Dec. 11, making the count 171. Read More