By Andrew Macdonald
Rob Batherson, former president of the Conservative Party of Canada, did not pull any punches in offering his thoughts on a former colleague joining the Liberals.
This past week, Chris d’Entremont shook the political ground when he crossed the floor to join the governing Liberals under Prime Minister Mark Carney. After all, d’Entremont had been a three-term Conservative MP for West Nova, now Acadie-Annapolis.
“Chris d’Entremont’s decision to resign from the Conservative caucus is the worst personal betrayal I have ever experienced in 30-plus years of politics,” says Batherson.
“I have supported Chris in many ways provincially and federally, starting from when we first met working in Premier John Hamm’s government in 1999, and continuing through to intervening on his behalf, among many others, to have Pierre Poilievre come to his riding during the 2024 World Acadian Congress.”
“I recognize that Chris is ultimately accountable to his constituents in Acadie-Annapolis, not to me or anybody outside of his riding. Yet after the last election, Chris d’Entremont told me repeatedly that he would be Nova Scotia’s voice in Canada’s official Opposition,” adds Batherson.
“He has deprived Nova Scotians of that voice and broken his personal word to me. I never imagined I would be in a position to not trust Chris d’Entremont,” said Batherson in a social media post.
In an interview with The Macdonald Notebook, Batherson detailed feelings of ‘personal betrayal’.
“When you are in the trenches with someone and you work together, and you feel that you do everything to have their back, there is a certain expectation — I am not sure that is too strong a word — but you build a relationship on mutual trust. And, after the election (last winter), Chris ran for the Conservative Party of Canada with Pierre Poilievre as leader and since the election, he was very clear he was a Conservative and supported the leader.
“He was very clear as the lone Conservative elected from Nova Scotia that he would be a voice not only for his constituents in Acadie-Annapolis, but also a voice for the more than 200,000 Nova Scotians who voted for the Conservative Party of Canada.
“He said that not only to me, he said it to my campaign team and others when he was a guest speaker at our annual general meeting in Halifax West in June. We had a meeting of Atlantic Conservative caucus MPs in late August.
“It is hard to reconcile how someone could walk away from that and walk away from those commitments. It is hard to say those things, but that is how I feel. I always felt I had Chris’s back, particularly when I was on the national council for the Conservative Party of Canada for Nova Scotia from 2016-2023 and president until 2023, and I guess I expected that he would keep his word.”
As of Thursday, Batherson had not spoken to d’Entremont.
“As soon as I saw the initial news he was considering becoming a Liberal — in a political report on budget day — I called him. I sent him a text and sent another text, and I have not heard back from him,” says Batherson.
“I have had the same (phone) number for 26 years. I am not hard to get a hold of. I will always take a call from Chris, and I won’t shy away from a difficult conversation. But, I guess the ball is in his court….But, I would have thought at least a phone call or a text or some form of communication or response would have been in order.”
In a social media post, former Conservative MP Rick Perkins said d’Entremont should resign his seat and force a byelection.
In the last federal election, d’Entremont won with a slim one per cent margin of victory, or just 500 votes. Former Liberal leader Jean Chretien, at age 92, attended a campaign event in Meteghan where Liberals sensed a victory. D’Entremont was the only Tory elected in the province, with the other 10 seats going to Liberals.
“I will let Rick (Perkins) speak on the points he has raised,” said Batherson. “It is my understanding that it is based on some conversations he would have had with Chris last week. So I do not have anything to add to what Rick is saying, beyond saying there are going to be legitimate questions from those who voted Conservative.
“Yes, there will be some of that vote that is a Chris d’Entremont vote, but there are also some of that vote that is a Conservative vote. Whether you win or lose or elect a person of your choice, every vote matters, and those voters deserve to have their views represented in the House of Commons.”
D’Entremont says he has always been a Red Tory, a strong supporter of the former Progressive Conservative party traditions, and is a former Progressive Conservative MLA in Nova Scotia.
Does his departure from the Conservatives suggest there is no room for PCers in the Conservative Party of Canada?
Batherson replies to that question: “I think it is nonsense. I was president of the Conservative Party of Canada under three leaders, Erin O’Toole, Candice Bergen, and Pierre Poilievre as a Progressive Conservative. My values have remained the same for more than 30 years, but I do not walk away from that fight. I lean in,” explains Batherson.
“Frankly, Progressive Conservative values are not the Liberal values of Mark Carney and his government. Progressive Conservative values are not the runaway deficits that are being forecast for the next five years. Progressive Conservative values are not sitting by while the Supreme Court of Canada, by a narrow 5-4 margin, is essentially removing mandatory legal penalties on those who traffic in child sexual abuse material. Progressive Conservative values are not letting a cost-of-living crisis and housing crisis continue to get out of control,” argues Batherson.
“As a Progressive Conservative, there is nothing remotely appealing in terms of the kind of government Mark Carney is leading and what the Liberals have done to Canada over the last 10 years. According to all the available data, Canada’s economic performance is the worst in the G7 in the last quarter. That is not very Progressive Conservative.”
I asked Batherson if he expects the government to fall over its budget, and whether he would be on the ballot in Halifax West.
“My focus right now is my family and my business. I will do everything I can to support the Halifax West Conservative Association. I think the floor crossing and the work the Liberals put in to bring Chris over suggests to me that they are going to try to get a majority government by stealth, as opposed to going to the people.
“We will see what happens. With a minority government, things are very fluid, but I think Chris d’Entremont’s move is certainly one step closer to the Liberals staying in office for many years to come.”
Former Progressive Conservative PM Brian Mulroney with Rob Batherson, former president of the Conservative Party of Canada.
