Manitoba government will change law banning floor-crossing, avoid lawsuit
WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s justice minister says the government will eliminate a controversial ban on political floor-crossing and end a legal battle with an ousted former backbencher.
Heather Stefanson said the Progressive Conservative government will act next month to remove a section of the Legislative Assembly Act that says anyone who leaves or is kicked out of one party’s caucus cannot join another. The law offers only two options — sit as an independent until the next election, or resign and run in a byelection under a new party banner.
“We think it’s a bad law and it’s not in the spirit of parliamentary tradition,” Stefanson told The Canadian Press Tuesday.
“We’re not going to spend … tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to defend a bill that should never have been introduced in the first place.”