Sunday December 21, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Members of Parliament (MPs) from across the country will be back in Ottawa for the January 26 start of the 2026 Winter Sitting of the 45th Parliament of Canada.
2026 political landscape:
The House gets back in January. Continued issues for the country are significant including affordability for households and public safety.
Oh the macro scale, There is a need to continue realigning the Canadian economy for more domestic resiliency and a broader range of trade with countries other than the United States.
Gunning for a majority:
Prime Minister Mark Carney leads a minority Liberal government.
The Liberals seem to be still seeking more Conservative MPs to cross the floor over to the Liberals; only one more MP on the Liberal side of the House will give them a majority.
Last week Carney said there is a ‘spectrum’ of interest in seeing more MPs from other parties to join the Liberals. That is highly unlikely to be any of the Bloc or NDP MPs. Within the Conservatives a spectrum could include more ‘red Tories’ (Conservatives who are liberal on social policy), MPs who are supportive of macro-economic leadership, and/or Conservatives who are not fully supportive of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s direction for the party.
A majority government (at least 172 seats) would make it much easier for the Liberals to push through their desired legislation and claim more mandate for the current budget or the next one.
In the fall session, three Conservative MPs left that party; two crossed the floor over to the Liberals (Chris d’Entremont in November and Michael Ma in December).
- The current 343-seat profile in the House of Commons is Liberal 171, Conservative 142, Bloc 22, NDP 7, and Green 1.
- The Conservatives will be holding their party leadership convention in Calgary January 29 to 31.
- The NDP will be holding their party leadership convention in Winnipeg during March 27 to 29.
Vancouver Island has seven MPs:
There are 343 ridings across the country, of which 43 are in BC (20 held by Liberals, 19 held by Conservatives, three NDP, and one Green).
Seven of the BC MPs are on Vancouver Island. As elected back in April 2025, the seven BC MPs on Vancouver Island include two Liberals (one of whom is in Cabinet), three Conservatives, one NDP, and one Green:
- Courtenay-Alberni – Gord Johns (NDP)
- Cowichan-Malahat-Langford – Jeff Kibble (Conservative)
- Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke – Stephanie McLean (Liberal), Secretary of State for Seniors
- Nanaimo-Ladysmith – Tamara Kronis (Conservative)
- North Island-Powell River – Aaron Gunn (Conservative)
- Saanich-Gulf Islands – Elizabeth May (Green)
- Victoria – Will Greaves (Liberal)
===== RELATED:
- Carney and Canada’s premiers discuss economy, CUSMA, sector supports (December 19, 2025)
- Silent switch: Michael Ma discretely crosses floor to Liberals (December 11, 2025)
- Carney Liberals still don’t realize they are a minority government, says NDP (December 10, 2025)
- Budget-day boost: Conservatives lose one MP to the Liberals (November 5, 2025)
- Conservative leadership review coming up for Pierre Poilievre (June 16, 2025)
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