Floor crossers, who will cross next, the budget and Eurovision baby...

So much drama for a budget that doesn't deliver.

Let’s start with the sexy stuff, because the budget is definitely not sexy.

We have a floor crosser!

It’s been a while since an MP elected with one party crossed the floor to sit with another. The last one I can remember was Jenica Atwin, the Green MP who had a strange obsession with Israel deciding that her party wasn’t anti-semitic enough and crossed to join Trudeau’s Liberals.

Now we have Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont from Acadie-Annapolis in Nova Scotia becoming Liberal MP Chris d’Entremont from Acadie-Annapolis in Nova Scotia. He floated the idea that he would cross the floor to support the budget to Politico when most Ottawa journalists were literally locked-up, not able to effectively communicate with the outside world while they poured over details of the 2025-26 federal budget.

After the budget was delivered, d’Entremont had a tense moment Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the lobby of the House of Commons. Depending on who you believe, Poilievre kicked him out of the Conservative caucus or d’Entremont said you can’t fire me I quit.

I mean, bottom line, you can’t have someone sit in your caucus who is publicly musing about joining the other team. Who on earth would trust d’Entremont to have a sensitive conversation?

As reaction to the budget filtered out, a news release was issued about d’Entremont’s change of colours.

“Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering that path with a new Budget that hits the priorities I have heard most in my riding, to build strong community infrastructure and grow a stronger economy,” d’Entremont said.

“That is why I am joining the Government caucus.”

I have to say that d’Entremont is one of the names that was floating around over the past few weeks as a possible floor crossser. The other names given to my by Liberal sources at the time were Dominique Vien from the Bellechasse riding on the south shore across from Quebec City and Joel Godin, a Quebec MP from Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier a suburban riding north of Quebec City.

Watch to see what these two MPs do over the coming days.

The budget promises us access to the Eurovision Song Contest…

This isn’t a joke, it’s really in the budget, the Carney government wants Canada to join the Eurovision Song Contest. It’s right up there with giving an extra $150 million to CBC in the current fiscal year.

Now, if you are a normal person, you likely don’t know what the cringeworthy Eurovision Song Contest is all about. Whereas Mark Carney, speaking as a European, as he likes to say, knows all about it.

This is a contest where European countries put their “best” songs forward in a competition to try and show that their country is the best. It’s often a head scratching moment when you watch it.

But really, let’s talk about the budget…

In my column on the budget for the Toronto Sun, and in the video, I pointed out that it was a disappointment because it didn’t live up to its billing.

The Carney government had claimed this would be an austerity budget, then they claimed it would be a generation shift budget and in the end it was neither. There are some good things in here, but this is not the budget to meet the moment as Carney claimed.

This isn’t partisan sniping about the budget, I really want Mark Carney to live up to his promise to think big, act bigger and move at speeds not seen in generations.

He’s not doing that as I explain in the column.

Prior to the budget I laid out five tax changes that Carney could make to boost the economy. He made none of them but did make some decent ones, so I will give him credit for that, but he could have and should have done so much more.

That’s why this budget is a missed opportunity.

More on the floor crossers, or potential floor crossers tomorrow morning…