TORONTO (AP) — Canada's governing Liberals were one seat short of a simple majority in Parliament after a Conservative lawmaker defected and joined Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party Thursday.
Michael Ma was the second Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker to join the Liberals in just over a month. Ma, who represents Markham–Unionville, said he entered politics “to focus on solutions, not division.”
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, shakes hands with Michael Ma, Member of Parliament for Markham-Unionville, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals hours earlier, as he brings him on stage at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, Ontario, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney reacts as Michael Ma, Member of Parliament for Markham-Unionville, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals hours earlier, makes brief remarks at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stands in the House of Commons during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers remarks during the annual Equal Voice gala in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
“I have concluded that Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering the steady, practical approach we need to deliver on the priorities I hear every day while door knocking in Markham–Unionville,” Ma said in his statement.
His move puts the Liberals one seat shy of a majority government and being able to pass any bill without the support of an opposition party.
Carney joined hands and welcomed Ma at the Liberal Party Christmas party on Thursday night.
“Wow, such a big welcome,” Ma said.
Carney noted his coalition of supporters is growing.
“You are going to have a much better time spending Christmas with us than Christmas with the Kranks. We are all about Santa, not about the Grinch,” Carney joked.
The defection is a blow to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who is facing a leadership review vote in January. Poilievre lost the last election in April and even his own seat in Parliament, but has since rejoined the House of Commons.
“Michael Ma was elected as a Conservative by the constituents of Markham-Unionville to fight against Liberal inflationary spending driving up the cost of living in his community,” Poilievre said in a statement on social media. “Today, he chose to endorse the very policies he was elected to oppose.”
Poilievre has lost three Conservative lawmakers in recent weeks. A third Conservative announced his resignation after talking to Carney about possibly crossing the floor.
Until this year, Poilievre was seen as a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd his Conservative Party back into power for the first time in a decade. Then, President Donald Trump declared economic war on the U.S.’s neighbor to the north and even threatened to make Canada the 51st state.
Carney has moved the Liberals to the center since replacing Justin Trudeau as prime minister and winning national elections.
“Two floor crossings in such a short period of time is rare, and other defections are always possible so the Conservative establishment must be extremely nervous right now,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“If another Conservative MP would cross the floor to join the Liberals, they would have a majority government, which would probably mean no federal elections any time soon and give more time to Poilievre’s adversaries within the Conservative Party of Canada to organize against him.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, shakes hands with Michael Ma, Member of Parliament for Markham-Unionville, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals hours earlier, as he brings him on stage at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, Ontario, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney reacts as Michael Ma, Member of Parliament for Markham-Unionville, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals hours earlier, makes brief remarks at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stands in the House of Commons during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers remarks during the annual Equal Voice gala in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to Americans on the war with new missile attacks targeting Israel and the Gulf Arab states Thursday, underlining Tehran’s insistence that it rejected Washington’s outreach for a ceasefire while maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Britain planned to hold a call Thursday with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait, through which 20% of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime. The 35 countries, including all G7 industrialized democracies except the U.S., as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait. The call will discuss “diplomatic and political measures” that could restore shipping once the fighting is over.
Washington has insisted that Iran allow ships to freely transit the strait, but Trump this week has said it is not up to the U.S. to force it, and in his address encouraged countries that receive oil through Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”
In his address, Trump said the U.S. would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” while also insisting American “core strategic objectives are nearing completion.”
Just before Trump began his nearly 20-minute address on Wednesday, explosions were heard in Dubai as air defenses worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage. Less than a half hour after the president was done, Israel said its military was working to intercept incoming missiles.
Sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, immediately after the speech.
Following a joint statement in March condemning Iranian attacks on unarmed commercial vessels that called upon Iran to “cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the strait,” the 35 signatories were to hold a virtual meeting Thursday hosted by British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Though the oil and gas that typically transits the Strait of Hormuz primarily is sold to Asian nations, Japan and South Korea were the only two countries from the region that were joining.
“Trump’s message was that the United States can sustain its own economic and energy ecosystem, while countries dependent on regional exports will either have to buy from the United States or manage the Strait themselves,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank wrote after the address.
“While Trump explicitly thanked U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf for their cooperation and allyship, an expedited U.S. withdrawal without securing the strait will leave many of these countries, whose economies are dependent on energy exports, in the lurch.”
No country appears willing to try and open the strait by force while the war is raging. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the group “will assess all viable diplomatic and political measures we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and to resume the movement of vital commodities.”
Bahrain, which now holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, has been working to get the world body to address the crisis as well.
Though Iran has allowed a trickle of ships through the strait, it remains largely closed. Iran has also been repeatedly attacking Gulf Arab energy infrastructure, sending oil prices skyrocketing and giving rise to broader economic problems worldwide.
Following Trump's speech, Brent crude, the international standard, rose again and was at $108 in early spot trading, up nearly 50% from Feb. 28 when Israel and the U.S. started the war with their attacks on Iran.
The rising energy prices and stock market jitters have been putting increasing domestic pressure on Trump, who used his address to offer a defense of the war while also suggesting it was close to winding down.
He acknowledged American service members who had been killed and said: “We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point plan for a ceasefire, but Trump didn’t say anything about the diplomatic efforts or bring up his April 6 deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face severe retaliation from the U.S.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million displaced, according to authorities. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Weissert reported from Washington and Rising reported from Bangkok.
The Indian flagged LPG carrier Jag Vasant transporting liquefied petroleum gas, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, after it arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump walks from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
