Crossing the floor - Citizendia

In politics, crossing the floor is to vote against party lines, especially where this is considered unusual or controversial. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions The term originates from the British House of Commons, which is configured with the Government and Opposition facing each other on rows of benches. The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government particularly in a Westminster -based Parliamentary system Votes, or divisions, are taken by entering lobbies to the left and right of the chamber to have one's vote tallied; the "Aye Lobby" is on the Government side and the "No Lobby" on the Opposition side. Division of the house is a parliamentary mechanism which calls for a rising vote wherein the members of the house literally divide into groups indicating a vote in favour of or in opposition Lobbying includes all attempts to influence Legislators and officials whether by other legislators constituents or organized groups If one wishes to vote against one's party, one must quite literally cross the floor to get to the other lobby. If an MP was to switch parties, they would also need to cross the floor: for instance Winston Churchill crossed the floor from the Conservatives to become a Liberal MP. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC, PC (Can ( 30 November 1874 The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s and a third party

The term has passed into general use in other Westminster parliamentary democracies, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand or South Africa even though most of these countries have semicircular or horseshoe-shaped debating chambers and mechanisms for voting without members leaving their seats. The Westminster system is a democratic Parliamentary system of Government modelled after the British government (the Parliament of the United The Politics of Australia take place within the framework of parliamentary democracy. The politics of Canada function within a framework of Constitutional monarchy and a federal system of parliamentary government with strong democratic The politics of New Zealand takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic Monarchy. In the current politics of South Africa, the African National Congress is the ruling party at a national level and in most provinces having received 69 A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. It is most often used to describe members of the government party or parties who defect and vote with the Opposition against some piece of government-sponsored legislation.

It is also sometimes used to describe a member who leaves their party entirely and joins the opposite side of the House, such as leaving an opposition party to support the government (or vice versa), or even leaving one opposition party to join another. It involves the person leaving his parliamentary party and joining a new one. Parliamentary group and parliamentary party are terms used to refer to the representation of a Political party or Electoral fusion of parties in a This usage exists not only in Westminster system parliaments, but also in legislatures in presidential systems. The Westminster system is a democratic Parliamentary system of Government modelled after the British government (the Parliament of the United A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation A presidential system is a System of government where an executive branch exists and presides (hence the term separately from the Legislature In Canada, the term "crossing the floor" is used to refer to switching parties which occurs occasionally at both the federal and provincial levels. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

In April 2006, Manitoba's premier Gary Doer (NDP) proposed a ban on crossing the floor of the Manitoba legislature. Manitoba (English ˌmænɨˈtoʊbə French /manitoba/ is a province of Canada, spanning 647797 square kilometres (250116 sq mi of North America Gary Albert Doer MLA (born March 31, 1948) is a Politician in Manitoba, Canada. The New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. According to Mr Doer, this move came in response to "the concern some voters have expressed over the high-profile defections of three federal MPs from their parties in just over two years. " ^[1] The resulting legislation, which amended the provincial Legislative Assembly Act, mandated that Members of the Legislature who quit their political party must serve out the remainder of their term as independents. ^[2]

In Australia, one of the major parties (the Australian Labor Party) forbids its members from crossing the floor,^[3] while amongst other parties it is rare. Senator Barnaby Joyce of the National Party of Australia has crossed the floor twice to vote against his Coalition colleagues. Barnaby Thomas Gerald Joyce (born 17 April 1967) Australian politician has been a National Party member of the Australian Senate The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party. The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a pragmatic grouping of Centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922 The first was to vote against a motion concerning the Trade Practices Act and the second was a vote to oppose Voluntary Student Unionism. The Trade Practices Act 1974 is an act of the Parliament of Australia. Voluntary student unionism (VSU is a policy under which membership of &ndash and payment of membership fees to &ndash University student organisations is voluntary However, the record for crossing the floor in the Australian Parliament goes to Tasmanian Senator Sir Reginald Wright, who voted against his own party (the Liberal Party of Australia) on 150 occasions. Sir Reginald Charles Wright ( 10 July 1905 &ndash 10 March 1990) was an Australian politician a Liberal Party Senator The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.

References

^ [1] Michelle Macafee, Proposed reforms would ban floor-crossing in Man. , Canadian Press, April 11, 2006
^ [2] Manitoba Elections Reform Act S. M. 2006 c. 15 sched. E
^ Crossing the floor in the Federal Parliament 1950 – August 2004, Research Note no. 11 2005–06, Australian Parliament

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