Floor-crosser Michael Ma will escort Carney in China to woo Xi Jinping
Liberal MP Michael Ma, who defected from the Conservative party just weeks ago, will accompany Prime Minister Mark Carney on his high-profile trip to Beijing.
Liberal MP Michael Ma, who defected from the Conservative party just weeks ago, will accompany Prime Minister Mark Carney on his high-profile trip to Beijing.
Carney is scheduled to visit China from Jan. 13 to 17, 2026, marking the first visit by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau’s unsuccessful 2017 trip.
The visit signals a major shift by the Liberal government to cosy up to China after years of strained ties over human rights abuses, Beijing’s coercive diplomacy and the former detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Carney will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. He will be joined by a delegation of senior government officials and business leaders. Ma stands out as the most controversial political attendee, given his short time in the Liberal caucus.
Outlets like The Bureau have highlighted Ma’s ties to Chinese diaspora organizations suspected of promoting communist China’s talking points abroad. After he crossed the floor to join the Liberal government, former supporters of Ma protested outside of his constituency office, with some speculating about Ma’s ties to China.
In 2019, Ma was listed as a director of the Chinese Canadian Conservative Association (CCCA), a diaspora organization that has repeatedly echoed Beijing-aligned talking points on Canada–China relations.
The group gained notoriety after the 2021 federal election when it publicly urged then–Conservative leader Erin O’Toole to resign, citing what it described as his “anti-China” stance.
Ahead of the 2025 election, the organization told Chinese Canadian voters to “vote carefully,” later escalating its rhetoric by calling on Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to step down. After the Conservatives’ election defeat, the group claimed that party leaders who “antagonize Beijing” are unelectable in Canada.
Statements attributed to a CCCA spokesman have further fueled controversy. The spokesman asserted that China’s arrest of the “Two Michaels” occurred only after “Canada started the war,” argued that Beijing had the right to fly military aircraft into Taiwan’s air-defence identification zone, and said Canada should refrain from publicly criticizing China’s human-rights abuses.
Social media posts on WeChat also show leaders of the organization meeting with Ma in March 2025 and publicly promoting their endorsement of him.
Ma’s inclusion in Carney’s Beijing delegation comes as Parliament and Canada’s security agencies continue to grapple with allegations of Chinese interference in federal elections and diaspora politics. Conservatives have repeatedly warned that efforts to normalize relations with Beijing risk sidelining concerns about national sovereignty, human rights and foreign influence.
As bad as the optics of this are, even worse, there is no longer an attempt to disguise these traitors' agenda.... and the fact that Canadians have become so complacent, no one seems to care. Where is the outrage? Why have Ma's constituents not demanded his removal from office?
No surprise.
Canada can only lose with this meeting.
China can never ever be trusted.