British Columbia MP Keith Martin has quit the Conservative party and intends to run as Liberal in the next election.

Martin says he's concerned the new party, formed by the merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance, is moving too far to the right.

Martin was elected three times – twice for the Reform party and once for the Canadian Alliance. Martin says he joined the Reform party more than 10 years ago because he believed in fiscal conservatism. But he says in the last two years he's been at odds with the Allliance over positions the party took on issues like the war in Iraq, Canada-U.S. relations and social policy.

Keith Martin

"That situation is not going to get better, and I do not want to be in an environment where I'm banging my head against the wall," he said.

Less than three months ago, Martin denied rumours he was leaving the party. In a news release last October, he vowed to stay put, support the merger with the Tories and work with Alliance Leader Stephen Harper.

The Liberals have put money into needle exchange programs and would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Martin says the Liberals haven't recruited him, but he admits he met with Prime Minister Paul Martin last summer to talk about his future in the party and got a positive response. Even so, he says he will sit as an independent until the next election. "To simply cross the floor would, in my view, be disrespectful to the people of my community, disrespectful to Conservative members and members of the Liberal party."

NDP MP Svend Robinson scoffed at Martin, calling his decision "an act of political duplicity, of political treachery, of political opportunism that I have seldom witnessed in the time I have been here in Ottawa."

Robinson derides Martin for his positions supporting private health care and his vote in Parliament against including sexual orientation in hate crime legislation.

Former Canadian Alliance House leader and now Conservative MP John Reynolds says he's not surprised at Martin's decision. But Reynolds says if Martin really had integrity he'd resign. "That lack of integrity you pay dearly for at the polls next time."

And while Martin is only the latest in a number of Conservative MPs to flee the party, John Reynolds isn't worried. He says interest in the Conservative leadership race is proof the party will do well, even if MPs are leaving.

Martin is the fifth MP to quit the former Alliance and Tory parties since they announced their merger.

The others are all Tories: former leader Joe Clark from Alberta, André Bachand from Quebec and John Herron from New Brunswick, who have decided to sit as Independent MPs; and Scott Brison from Nova Scotia, who crossed the floor to join the Liberals.