Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu crosses floor to Liberals

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Marilyn Gladu, a four-term Conservative MP from Ontario, decamped Wednesday for the Liberals, bringing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority government one seat away from a majority just before a crucial trio of by-elections that could push it over the top.

Ms. Gladu is the fifth MP and fourth Conservative to leave the opposition benches for the governing party, a wave of defections unmatched by other recent minority governments. Her doing so now means that the Liberals need to win only one of the three by-elections scheduled for Monday to have the majority of seats.

Winning at least two would give them full control of the House of Commons.

With two of the three vacant ridings in Toronto-area Liberal strongholds, the party is expected to clear that bar.

The third vacancy is a Quebec riding that the Liberals won by a single vote last year.

Parliamentary standings

Seats held by parties in the House of Commons after the MP Marilyn Gladu crossed the floor to the Liberals from the Conservatives

Majority

Vacant: 3

Liberals: 171

Conservatives: 140

Bloc: 22

NDP: 6

Green: 1

john sopinski/the globe and mail

Parliamentary standings

Seats held by parties in the House of Commons after the MP Marilyn Gladu crossed the floor to the Liberals from the Conservatives

Majority

Vacant: 3

Liberals: 171

Conservatives: 140

Bloc: 22

NDP: 6

Green: 1

john sopinski/the globe and mail

Parliamentary standings

Seats held by parties in the House of Commons after the MP Marilyn Gladu

crossed the floor to the Liberals from the Conservatives

Vacant: 3

Majority

Liberals: 171

Conservatives: 140

Bloc: 22

NDP: 6

Green: 1

john sopinski/the globe and mail

Ms. Gladu’s move stunned the political establishment. She was one of the Conservatives’ most high-profile critics of the Liberals during the COVID-19 pandemic, speaking out loudly against vaccine mandates and promoting unproven theories about the virus.

But AI Minister Evan Solomon, who played a role in bringing her over, told reporters his party is interested in unity, not uniformity.

“This is a pragmatic moment,” he told reporters in a brief scrum in Ottawa Wednesday.

Ms. Gladu first announced her decision in an online letter to constituents in her riding of Sarnia–Lambton–Bkejwanong, and appeared for a photo with Mr. Carney in Ottawa shortly after.

“We need a global leader with a plan to make a more resilient Canada, a stronger Canada, a more self-reliant Canada for this critical moment,” she said, standing next to the Prime Minister and Mr. Solomon.

“And that man is our Prime Minister, Mark Carney. He’s invited me to bring my experience, my talents and my views into the large Liberal tent and I think that will have a better effect inside than it will outside.”

Opinion: We know bad floor crossings when we see them

Mr. Carney said Ms. Gladu had distinguished herself as a collaborative MP willing to work across party lines. He also noted her past experience as an engineer.

“We couldn’t be happier to have this expertise, experience and energy coming to our team,” he said.

Two of Monday’s by-elections were called to replace prominent Liberals who resigned. One is in University-Rosedale, where former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland stepped down in January. She is set to begin serving as chief executive officer of the Rhodes Trust in July. Ms. Freeland won the riding last year with 64 per cent of the vote.

Another is in Scarborough Southwest, where former defence minister Bill Blair stepped down in February. Mr. Carney appointed him high commissioner to the United Kingdom. He won the riding last year with 61.5 per cent of the vote.

The third by-election, in Terrebonne, was called after the Supreme Court annulled the result from last year’s election, in which the Bloc Québécois lost to the Liberal candidate by a single vote.

Before Ms. Gladu’s switch, the question of whether the Liberals would emerge Monday with a functional majority was expected to come down to Terrebonne.

Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet said that with Ms. Gladu’s move, the Liberals now have an effective majority, meaning voters in Terrebonne can cast their ballots on local issues.

And, he made a special appeal to those who last year may have voted against his party because of the international context of that election: Come back, he said, speaking in French.

In addition to Ms. Gladu, Ontario MP Michael Ma, Nova Scotia Conservative Chris d’Entremont and Alberta Conservative Matt Jeneroux have switched to the Liberals. Lori Idlout, an NDP MP from Nunavut, has also joined the Liberal caucus.

Unlike those four, Ms. Gladu handily won her seat in last year’s federal election. Her share of the vote – 53 per cent – was higher than she’d had in the three campaigns prior. The Liberals captured 38 per cent.

Ms. Gladu is also the fifth Conservative to leave the party since Pierre Poilievre became leader in 2022.

Quebec MP Alain Rayes quit the party to sit as an independent just days after Mr. Poilievre won the race.

Ms. Gladu had tried to run for leadership in 2020, but she was disqualified by the party and the contest was ultimately won by Erin O’Toole.

During COVID-19, she became a critic of pandemic-related restrictions, and also once promoted hydroxychloroquine as a “100 per cent” effective cure when it was an unproven treatment.

She also said the virus was less deadly than polio, remarks that led Mr. O’Toole to chastise her for spreading misinformation, one of many flashpoints between him and his MPs over the party’s response to COVID-19. She later apologized.

Mr. O’Toole was later voted out as leader by his caucus and Mr. Poilievre replaced him.

Robyn Urback: Besides winning, what does a Liberal Party that will accept Marilyn Gladu actually stand for?

He appointed Ms. Gladu as the shadow minister for civil liberties.

Last week, Mr. Poilievre’s policy director sent a letter to shadow ministers asking them to submit proof of what they’d accomplished in their roles since the last election.

A copy of the e-mail was obtained by The Globe and Mail. The missive also asked whether the MPs wanted to stay in those jobs.

Ms. Gladu has criticized past floor crossers, saying they ought to run in by-elections.

“We elected you under this banner, and if you don’t want to be under that banner, then we deserve a chance to have a redo,” Ms. Gladu told The Independent earlier this year.

She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Globe.

Mr. Poilievre said she should step down and run as her constituents didn’t vote for the Liberal government she has joined.

“Mark Carney is seizing a costly Liberal majority that voters denied him, and doing so through backroom deals,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

With a report from Robert Fife