Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks after Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong MP Marilyn Gladu announced she was joining the Liberal party.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Liberals energized by the prospect of their party securing a majority government within days cheered an MP who brought them closer to that milestone by crossing the floor, even as Prime Minister Mark Carney was forced to defend bringing her into the party.
Ontario MP Marilyn Gladu, known for socially conservative positions and opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, decamped from the Conservative Party to join the Liberals on Wednesday.
She is the fifth opposition MP – and fourth Conservative – to switch to the Liberals since November, in a wave of floor crossings unmatched by other recent minority governments.
Her defection means Mr. Carney is likely to have a majority government with full control over the House of Commons after three by-elections on Monday. In last April’s general election, the Liberals won 169 seats, three short of the majority mark.
But her move also raised questions about Pierre Poilievre’s continued leadership of the Conservative Party, and whether he can keep his caucus together.
Marilyn Gladu's floor crossing in the House of Commons could have a big impact for the Liberals. The Globe’s Stephanie Levitz explains what’s needed for the party to achieve a majority.
The Globe and Mail
The Liberals gathered Thursday in Montreal for a policy convention, their first since Mr. Carney became party leader last year. Ms. Gladu was among the speakers for the convention kick-off, but hours earlier, Mr. Carney was pressed on how her views jibed with Liberal values.
She is known as a social conservative and has been highly critical of the Liberals on civil rights issues, and was a champion for those frustrated by COVID-19 restrictions six years ago.
Ms. Gladu also voted against the Liberals’ federal ban on conversion therapy and has previously voted to curb access to abortion.
At a press conference on the margins of the convention, she sought to clarify her past positions – and future plans.
Opinion: A Liberal Party in a triumphal mood finds it easier to accept conflicting values
She said she has a faith-based position on abortion, but she believes in a woman’s right to choose. She also said she is against conversion therapy, but had an issue with the first version of the bill to ban it.
“I will vote with the government. I will protect the rights and freedoms of women to choose, for people to be who they are and love who they love,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Carney said the Liberal Party’s values remain solidarity, inclusivity, sustainability and all the rights in the Charter.
“There’s no change in the Liberal Party’s values, let’s be clear on that,” he told reporters, speaking in French.
Mr. Carney said people like Ms. Gladu are drawn to his party because they want to help the country at a crucial time.
“We are fortunate that they take those decisions because they bring expertise, they bring perspectives and they bring energy and they help us work together,” he said, referring to the MPs who have recently joined the party.
Opinion: We know bad floor crossings when we see them
One Liberal MP said the fact Ms. Gladu is now a member of caucus speaks to the way Mr. Carney has broadened the party’s reach.
“The diversity of Canada is now represented in the Liberal caucus,” said Greg Fergus, the Quebec MP for Hull-Aylmer.
With Ms. Gladu, the Liberals now hold 171 seats out of 343 in the House of Commons, and there are three vacancies.
By-elections for those three seats are on Monday. Two are in Toronto-area ridings that were left vacant when long-time Liberal MPs resigned – the Liberals are widely expected to win both.
The third is in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne, which the Liberals won by a single seat last year. The Supreme Court later annulled the result.
Mr. Carney was in Terrebonne earlier Thursday, where a man wearing a Montreal Canadiens pin told him he intends to vote for the Liberal Party for the first time because of him.
Enthusiasm for Mr. Carney was also evident Thursday as he greeted a line of supporters at the Montreal convention, with Ms. Gladu at his side.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is greeted by supporters as he arrives at the Liberal Convention in Montreal on Thursday.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Both were greeted with outstretched arms ready for a handshake or a selfie. One excited convention-goer wished Mr. Carney a “happy almost majority day.”
Liberals and Conservatives alike were caught off-guard by Ms. Gladu’s decision.
When she announced it, she said she wanted to contribute to Mr. Carney’s agenda of building Canada, and that her constituents in Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong want their voice represented within government.
Among her former Conservative colleagues, she was understood to be a true-blue Tory; she has won her riding four elections straight.
In her scrum with reporters, Ms. Gladu said conservative voters in her riding soured on Mr. Poilievre.
“They were upset that Pierre lost his riding, lost the election, they were not confident that he could regain that. And they started to say, I really like this Mark Carney guy,” she said.
That Ms. Gladu joined the Liberals had Tories texting amongst themselves wondering who else might be poised to go that they’d never considered a Liberal target.
Two Liberal sources have previously told The Globe and Mail their party had a target list of 10 potential floor crossers when recruitment efforts began last year.
The Globe is not identifying the sources as they were not authorized to discuss party operations.
Mr. Carney was asked Thursday whether more crossings were coming, but he didn’t directly answer.
The Liberals are currently polling as much as 15 points ahead of the Conservatives, and Mr. Poilievre is trailing Mr. Carney by as much as 30 points when it comes to preferred prime minister.
Mr. Poilievre pointed to a different set of numbers Thursday when asked how many more Tory MPs must leave before he would be willing to re-evaluate his leadership of the Conservative Party: the 8.2 million Canadians who voted Conservative last year and the 87 per cent support he received in a leadership review earlier this year.
He told reporters Thursday in Richmond, B.C., that the floor crossings are an affront to Canadians.
“Mark Carney is saying to Canadians that your vote does not count. That he will overpower the decision that you made through dirty backroom deals,” he said, flanked by several members of his caucus.
Mr. Poilievre would not comment on speculation that the Liberals may convince other Conservative MPs to cross the floor and insisted his job as party leader remains secure.