Wednesday April 8, 2026 | OTTAWA, ON
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
A staunch Conservative Member of Parliament has crossed over to join the Liberals.
The news today of Marilyn Gladu, MP (Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong) switching sides to become part of the Liberal caucus is yet another paragraph in the evolving story of how Prime Minister Mark Carney is assembling a Liberal majority in real-time.
Carney has a significant agenda underway for the country with a major focus on macroeconomic shifts to help Canada become more resilient in terms of economic strength as well as sovereignty. From day one of his now one-year in office, Carney has earnestly undertaken trade diversification and has bolstered the country’s military defence with gusto.
Indeed, in a Liberal Party of Canada news release this morning, Gladu states her reason as: “The past year has been like no other that Canada has ever faced, and I’ve heard clearly from constituents that you want serious leadership and a real plan to build a stronger and more independent Canadian economy.”
She says she brings experience in “working globally across many sectors” and partially justifies her switch by saying that her riding has always been a bell-weather for where voters are leaning for leadership expectations.
She has been the MP there since 2015 (first elected when Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was the prime minister). The riding (formerly called Sarnia—Lambton) was also Conservative during 2006-2015 (Pat Davidson, MP) and during 1984-1993 (Ken James). The southwest Ontario riding was held by Liberal MP Roger Galloway between 1993 and 2006.
Now 171 seats:
Gladu’s joining the Liberals gives Carney’s party 171 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons, just two short of a majority.
With three federal by-elections upcoming on April 13 — where two of the three ridings are considered safe for the Liberals — that would give Carney a 173-seat slim majority.
If the Liberals also win in Terrebonne on April 13, that will provide a better cushion at 174 seats.
Gladu is the fifth floor-crosser, a turning point:
Marilyn Gladu’s floor crossing is the fourth from among former Conservative MPs (following in the footsteps of Chris d’Entremont, Michael Ma and Matt Jeneroux). A fifth floor-crossing was by former NDP MP Lori Idlout over to the Liberals last month.
It comes with surprise that Gladu has crossed the floor, mostly because she is staunchly to the right in her politics. She is not supportive of abortion and also voted against a Bill to ban conversion therapy. She seemed to have been supportive of the Ottawa trucker convoy.
It’s almost starting to look unprincipled on Carney’s part — a machinated power grab — that Carney has brought Gladu into the fold.
Previous to Gladu’s action today, the previous three Conservative floor-crossers could be seen to have some depth to their reasons or at least some plausible alignment with the Liberals: Chris d’Entremont wanted to better serve his constituents who swayed between Conservative and Liberal (and made his move on budget day); Michael Ma could claim he wanted to be part of where the country was heading under Liberal leadership (and made his move in time for the Liberal Christmas party); and Matt Jeneroux at first expressed reasons about family priorities before deciding he also wanted to be part of where the country’s leadership is heading.
Though the thin veil of being a new Liberal can fast wear thin — such as when Michael Ma seemed to go completely off the rails from how Liberals would handle things when he undertook some intense yes/no (Poilievre style) questioning in committee a few weeks ago which must have been embarrassing for Carney.
Former NDP MP Alistair MacGregor calls today’s news “a truly remarkable 180° turn” and points out all the evident angles on this floor-crossing: political opportunism (by Gladu but also the Liberals), no confidence in Poilievre (on Gladu’s part, and perhaps other Conservative MPs to follow), and “a massive rightward drift” of the Liberals.
Blending into one:
While people have recognized that Carney is running a right-of-centre Liberal government, this latest addition to the Liberal caucus seems to depart from an overall perception of what the Liberal party stands for.
It does show that Carney can attract and (so far) maintain a big tent. But if nearly everyone of every stripe is in that tent, it really doesn’t speak directly to one central philosophical framework anymore.
It will be interesting when it comes time for the next election if Canadian voters will feel there is any choice. If the Conservatives have become hobbled that will only leave the NDP as a left-leaning choice, and that might be ‘too much’ in a troubled world. Carney’s action today in accepting a hard-right MP into the Liberal caucus seems to be his shoo-in approach to winning the next federal election.
NDP reaction:
“It is outrageous but not surprising that in his drive to stitch together a majority government, Prime Minister Mark Carney is further sacrificing long-held Liberal positions on issues of fundamental rights,” says NDP MP Leah Gazan today, noting that Gladu is known as a far-right social conservative.
“We are seeing more evidence every day that Mark Carney is a conservative, and that there are now two conservative parties in the House of Commons. New Democrats will never stop fighting for gender equality and for reproductive rights,” said Gazan today, who is the NDP Critic for Women and Gender Equity.
Conservative fortunes:
If it wasn’t already evident, it seems that the leadership of Pierre Poilievre is slipping for his own caucus as well as possibly the public (based on polls in recent weeks).
IF Carney indeed aims to hold off an election until 2029 it’s unclear whether Poilievre can bridge that length of time as an effective leader for the Conservatives.
Next election:
The next federal election is presented on a four-year trajectory for 2029. In the Canadian parliamentary system there are many ways to end up in an election before that.
But it seems clear that Carney would rather piece together a majority the easy way — building the ship while sailing it.
On balance, however, the challenge of steering Canada through socioeconomic waters that are likely to become rougher and harder before they get better probably means that having the government focus on the task at hand is of greater benefit to Canadians than losing up to six months for campaigning and downtime for election and its aftermath.
These are in fact more dangerous times. Yes, there have always been wars, and in the 1960s there was the Cold War nuclear threat. But now there are dangers from sources in cyberspace and possibly from outer space. Carney seems to have a sense of the big picture on this, and in that sense what seems like a Liberal power grab may in fact be in the greater big-picture interest of Canadians at this time.
===== RELATED:
- Canada’s defence budget reaches NATO target of 2% GDP (March 26, 2026)
- NDP MP Lori Idlout crosses to the Liberals (March 10, 2026)
- Edmonton Riverbend MP Matt Jeneroux crosses floor to Liberals (February 18, 2026)
- Silent switch: Michael Ma discretely crosses floor to Liberals (December 11, 2025)
- Budget-day boost: Conservatives lose one MP to the Liberals (November 5, 2025)
- Carney announces new directions and spending for Canadian defence (June 9, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: CANADA-NATIONAL | NATIONAL DEFENCE | 45th PARLIAMENT of CANADA