Liberal tent big enough for Gladu
Kirk Winter is a retired high school history teacher and coach who has had a lifelong interest in sports, education, and politics at all levels.
For the fifth time in less than a year, an opposition member of parliament has crossed the floor to join the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Marilyn Gladu, a Conservative from southwestern Ontario, made the decision to switch party affiliations on April 8 setting off alarm bells on both sides of the house, with federal Conservatives stunned that one of their staunchest advocates could throw her lot in with the hated Grits, and federal Liberals more than a little concerned that Gladu has not to this date represented ideas that support the Liberal brand.
Who is Marilyn Gladu, what does she believe and why are Liberals so concerned about her addition to the Carney bench after seamlessly welcoming three other former Conservatives and a New Democratic Party member to their ranks since fall 2025?
Gladu, who has represented Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong since 2015, is a veteran DOW chemical engineer and a conservative firebrand who parliamentary progressives have labelled a “loose cannon” since her arrival in Ottawa more than a decade ago.
Gladu has taken multiple stands on important issues that put her in direct conflict with Liberal dogma on conversion therapy and LGBTQ2+ rights. In 2020, she suggested the Liberals should send the army in to end the pipeline protests along railroads. She supported the 2022 freedom convoy, promoted the use of hydro-chloroquine over vaccines for the treatment of COVID-19 and campaigned against the legalization of cannabis. Gladu has expressed support for the recognition of a “Christian Heritage Month.” She has also voted for “mild limits” on women’s right to abortion.
With skeletons like this in her closet, it is at least understandable to see the concern that many mainstream Liberals have for Gladu’s inclusion in their party. Many former Trudeau-era Liberals who exited with Justin over a year ago have been telling anyone who will listen that Gladu passes virtually none of the ideological litmus tests required to carry the Liberal banner.
Fortunately for Gladu, the current prime minister is not an ideologue like Trudeau was. Carney, the former banker who has worked in the public and private sector for bosses of all different political stripes, sees himself as a deal-maker whose goal is to bring together the best minds available to him to craft and implement policy. Gladu’s long held reputation for working with the Liberals on issues like workers’ rights and pension protection have been noticed by the parliamentary press core.
Carney embraced Gladu’s move to the Liberals, wholeheartedly praising her two decades of business experience, her three terms in parliament and her reputation for someone who is willing to work across the aisle.
The PM added that after long discussions with Gladu he was convinced that on the crucial issues of conversion therapy, abortion and support for the LGBTQ2+ community, the stands Gladu is currently espousing in no way conflict with views held by the Liberal Party as a whole.
Carney told reporters gathered in Montreal for a Liberal policy conference that he expects Gladu will not be the last opposition member to cross the floor.
You will find more than one politician, including in the NDP and LPC – and in municipal politics – who participated in the Convoy protests and who promoted ivermectin, hydro-chloroquine and other “snake-oil potions” as remedies for COVID-19. But Marilyn Gladu is a very accomplished woman. Like other engineers of her time, she has broken a few glass ceilings and there is nothing particularly partisan about that, with sexism and misogyny still – if more quietly than it used to be – rampant in our society and in all political parties. Thank goodness she was not among those massacred by Marc Lepine. I object to the highlighting of hatred by self-identified Conservatives for Liberals when there is just as much hatred of Conservatives openly expressed by self-identified Liberals. Hatred and hostility is a characteristic of our time. It takes great effort not to flinch whenever I come into the vicinity, even online, of someone who once screamed at me and tried to punch me in the face, as I sat and he stood before me, for example, and that is how a lot of people feel when faced with opposition these days. They flinch and they hit out at whoever happens to be nearby. The PM’s weakness is his lack of moral clarity rooted in a craven pragmatism that he uses as an excuse to ignore human rights abuses, the need to take the world as it is and make deals with a variety of figurative devils. But while Gladu is entertaining, bilingual, educated and flexible in her views and loyalty and with a pragmatism to match the PM’s – governent MPs get more stuff – LPC MPs will tolerate her for so long as PM Carney continues to enjoy his prolonged honeymoon, but that will wear off, maybe sooner than later with principled (if wrong) MPs like Guilbeault who may feel principle is more important than a pay cheque. Caucus control may be a problem for the PM in the future. And it is certain that his wrongthink morality will turn around and bite him.