The Liberals have picked up another Conservative floor-crosser, bringing them one seat closer to a possible majority government after Monday’s byelections.
Ontario Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu announced on Wednesday she is joining the government benches.
In a statement to her Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong constituents announcing her move, Gladu wrote that she’s heard from the community “that you want serious leadership and a real plan to build a stronger and more independent Canadian economy.”
“Today, there is both the opportunity — and the responsibility — to build our country’s strength and success with a more constructive, collaborative approach,” she wrote.
Gladu, first elected under a blue banner in 2015, is the fifth MP to cross the floor in as many months and the fourth Conservative, joining Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont, Greater Toronto Area MP Michael Ma and Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux.
Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney also added former NDP MP Lori Idlout, who represents Nunavut, to his caucus.
Gladu’s change in allegiance adds a red dot to a sea of blue along the border in southern Ontario after the Conservatives swept the region in last year’s election.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Marilyn Gladu, an Ontario MP who on Wednesday became the latest Conservative to cross the floor and join the Liberals, brings ‘a lot of experience as a politician and she’s going to be a great member of our team.’
Carney praised Gladu’s “tremendous experience” as a chemical engineer and international business leader before she leaped into politics.
“She’s going to be a great member of our team. Lots of energy, ideas, advice on a wide range of issues including execution, getting things done,” he said heading into his office.
“This all comes at a time when the country as a whole is uniting.”
Liberals have a majority of seats — at least for now
Gladu’s defection brings the Liberals up to 171 seats, short of the 172 needed for a slim majority when all seats in the House of Commons are filled.
Because the Speaker is a Liberal MP, Carney’s party would have an easier time controlling House business if they got to 173 seats.
There are three byelections on Monday that could get Carney to a more comfortable spot.
The Toronto ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest are considered safe Liberal seats, while the Quebec riding of Terrebonne was won by the Liberals by just one vote during the spring 2025 election.
The Supreme Court of Canada annulled the 2025 federal election result in that Montreal-area riding.
While Gladu’s defection brings the Liberals to a technical majority due to the vacancies, the House is not sitting this week.
“What’s important is that we command the confidence of the House,” said Carney. “Sometimes that will come officially as members of the governing team and sometimes that will come through the vote.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whom Gladu endorsed during the 2022 leadership race, pointed to her January comments that floor-crossers should face voters in a byelection.
“I could not agree more,” he wrote on social media. “She should honour her word and let voters decide.”
The defection marks another blow for Poilievre, who despite securing an over 87 per cent approval rating at his party’s convention earlier this year will likely once again face questions about his ability to hold the party together.
He’s already dealing with some internal dissatisfaction and changes.
As the Toronto Star reported last week, Poilievre sent letters to his critic MPs asking them to justify their roles, which some caucus members told the paper they found insulting.
This week he’s losing his director of communications, Katy Merrifield, widely seen as one of the main drivers behind Poilievre’s shift in message and approach to the media since the Conservatives lost the 2025 election.
MP opposed conversion therapy ban bill
Gladu’s floor-crossing may come as a surprise to both Liberals and Conservatives, given some of her previous positions.
She was a vocal opponent of the Liberals’ push to legalize cannabis, once delivering an anti-pot poem from the House floor urging the Senate to do its “true deed and keep our great country safe from all the weed.”
During her bid for the Conservative leadership in 2020 she said she would allow caucus members to bring forward private member’s bills to restrict abortion, adding she doesn’t think they would find broad support.
Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu to the Liberal caucus on Wednesday. Gladu — the fifth floor-crosser to this government and the fourth from the Conservatives — said ‘we need a serious leader who can address the uncertainty that has arrived due to the unjustified American tariffs.’
She also originally opposed a Liberal bill to ban conversion therapy, the discredited practice that aims to change an individual’s sexual orientation to heterosexual. She later issued a statement saying she “vehemently” opposes conversion therapy and supports the LGBTQ+ community.
During the height of the pandemic she also retracted comments questioning the seriousness of COVID-19 and the need for vaccine mandates, later calling them “inappropriate” and a “distraction.”
“Does Liberal caucus still have a vaccine mandate? Asking for a friend,” wrote Conservative MP Adam Chambers on X, alluding to the controversy.
NDP MP Leah Gazan said “there are now two conservative parties in the House of Commons.”
“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,” she wrote.
During a meeting with Carney on Wednesday, she said he invited her to bring her experience and views “into the large Liberal tent” which she said will “have better effect inside than it will outside.”
Asked about her more conservative stances, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Gladu is aligned with the Liberals’ “mission agenda.”
“We are interested in unity, not uniformity,” said the minister, who added he’s been talking to Gladu for “a long time.”
“If you really want to unite the country, you want people with lots of different views.”
During an interview last December on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live, Carney wouldn’t answer whether there are some Conservative MPs he would not accept into the Liberal caucus, like MPs who hold anti-abortion or anti-trans views.
“We’re in multiple hypotheticals,” Carney said when pressed. “It’s a non-answer to a question.”
