High-spirited Liberals gathering at their national convention in downtown Montreal don’t seem bothered by how they cobble together a majority government, as long as they find stability.
Some 4,500 party members have gathered to talk policy and build momentum ahead of Monday’s three byelections that are all but guaranteed to get the party past the threshold needed to control the agenda in the House of Commons.
They further bolstered their seat count earlier this week when, in a surprise move, they added social conservative Marilyn Gladu to the Liberal cadre — their fifth floor-crosser in as many months.
Despite her previous anti-abortion comments, vaccine hesitancy and opposition to a Liberal bill opposing conversion therapy, many MPs and delegates shrugged off any suggestion Gladu’s addition would dilute Liberal values.
Burlington MP Karina Gould, part of the Liberals’ more progressive wing, said she’ll give the benefit of the doubt that floor-crossers want to “join the party, not to change the party.”
“I am very firmly pro-choice. I am very firmly pro-LGBTQ rights in this country. I am very firmly pro-science.… So are there concerns about that? Sure,” she said of Gladu.
“Even if she holds those views right now but she’s committed to supporting Liberal values, the rights of Canadians and she’s not going to try to change those, then that’s OK with me.”
While former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu has previously expressed positions at odds with a number of her new party’s policies, Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault said that ‘when she joins us, she knows’ the government’s stance on issues like abortion and climate change. ‘The party won’t change because of one person,’ Guilbeault said.
Fellow left-leaning Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault — who quit Carney’s cabinet over a memorandum of understanding with Alberta to establish a path forward for a new bitumen pipeline — said while the party is different now than under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, he still thinks it’s “very progressive” on certain issues.
“I’ve heard [Gladu] scream at me on a number of occasions on things like climate change. She’s now joining a party who believes that climate is an issue and who is still putting in place measures to fight climate change. When she joins us, she knows that this is where we stand,” he told reporters.
“We have changed and we will probably change under another leader because that’s the way things are.”
In a late Thursday scrum, Gladu attempted to explain away some of her previous comments by saying she’s pro-choice while having her own “faith traditions.”
The Liberal Party put most floor-crossers front and centre at the convention, giving stage time to former NDP MP Lori Idlout and former Conservatives Gladu, Matt Jeneroux and Chris d’Entremont.
Their fellow former Conservative Michael Ma has also been spotted in the hallways.
“I don’t know whether to introduce myself as a recovering Conservative or just that I was a Liberal and I didn’t know it,” d’Entremont said, garnering a laugh from the crowd.
During a panel discussion on Friday, Jeneroux said he hasn’t looked back since crossing the floor.
“Have slept well every night,” he said.
Poilievre supports recall petitions
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been working to cast floor-crossers as traitors to their constituents, saying he personally supports recall petitions — a way for constituents to remove a representative if they garner enough local support.
“Mark Carney is saying to Canadians: ‘Your vote does not count,'” Poilievre said from Richmond, B.C., on Thursday.
“That would put the people back in charge of our democracy rather than having dirty backroom deals.”
After Marilyn Gladu became the fourth Conservative MP to join this Liberal government, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said he believes ‘constituents in her riding and every riding should be able to petition for a byelection whenever a member of Parliament changes parties.’
Liberals in Montreal pushed back on any suggestion a majority helped by floor-crossing isn’t legitimate.
“If MPs don’t have a right to cross the floor, it really gives prime ministers and leaders total dictatorial power over their caucus,” said former British Columbia premier and Liberal leadership contender Christy Clark.
“I have always subscribed to the view that people don’t just vote for parties, they vote for people. And so the people aren’t changing, even though the party name is changing.”
Eric Greneir, a polls analyst at The Writ, said polling suggests Canadians aren’t keen on floor-crossing, but it’s not Carney taking the hit.
“We also see from the same polling that people thought that the recent lot of floor-crossers looked good for Carney and looked bad for Poilievre,” he said.
“So while we do see in polling that people don’t really like the idea of [floor-crossing] I’m not sure that we actually see that it has any impact on support for the parties or any real implications when it comes to actually voting in an election.”
Liberals argue stability is needed
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.
Securing the two of the three byelections could get Carney to a more comfortable spot. Winning all three or enticing more floor-crossers would give him even more padding, said Grenier.
“When you only have a majority of one or two seats, you can be held hostage by one or two MPs,” he said. “If they get some more floor-crossings, then they have a little bit more wiggle room.”
Gould, a former House leader, said a majority would’ve made a bigger difference last fall, calling it one of the “most dysfunctional parliaments I’ve ever experienced.”
She said the tone has changed with the opposition parties also not wanting to trigger an election.
“There’s actually not that much that’s being held up at committee right now, because the Conservatives really have decided that they want to co-operate with the government,” she said.
“Functionally, does it change that much? Not in this moment. But I think it would, if there is a majority, give the country stability for three years as opposed to six months or 12 months.”
British Columbia Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson said a majority would bring stability to unstable times.
“This provides the ability for the government to actually be thinking forward with respect to things like how do we actually diversify trade, how do we manage through the negotiations on CUSMA, how can we play a constructive role in the aftermath of what is going on in the Persian Gulf?” he said.
“I honestly think that especially in turbulent times like this, majorities are actually good.”
