Prime Minister Mark Carney is just one Elizabeth May and one Bloc Québécois MP away from bringing representatives from all the House of Commons’ political parties under the Liberal banner.
With social conservative MP Marilyn Gladu now sitting with the Liberals, Carney has assembled the most ideologically diverse — or perhaps politically confused — iteration of the Liberal Party of Canada since Justin Trudeau took over the party in 2013.
His caucus now includes four former Conservative MPs ranging from Red Tories to social conservatives, an NDP MP who backed Avi Lewis, and could soon include the former deputy leader of the Ontario New Democrats.
Reactions to Gladu’s departure have ranged from cynical to pearl-clutching, dismissed as either a power grab or an affront to the Liberal Party’s values — insofar as Liberal Party values extend beyond grabbing at power.
But Carney’s ability to provoke defections from both the conservative wing of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and the progressive left of what’s left of the NDP says something about both the prime minister and the unique political moment Canadians find themselves in.
“I think that (Carney) is a business person and makes deals. I don’t think that having people in the party who have pretty divergent viewpoints on policy issues is a problem for him at all,” said Lori Turnbull, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Management.
Turnbull said that Carney doesn’t centre partisanship in his political approach — but cautioned that doesn’t mean the institutions he’s inherited “aren’t completely built around the assumption of party loyalty, and carrots and sticks rolling out.”
For the Liberals, though, a majority government is a pretty significant carrot.
Gladu’s floor crossing brought the Liberals up to 171 seats in the 338 House of Commons — a razor-thin majority ahead of Monday’s three federal by-elections, two of which are seen as likely Liberal wins. The third, Terrebonne in Québec, is a tight race with the Bloc Québécois, but polling indicates it could remain Liberal.
Barring surprisingly catastrophic results for the Liberals on Monday night, Carney is expected to be able to govern with a majority for the foreseeable future — even without factoring in persistent rumours about more Conservative MPs joining the government benches.
Carney’s welcoming of Gladu, a social conservative who pushed “alternative” COVID-19 treatments, voiced support for the convoy protests of 2022 and in 2023 brought forward a private member’s bill to declare December “Christian Heritage Month,” makes sense if you look at it as just one more vote to secure his government’s agenda.
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For Gladu, it doesn’t seem to be about political survival, given that she’s won her Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong seat in four straight elections, winning for the first time despite Stephen Harper’s loss in 2015 and surviving the failed campaigns of Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole and Pierre Poilievre.
It could be a signal that there’s an even larger political reorientation happening than public polling would suggest, and Gladu is picking up on it, Turnbull agreed. It could equally mean that the fully-pensioned MP saw this as a chance to experience the House of Commons from the government benches for a change — and a better one than running under Poilievre in the next election.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Carney acknowledged Gladu’s past political stances but said that all five new Liberal MPs have to abide by the party’s positions and would be expected to vote for them.
“It’s a big country, and it’s a diverse country,” Carney said.
“(The floor crossers) all bring perspectives from their regions, from their backgrounds and from their histories, but they all are subscribing to the values of the party and the core mission, the core element of our mission, which is to build Canada strong and build Canada strong for all Canadians.”
Former Liberal cabinet minister and leadership candidate Karina Gould told Global News that she’s known Gladu to be a “very congenial and constructive colleague” despite their “very different perspectives on a wide range of issues.”
“I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt that she understands the values of the Liberal Party and has decided to join the Liberal caucus because she either now shares those values or respects the values and the rights the party membership has fought so hard for over the years,” Gould said Thursday.
There are signs that Carney’s open-minded embrace of his former political adversaries — particularly one with Gladu’s formerly sincerely-held beliefs — is beginning to rub some longtime Liberals the wrong way.
Lisa Kirbie, who worked for the Liberals both in the House of Commons and the Senate, told Global News Thursday that Carney’s lack of background in partisan politics means he may not appreciate the effect floor crossers can have on internal party dynamics or fundraising.
“I never, ever expected that someone to the right of Pierre Poilievre was going to be brought into the Liberal fold,” Kirbie, now the CEO of Blackbird Strategies, said in an interview.
“This is not a Red Tory crossing into the Liberal Party. This is someone who would never have been greenlit to run as a Liberal to begin with … We can be a Big Red Tent party, but at the end of the day, we have to have some fundamental principles that we’re adhering to.”
But Turnbull said that Carney’s openness to opposition MPs joining the Grit cause hearkens back to the Liberals’ historic role as a “brokerage” party, welcoming diverse viewpoints as long as MPs can agree on the overall vision.
“That’s the key, is that you put the stuff you agree on upfront, and then you leave the stuff you can’t agree on kind of in the back as much as you can, then the party can work,” Turnbull said.
It’s not just segments of the Liberal Party base that are unhappy with the situation, however. Speaking to reporters in British Columbia on Thursday, Poilievre again called on his erstwhile MPs to resign and run in by-elections.
“If you ran in an election, you went out and you said to little old ladies, to veterans, to truckers, to single moms that you are going to stand up for the Conservative platform of affordability, safety and national sovereignty, and to do so as part of the Conservative Party that people voted for, then you should respect those people and honour your word,” Poilievre said.
Asked how many of his MPs he’d have to lose to the Liberals before he’d consider his own political future, Poilievre boasted of the record number of votes cast for the Conservatives in the last election, which was won by Carney’s Liberals, and his endorsement from the Conservative grassroots during the recent leadership review vote.
There have been persistent rumours in Ottawa that more Conservative MPs are in talks to join the Liberals since Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont broke the ice last November. Those rumours haven’t gone away after Gladu’s departure, putting the Conservatives in a state of paranoia about which among them could be next to jump.
Darrell Bricker, the CEO of Ipsos Global Affairs, said that caucus management will need to be the priority for Poilievre going forward — especially now that the Liberals could have a working majority and early-election speculation has died down.
“When restless members in opposition have nothing to worry about, and there’s no prospect of being in government, and (the Conservatives) haven’t been in government since 2015, well, idle hands are the devil’s workshop,” Bricker said in an interview.
“(Poilievre) can’t make the argument ‘you need me to be around because there could be an election any day.’ There isn’t going to be an election any day.”
Gladu and the other newly-Liberal MPs will have a chance to meet with the party’s grassroots in Montreal this weekend, where Carney’s expansive and expanding movement will gather for a three-day policy convention. Lively conversations in the hospitality suites are likely.
With files from Global’s David Akin and Jillian Piper.
