Gladu, Floor Crossings, And The Demands Of Times Of Crisis

On Peace Time And War Time

“Can you tell when it’s peace time and war time anymore?”

I do not like Marilyn Gladu. I am not thrilled to have Marilyn Gladu in a party I support, to put it bluntly. But as I reckon with Gladu’s floor crossing, I find myself repeating one of Aaron Sorkin’s greatest lines of dialogue to myself, because if this is truly not peace time, then the complaints go away and you take the vote wherever you can find it.

What Donald Trump has done to Canada is not an invasion, but it’s an attempt at economic coercion and an attempt to take backdoor control of us. That might not be a war, but it’s not exactly something to sneeze at. And if what we face is actually a crisis (and it is), then the Liberals need to do what it takes to protect Canadian industry, Canadian workers, and Canadian interests. And if that means taking the vote of someone who voted to keep conversion therapy legal in 2021, then I really can’t care.

Gladu’s history is long and bad, and there’s every reason for Liberals to be uncomfortable with this one. It is far and away the hardest of the five crossings to rationalize, because it is the first one where the crossing MP has a long term reputation as both a hard partisan and as being on the harder end of the ideological divide. Jeneroux and d’Entremont are substantially less conservative than Gladu, and Ma’s been in Parliament for less than a year, so there’s little clear evidence of his views. With Gladu, there’s plenty.

Her vote to keep conversion therapy legal is the personal winner of worst vote, but her endorsement of quack COVID remedies, support for the Convoy, and a full career of loyally supporting Conservative leaders from Scheer to Poilievre is a massive problem. Or it would be, if these were normal times.

Would it be better if she wasn’t needed? Sure. It would be better if the Canadian people had elected a Liberal majority and good people who lost their seats in April 2025 were still around. But Canadians at the time had legitimate concerns that Carney was just leading Trudeau’s party with a different face, and some number of people who now want to vote Liberal felt like they couldn’t trust Carney. So, we’re here, stuck with a suboptimal situation.

If Poilievre wants to call for an election right now to clear the air once and for all he’s free to, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Secretly, or not even secretly, Conservatives are thrilled about Carney managing a majority through floor crossings, because it stops a much bigger majority being won at the polls right now. If you’re a Conservative MP who won a seat by 5% at the last election and you want to run again, you’re thrilled that Gladu and Ma and Jeneroux are taking the bullets for you, because it means you don’t have to run while the party would definitely lose your seat. Pushing back the election until 2028 by no means guarantees a Conservative recovery, but faced with either the certainty of wipeout now or the possibility that things close between now and the election, many Conservatives will be thrilled to wait. After all, it worked for many of their Liberal colleagues, who never would have thought they’d win again when Trudeau was 20 points down.

Is it in the national interest to have Parliamentary votes come down to what Avi Lewis pronounces the NDP to support, or more likely what comes out of a weird collaborative-but-also-fiesty process between Avi and caucus? Is it in the interest of the country to yo-yo between majority and minority government based on how many Liberal MPs are out of the Commons? Of course not. Mark Carney is the right person to lead this country through these times, and that means a majority government that can sustain an MP needing to take their kid to the hospital and missing a vote.

Gladu is a tough pill to swallow, but the counterfactual - that there is a Conservative MP who wants to help us enact our agenda and we said no - is impossible to square with what we are saying about the state of the country. If the country is in as precarious a position as we say it is in, then it’s all hands on deck. And that means making peace with a deeply flawed (now-former) Conservative.

It’s also worth pointing out that the journey many Conservative MPs are on is the same journey Carney wants the Canadian public to go on. There are many people who voted for Harper’s Conservatives or Scheer’s or O’Toole’s or Poilievre’s that want a new home given the circumstances. We can either close the door because of admittedly heinous comments and beliefs, or we can use their willingness to come over now as a way to achieve what Canada needs, and to deliver wins for Canadians.

Carney is not going to re-open the debate about conversion therapy or suddenly go backwards on abortion. Accepting that such views are settled questions in the caucus and the country doesn’t require fealty to those views from every member. Is it a departure from the Trudeau era? Sure, but the Trudeau era prioritized people - liberals, to be more blunt - feeling good about themselves as opposed to achieving outcomes. That a government has prioritized outcomes shouldn’t be treated with the disdain it is being met with in some corners.

Marilyn Gladu will presumably be a reliable vote for a Liberal agenda. That’s it and that’s all to me. We are in a time of economic war, and getting a clear Parliamentary majority is hugely valuable. We cannot act like this is a crisis and then purity test the Conservatives who cross. Either we have the luxury of pickiness or we don’t. If it’s a crisis, we don’t.

Fuck Gladu’s previous beliefs, sure. But I’d much rather her voting for us than against us.

(With floor crossings, byelections, and provincial politics all abuzz, now’s a great time to consider a paid subscription. All of my work will remain free, but paid subscriptions are a great way of showing your support for my work and keeping the Scrimshaw Strategic Rum Reserve well stocked.)