Glad-U R Gone

Another politician without principles.

Here’s a list of a certain Member of Parliament’s political positions:

• Anti-abortion.

• Anti-gun buyback.

• Anti-Covid vaccine mandate.

• Anti-pandemic lockdown.

• Pro-Freedom Convoy.

• Opposed to Bill C-9 (the “Combatting Hate Act”).

Must be a Liberal, don’t you think?

Haha. Yeah, right.

Yet those are the positions of record for Marilyn Gladu, now a Liberal MP, who until five minutes ago was one of the bluest of Tories. In 2020 she ran for the leadership of the party, for crying out loud; and she was elected four times as a Conservative in her riding of Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong, which she’s held since 2015, and which has been in Tory hands for the last twenty years.

But Gladu has suddenly discovered that the “best thing” for her riding and for her “community’s priorities” is to jump ship to the Liberal Party; and Mark Carney welcomed her with open arms despite that fact that her track record of policy positions fits about as well with the Liberal mindset as a miniskirt would on Donald Trump.

I think her constituents “priorities” might have something to do with getting what they voted for—and they certainly didn’t vote for a Liberal MP.

Gladu’s letter to her former colleagues defending her betrayal is pure flapdoodle. “You all know what I stand for.” she had the nerve to write. Indeed: they now know that she stands for absolutely nothing.

She’s on record, it’s important to note, as being in favour of mandatory byelections for floor crossers. She publicly backed a petition to that effect, sponsored earlier this year by one of her (former) caucus mates, Middlesex-London Conservative MP Lianne Rood. That petition reads in part:

“MPs are elected to represent their constituents under a party banner, but unrestricted floor crossing can erode voter trust amid rising political corruption and scandals.”

In January, Gladu waxed positively indignant in support of the measure:

“Really, the whole point of being an MP is to represent your constituents. So, if they’re voting you in under one platform, for you to switch for whatever reasons, just seems to me to not be representing what you’re supposed to there to represent. We elected you under this banner, and if you don’t want to be under that banner, then we deserve a chance to have a redo.”

Does it “seem to her”, I wonder, now that she’s the floor crosser, that she should resign and stand for re-election, so that the voters in her riding can render their verdict on her behaviour? You know, point of principle and all that.

Right. Who am I kidding? She doesn’t have any principles.

Welcoming such a shameless turncoat into his fold doesn’t say a whole lot about Carney’s judgment, I must say. Carney is populating his ranks with an entire brood of political turncoats (Gladu is the fourth Conservative and fifth opposition MP to pop over to the Liberals since November). Great for helping to secure a majority, but it doesn’t speak well of the culture of the Liberal Party.

None of this is good news for Pierre Poilievre, of course; the procession of MPs abandoning his party isn’t complimentary of his magnetism as a leader. If he loses more MPs, and with his party persistently ten points down in the polls, one wonders if he can survive.

Poilievre didn’t waste any time in pointing to Gladu’s support of the floor-crosser petition. “I could not agree more,” he wrote on social media. “She should honour her word and let voters decide.”

Yet the fact is that Poilievre was one of a host of Conservative MPs who helped vote down Bill C-306 in 2012, a measure which would have required floor-crossers to resign and run in a by-election. So it’s a bit rich for him to complain now.

For all that, though, given the character Gladu has revealed via her perfidy, the Conservatives are well rid of her.

They should do up a farewell card with the caption:

“Glad-U R Gone”