Floor walking is hitting close to home these days.
We’re talking about the trend of MPs, from the Conservatives and the NDP, that have crossed the House of Commons to sit with the ruling Liberal government.
Marilyn Gladu, MP for Sarnia-Lambton, is the latest to cross over to Mark Carney and the Liberals. This one is a bit surprising.
Why? Well, from what she’s shown in her public political escapades, she espouses the far-right mentality similar to that of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
So, was she lured with promises of a cabinet post or something else? Or was she just tired of languishing in opposition with a leader whom a great deal of the country finds hard to like?
Gladu said crossing to the Liberals was the best thing for her riding.
We are truly scratching our heads in trying to make sense of this. Gladu has history that includes backing the Freedom Convoy, whose members basically despised all things about the ruling Liberals during the pandemic. She’s sided with vaccine deniers as well.
But, suddenly, Carney and the Liberals are the “best thing” for her and her riding?
Gladu is not an isolated incident. She’s the fourth Conservative to join the Liberals.
Who is next? All Carney and the Liberals need is one more walker or a byelection win and they’ll have a majority. (Update: On Monday night, the Liberals took all three byelections to get that majority.)
Meanwhile, the Conservatives remain irate, seemingly forgetting that Stephen Harper benefitted from floor crossing when he led this country. The most notable addition was David Emerson who was immediately named to a cabinet post.
A big factor this time around is Carney. First off, he is not Justin Trudeau, the guy Poilievre tried to train his supporters to hate. Trudeau stepped aside and Poilievre’s support waned.
What Carney has done is rather shrewd, and old-school Liberal. He took several key Conservative points and made them part of his election platform. He altered the Liberal stances on the push to EVs to more of a nudge, and scrapped the consumer carbon tax.
That’s what the Liberals used to do when they sat in the middle, taking the best ideas from the NPD and Conservatives and adding them to their issues platforms.
What he is doing is working, whether the Conservatives like it or not.
