Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu Crosses Floor to Join Liberals

Member of Parliament for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong Marilyn Gladu rises to speak as a Conservative MP in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on March 9, 2026. Gladu announced April 8, 2026, that she was leaving the Conservative caucus to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu has announced she is crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party.

Gladu said in an April 8 statement that “the past year has been like no other that Canada has ever faced,” and that her constituents “want serious leadership and a real plan to build a stronger and more independent Canadian economy.”

“That is why I have decided to join Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada’s new government as the newest member of his caucus,” she said.

Gladu was first elected as an MP for the Conservatives in the riding back in 2015, and won re-election three more times.

In a statement, Carney welcomed Gladu into his cabinet, saying the country’s success depends on “how we build ambition into progress and strengths into sustained advantage,” and that Gladu brings “the practical, results-driven leadership this effort demands.” The prime minister said during Gladu’s time in government, she had earned recognition from MPs from all parties for her “proven willingness to work constructively across party lines.”

Speaking to reporters on April 8, Carney said the Liberal Party “couldn’t be happier to have this expertise, experience, and energy coming to our team.” Gladu, who stood beside Carney wearing a red shirt, said she was “very happy to be the newest member” of the Liberal government and said she had been invited into the “the large Liberal tent.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre reacted to Gladu’s floor crossing on social media, saying Carney is “seizing a costly Liberal majority that voters denied him” by making “backroom deals.” Poilievre said her constituents had voted for a Conservative vision for Canada—not the one offered by the Liberal government.

In her years as an MP, Gladu has been a very vocal opponent of key Liberal policies. In November 2021, she and several colleagues planned to form a mini-caucus to advocate for Canadians concerned about the impacts of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

She also expressed support for the Freedom Convoy trucker protest against vaccine mandates in January 2022, saying in a social media post, “let those truckers roll.”

In June 2021, Gladu voted against Bill C-6, which would end the practice of conversion therapy in Canada. In December 2023, she introduced a bill that would have declared December to be Christian Heritage Month, but it did not progress past first reading.

In January 2026, Gladu said she was in favour of automatic byelections being held when an MP crossed the floor to another party. Gladu said given that MPs are elected to represent their constituents, if MPs decide to switch parties, it “just seems to me to not be representing what you’re supposed to be there to represent.”

The Liberal Party is now within one seat of a majority government, currently holding 171 seats in Parliament. In addition to Gladu, three Conservative MPs and one NDP MP have crossed the floor to the Liberal Party in the last five months.

Tory MP Chris d’Entremont joined the Liberals on Nov. 4, 2025, followed by fellow Conservative MPs Michael Ma on Dec. 11, 2025, and Matt Jeneroux on Feb. 18. NDP MP Lori Idlout made a similar announcement on March 10.

However, the Liberals lost three seats due to the Supreme Court nullifying the results of the election in the federal riding of Terrebonne, Que., leading to Liberal MP Tatiana Auguste losing her seat, while MPs Chrystia Freeland and Bill Blair announced they were leaving Parliament earlier this year.

Byelections for those three ridings will be held on April 13. Polling from aggregator 338Canada indicates the Liberals are favoured to win in Freeland’s former riding of University-Rosedale and Blair’s former riding of Scarborough Southwest, while the Bloc Québécois and Liberals are tied in Terrebonne.