Marilyn Gladu Joins Liberals and Conservatives Should Worry More
Episode Stats
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171.32567
Summary
Marilyn Gladue has crossed the floor and joined the Liberals, making her the fifth member of Parliament to do this and honestly, she's not who you expect. Gladue had been known as one of the more socially conservative MPs in the Conservative Party, and she represents a riding in Ontario that is consistently conservative. So at first glance, this move doesn't add up.
Transcript
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This is wild breaking news in Canadian politics. So a Conservative Member of Parliament, Marilyn
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Gladue, has crossed the floor and joined the Liberals. That makes her the fifth Member of
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Parliament to do this. And honestly, she's not who you expect. Gladue has been known as one of the
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more socially Conservative MPs in the Conservative Party, and she represents a riding in Ontario
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that is consistently very Conservative. So at first glance, this move doesn't really add up
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at all. If you look at her track record, it leans pretty clearly in that direction. She opposed
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marijuana legalization, supported using military to deal with pipeline protests, backed alternative
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covid treatments, and voted against Bill C-6, which aimed to ban conversion therapy. And her
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writing? Well, the liberals haven't done well there for a very long time. They've been stuck
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in third place pretty much every single election, 2011, 2015, 2019, 2021, and only got to second
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place in 2025. The best they've ever done was about 38% back in 2004. So why make this move?
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What explains Gladue's decision? Well, sources from her own writing suggest this isn't as shocking
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as it looks. Apparently, she's always been kind of a fiscal liberal and also a social conservative,
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but since the conservatives don't really push social issues anyway, that side of things was
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not really going anywhere. And on top of that, she's not running again, and she has already
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moved out of her riding. So if you're in her position, you might look at it like there's
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not really a big difference between the Carney liberals and the Polyev conservatives right now,
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so why sit in the opposition with no influence when you can be a part of the government?
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But zooming out, this is a bigger problem for the conservatives.
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If Polyev's MPs are defecting because his party fails to be socially conservative,
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it's not just more bad media cycles, it is a serious long-term issue for the party.