Max Genest - Marilyn Gladu Joins Liberals and Conservatives Should Worry More

00:00:00.000 This is wild breaking news in Canadian politics. So a Conservative Member of Parliament, Marilyn

00:00:04.600 Gladue, has crossed the floor and joined the Liberals. That makes her the fifth Member of

00:00:09.820 Parliament to do this. And honestly, she's not who you expect. Gladue has been known as one of the

00:00:15.900 more socially Conservative MPs in the Conservative Party, and she represents a riding in Ontario

00:00:21.920 that is consistently very Conservative. So at first glance, this move doesn't really add up

00:00:28.640 at all. If you look at her track record, it leans pretty clearly in that direction. She opposed

00:00:34.400 marijuana legalization, supported using military to deal with pipeline protests, backed alternative

00:00:40.740 covid treatments, and voted against Bill C-6, which aimed to ban conversion therapy. And her

00:00:47.460 writing? Well, the liberals haven't done well there for a very long time. They've been stuck

00:00:52.000 in third place pretty much every single election, 2011, 2015, 2019, 2021, and only got to second

00:00:59.200 place in 2025. The best they've ever done was about 38% back in 2004. So why make this move?

00:01:06.640 What explains Gladue's decision? Well, sources from her own writing suggest this isn't as shocking

00:01:12.500 as it looks. Apparently, she's always been kind of a fiscal liberal and also a social conservative,

00:01:18.220 but since the conservatives don't really push social issues anyway, that side of things was

00:01:24.380 not really going anywhere. And on top of that, she's not running again, and she has already

00:01:28.420 moved out of her riding. So if you're in her position, you might look at it like there's

00:01:33.580 not really a big difference between the Carney liberals and the Polyev conservatives right now,

00:01:38.520 so why sit in the opposition with no influence when you can be a part of the government?

00:01:42.520 But zooming out, this is a bigger problem for the conservatives.

00:01:46.900 If Polyev's MPs are defecting because his party fails to be socially conservative,

00:01:51.520 it's not just more bad media cycles, it is a serious long-term issue for the party.

Max Genest - April 08, 2026