Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to his supporters after losing the Canadian Federal Election on April 29, 2025 in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is criticizing Tory MP Marilyn Gladu’s decision to cross the floor to join the Liberal Party, saying she should call a byelection to let her constituents decide which party will represent them.
Reacting to Gladu’s decision on social media, Poilievre said Prime Minister Mark Carney is “seizing a costly Liberal majority that voters denied him” by making “backroom deals” with MPs from other parties.
Poilievre noted that Gladu had said in January that MPs who crossed the floor should face their constituents in a byelection to give voters the final say. “I could not agree more. She should do so,” Poilievre said on April 8.
“The people in her community voted for our Conservative vision of a Canada that is affordable, safe, and strong at home, not for the costly Liberal government she has now joined,” he added.
Conservative whip Chris Warkentin also said Gladu should “now show she has the courage of her convictions” and resign her seat to allow for a byelection.
“Let the good people of Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong decide which person and party represents the best interests of their communities,” Warkentin said in an April 8 statement.
Gladu announced earlier in the day that she was joining the Liberal Party because her constituents wanted “serious leadership and a real plan to build a stronger and more independent Canadian economy.”
Gladu, who was first elected as a Conservative MP in 2015 and won re-election three times, said the Liberals were offering the opportunity to “build our country’s strength and success with a more constructive, collaborative approach.”
In January, Gladu said she was in favour of automatic byelections when an MP crosses the floor to another party. Gladu said given that MPs are elected to represent their constituents, if they decide to switch parties, it “just seems to me to not be representing what you’re supposed to be there to represent.”
Gladu’s decision to cross the floor has put the Liberal Party within one seat of a majority government, as it currently holds 171 seats in Parliament. In addition to Gladu, three Conservative MPs and one NDP MP have defected 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 announced she was joining the Liberals on March 10.
The Liberals lost three seats this year after MPs Chrystia Freeland and Bill Blair announced they were resigning. In addition, the Supreme Court nullified the results of the election in the federal riding of Terrebonne, Que., leading to Liberal MP Tatiana Auguste losing her seat.
Byelections for those three ridings will be held April 13. The Liberals only need to win one riding to obtain a majority. Polling from the 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.