Mark Carney's Liberal tent is getting surprisingly big

During his legal brief and ill-fated clip as leader of the progressive company, Michael Ignatieff invited Canadians to get together him inside the "big red tent."

This appeal obviously did not work out for Ignatieff. But perhaps he was merely ahead of his time.

Fifteen years after Ignatieff's time as Liberal leader came to a sudden end, Mark Carney is exploring just how big of a tent the Liberal Party can build.

In the past several months, Carney's Liberals have gained a remarkable five MPs who chose to cross the floor from other parties. That quintet includes an MP who was elected three times as a Conservative in Nova Scotia (Chris d'Entremont), an MP who was elected four times as a Conservative in Edmonton (Matt Jeneroux) and an MP who was elected twice as a New Democrat in Nunavut (Lori Idlout).

Very soon they may be joined by Doly Begum, the Liberal candidate in the Scarborough Southwest byelection, who was until recently a deputy leader of the Ontario NDP.

And if or when Begum makes it to Ottawa, she will find that the Liberal caucus includes, somewhat surprisingly, Marilyn Gladu.

"This all comes at a time when the country as a whole is uniting — uniting to move forward. And it's important that over there we unite to move forward as well," Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, gesturing toward Parliament Hill. 

The MP for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong likely would not have made anyone's list of MPs most likely to cross the floor to the Liberal Party — or a list of Conservative MPs who would naturally fit within a Liberal caucus.

In 2016, Gladu was voted "most collegial" MP in a survey of her colleagues. But in the years since she has made headlines for different reasons.

She was elected four times as a Conservative and briefly ran for the party leadership in 2020. In April of that year she promoted an unproven treatment for COVID-19 and questioned the public health response to the pandemic. In 2021 she was criticized by the then leader of the Conservative Party — Erin O'Toole — for saying COVID-19 was less of a threat than polio (Gladu apologized for her comments).

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In June 2021, Gladu voted against Liberal legislation that sought to ban conversion therapy. At the time, Gladu said she opposed the practice, but believed the wording of the legislation was too broad. (In a 2020 interview, she said "it's important that every part of the community is made to feel loved and accepted" and that she'd be willing to march in a Pride parade.)

It was also just three months ago that Gladu said any MP looking to switch parties should have to run in a byelection before doing so — a fact that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pointed to on Wednesday while criticizing her move.

Apparently none of that was a dealbreaker — either for Carney or Gladu. 

For Poilievre, the obvious question is why MPs keep leaving the caucus he leads — and perhaps how many more will go.

For Carney, there is perhaps some question of whether it is possible to build too big of a tent. 

As a simple matter of mathematics, the Liberals now have 171 seats in the House of Commons. If they win two of three byelections next week, they will get to 173, which would be enough to survive any confidence votes and allow the Liberals to gain a majority on House committees.

A majority in the House may be of such value that it doesn't matter as much how one gets there. And if an MP shows up at your caucus door and wants to join, perhaps you'd be foolish to turn them away (outside of some truly extreme cases).

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But could it become hard — either now or eventually — for Carney to keep his caucus united? Could some traditional Liberal supporters be turned off by the welcoming of someone with Gladu's track record?

The NDP, for one, leapt on Gladu's record to say that there were now two conservative parties in Parliament.

Prior to Justin Trudeau's leadership, it was not unusual for the Liberal caucus to have members who held socially conservative views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. The breadth of additions to Carney's caucus may have something in common with that previous Liberal era.

Gladu will no doubt be asked at some point to account for her own views and stances. And Carney may hope that differences of opinion can be minimized — at least publicly. But the prime minister will be poked and prodded now to explain his values.

The notion of pitching a big tent no doubt has some appeal (even if it didn't work out for Ignatieff). And getting people into the tent is an achievement. But keeping everyone inside the tent might be the next challenge.

Senior writer

Aaron Wherry has covered Parliament Hill since 2007 and has written for Maclean's, the National Post and the Globe and Mail. He is the author of Promise & Peril, a book about Justin Trudeau's years in power.

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