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Or sign-in if you have an account.Member of Parliament Marilyn Gladu speaks for the first time as a Liberal during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa April 15, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable /PostmediaOTTAWA — Marilyn Gladu was planning to leave politics when she says a conversation with Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon changed her mind.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorGladu had a few offers lined up as she contemplated exiting her role as a Conservative MP, one she had held since 2015, and was pondering a return to engineering, a field she had spent years working in before entering politics.“I was not really enjoying being on the Opposition benches, asking the food pricing question again and again and again, and not really being free to speak to the media, do meaningful roles,” Gladu recounted in a video published on Friday.That conversation, a 45-minute sit-down with a community podcaster from her riding of Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, offered Gladu’s most detailed account yet of her decision to defect to the Liberals and her experience inside the Conservative caucus. “I was ready to leave the Conservative party, because, like I said, it was a very toxic environment, I found,” Gladu said.Poilievre’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment. A spokesman in Gladu’s office also declined any further comment.The MP recounts in the video how she never dreamed that the Liberals, a government that she admits she has said “terrible things about” for the past decade would ever take her — until she had a conversation with Solomon.As the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, a region Gladu represents, she says she had approached Solomon on a “begging mission” to restore funding that she says had been cut in her riding.“And he said sure, ‘When are you coming over,'” recalled Gladu.“And I looked at him, and I laughed. I said, ‘Well, I didn’t get a call, and I don’t expect I will.'”That’s when she says Solomon asked: “Would you like a call?”“I said, ‘Well, I think that would be a discussion worth having.'”That conversation in West Block set into motion a series of events that culminated on April 8 when Gladu stunned the Conservative caucus and many others on Parliament Hill with her decision to defect to the Liberals, a move that inched Carney’s party even closer to securing a majority government, which it ultimately did after winning a trio of byelections days later.Gladu was the fifth MP to defect to the Liberals and the fourth from the Conservatives, with Lori Idlout arriving from the New Democrats.When it came time to announce her decision, Solomon was in the room as Carney welcomed her to the team.As for the private conversation she had with the prime minister, Gladu recalled in Friday’s video how she had been upfront about her past criticisms.“I said, ‘Well, thank you for the meeting, but I’ve said awful things about you and the party for the last 10 years, and I can’t really fix that,'” she says she told Carney.“He was super gracious. He looked at me, and he said, ‘You know what, I’m not interested in the past, I’m interested in moving forward.'”She says Carney citied her background in business and engineering as being well-suited to address the challenges of the present day and, according to Gladu, told her: ‘”Everybody in the Liberal caucus loves you.'”That’s when she responded. “I said, ‘Well, not everybody.'”Later in the conversation, Gladu offered up the two names she says told the prime minister might have opinions about her joining: Government Whip Mark Gerretsen and Quebec Liberal MP and former Trudeau-era environment minister Steven Guilbeault. When she mentioned Guilbeault, Carney asked her to elaborate.“I said, ‘Well, I did call him a convicted felon several times in the House of Commons’, and that made him laugh,” Gladu said of the prime minister.Gladu said Guilbeault’s scaling of the CN Tower back in 2001 when he was a Greenpeace activist later came up between the pair during a committee meeting, which she admits started with silence between them.That changed after Gladu says some Conservative MPs began making comments about the guts Guilbeault showed to criticize Carney’s approach to climate policy in a recent opinion piece he had penned.“He said to me, ‘I don’t think I’m ballsy.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? Did you not climb the CN Tower?'”She said Guilbeault laughed and said, ‘Yeah, but I was younger then.'”When it came to Gerretsen, Gladu said she figured he would “probably give me the smallest desk in the smallest closet he can find,” as seating assignments in the House of Commons fall to the party whip.Ultimately, she said, that never happened. “He gave me a very nice office.”As for other topics she says she covered with Carney, Gladu says they discussed the government bills that she took issue with, including Bill C-9, the Liberals’ anti-hate legislation that she voiced concerns over for the removal of an exemption for religious speech. Gladu says she also addressed the Liberals’ ban on hundreds of makes and models of firearms.“He seemed to think my ideas were very creative and interesting, and so you know, I’m moving forward and bringing that conservative voice into the (Liberal) tent.”She says they also discussed what portfolios she was interested in, with Gladu now sitting as a Liberal MP on the parliamentary committees for justice and the status of women.Gladu served as chair of the status of women committee when she was a Conservative and defecting to the Liberals cost her that position, along with what the MP says was a $14,000 stipend for the role.While Gladu says she has felt welcomed among Liberal MPs, she says she and her staff have endured threats and harassment that at one point required her constituency office to close for several days because of vandalism.The reaction among her former Conservative colleagues has been split, she said.She said around half have offered comments suggesting they understand her decision, while others, as she put it, “are firebombing me.”The MP said she never felt “rewarded with any kind of a role” from Poilievre after having served as one of his co-chairs in Ontario during his 2022 leadership.She also described hearing from constituents once MPs began crossing the floor about how much they liked Carney over Poilievre. Since last summer, Gladu added that she also heard from Conservatives said “we don’t think Pierre can win” and “that there’s nobody coming behind him.”She also said she gave what she thought “was a reasonable plan” to Poilievre for how he might deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that involved leveraging Ontario MP Jamil Jivani’s relationship with Vice-President JD Vance and other advice to the Conservatives in the lead up to the last election, as navigating the Canada-U.S. relationship was shaping up to be the central ballot question. “They decided that this was not the direction,” Gladu said.Poilievre has publicly stated that he plans to remain as leader, citing the 87 per cent vote he received at his leadership review in January and gains made during the 2025 election.Successive public opinion polling suggest Poilievre’s Conservatives to be trailing Carney’s Liberals by a roughly 10-point lead, with the government enjoying high approval ratings.After crossing the floor, Poilievre has said Gladu ought to resign and seek a new seat.In Friday’s video, the Liberal MP shot back at her former leader.“I mean he can say ‘she has to look in the eyes of her constituents.’ Well, what about the constituents of Battle River—Crowfoot that elected Damien Kurek, and weeks later all of a sudden he gives up his seat,” Gladu said, referring to how Kurek stepped aside to allow Poilievre to run in a byelection after losing his seat in last election.“I think we all have to look in the eyes of our constituents, but we all have to look in the mirror too.”National PostOur website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. 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