Gladu, PM Carney step in front of the cameras after Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejewanong MP becomes a Liberal member

Heather Wright/The Independent

Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong MP Marilyn Gladu says she can do more inside of government than she can from the Conservative benches.

Gladu’s floor crossing to the Liberal government was announced just before 11 am Wednesday.

The MP has been elected as a Conservative MP four times, most recently in 2025, the election which brought the Liberals back to life under the leadership of Mark Carney. She took 53.4 per cent of the vote in the April election which led to a minority government with 170 seats.

Just after the announcement that Gladu was switching parties, she, the Prime Minister and Minister for AI and Digital Innovation, Evan Soloman, spoke briefly to CPAC, where Gladu praised the direction Carney is taking the country.

“The big things that he is driving – nation building projects, diversifying our trade, bolstering our defense, plans to address criminality and build more homes – these are all the things that Canadians want. These are actually the things that the people of Sarnia and Lambton want,” she said adding Carney is the right Prime Minister for the times.

“We need a serious leader who can address the uncertainty that has arrived due to the unjustified American terrorist. We need a global leader with a plan to make a more resilient Canada, a stronger Canada, more self reliant Canada for this critical moment.”

Gladu added the Prime Minister has “invited me to bring my experience, my talents and my views into the large liberal tent, and I think that will have a better effect inside than it will outside.”

Carney praised Gladu’s “tremendous experience in business as an engineer, international business experience” and called her “one of the most collaborative Members of Parliament, working across party lines on important issues and and really dedicated to her electors in Sarnia-Lambton-Bkjewanong, which I am informed rightly,means where the waters meet, and the waters, in my analogy, are meeting in service of Canadians at this crucial time for our country.”