EDITORS’ NOTE: This article was editted May 20 to correct the name of the Conservative Co-Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman.

Blake Ellis/Local Journalism Initiative

Lianne Rood says sitting Conservative MPs will give a voice to Sarnia-Lambton Conservatives abandoned by their MP.

Hundreds of people from Sarnia and Lambton County and the surrounding region packed into the exhibition hall at the Plympton-Wyoming Fairgrounds Tuesday night for a campaign-style rally featuring Rood, the MP for Middlesex-London, Conservative Co-Deputy Leader Mellisa Melissa Lantsman, Chatham-Kent Leamington MP Dave Epp, London-Middlesex MP Kurt Holman and Elgin-St. Thomas MP Andrew Lawton.

The Conservative stallwarts decried the April 8 defection of Marilyn Gladu who was elected four times as a Conservative MP in Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong before she joined the Liberal government.

At the time, Gladu said “I’ve done my best in 10 years in opposition, but it’s not the same as when you’re on the government benches and the kind of support you can get.”

The MP said the idea to cross the floor sprouted in the summer as her local supporters started talking to her about Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“People like Mark Carney – huge favourability for him, 68 per cent I think, is where he’s at – and people who were long-term Conservatives (were) saying, ‘Look, we just don’t think Pierre can win. We don’t think he’s the leader we need. We think it’s Mark Carney. Why don’t you cross the floor?’”

When she did, it unleashed an avalanche of criticism, particularly since the MP had only months earlier suggested people who crossed the floor to join the government should face a by-election. Her comments came in response to questions about a petition from Rood about the practice.

“We’re here because you don’t have a voice anymore,” said Rood as she and the other Conservative MPs stood in the centre of the crowd.

Most of the discussion centred around Gladu’s defection with one person suggesting she should be held criminally responsible for her actions.

Gladu’s switch was deeply personal for many in the crowd, with some saying April 8 was one of the worst days in their life. Some, who had voted for Gladu, expressed shock that the person they supported would become a Liberal.

One single mother told the crowd she voted for Gladu based on Conservative policy and she felt like she had been “punched in the gut” when she heard the MP had joined the Mark Carney government.

The evening was moderated by Ryan Davies, a right-wing podcaster from Northern Perspective. He suggested Gladu’s former constituents should practice persistence, writing her three times a week to let her know how disappointed they were with her change of heart.