By David Ljunggren and Maria Cheng
OTTAWA, April 8 (Reuters) – A Canadian opposition legislator defected to the ruling Liberal Party on Wednesday, leaving Prime Minister Mark Carney on the verge of a parliamentary majority that would make it easier to push through his agenda.
The centrist Liberals, governing with a minority after the April 2025 election, need opposition support to pass key legislation. Carney says he needs a majority to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade measures.
The prime minister welcomed the defection by Marilyn Gladu – a longstanding member of the right-leaning Conservatives – saying it would help the government at a time of global uncertainty.
FOURTH CONSERVATIVE DEFECTION
Gladu is the fourth Conservative legislator to defect to the Liberals since November. A member of the small left-leaning New Democratic Party joined the Liberals last month.
“We need a global leader with a plan to make a more resilient Canada, a stronger Canada, a more self-reliant Canada for this critical moment and that man is our Prime Minister Mark Carney,” Gladu said during a meeting with Carney.
The Liberals now have 171 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons, one short of a majority, and look set to gain at least two more in special elections due to be held on Monday to fill vacant seats.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accused Carney of “seizing a costly Liberal majority that voters denied him, and doing so through backroom deals.” He said in a statement that Gladu should step down and face voters in a special election.
Only the governments led by John A. Macdonald and Jean Chretien have seen more politicians defect to the ruling party, including five legislators who joined Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, in a single day in 1869.
Semra Sevi, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said the number of defections to Carney’s government was “extraordinary by any historical measure.”
“Switching in the 19th century occurred in a system where party labels barely registered with voters,” Sevi said in an email. In the modern era, she said the number of politicians from opposition parties who have now jumped to Carney’s government “is without precedent at this rate and in this compressed a timeframe.”
A majority would open the way to Carney serving until October 2029.
According to Nanos polling from late last month, Carney was the preferred prime minister of 54.5% of Canadians, with Poilievre scoring 22.9%. Carney has said he has no plans to call an early election.
The latest defection will put more pressure on Poilievre, who survived a leadership review in January after he blew a large lead and lost the 2025 election. The party was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Maria Cheng, Paul Simao, Rod Nickel)
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