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Saturday, May 09, 2026

Links - 9th May 2026 (2 - Canadian Politics [including Floor Crossing])

Just one-in-four say Canadian MPs who cross the floor should be allowed to finish term with new party - "NDP interim leader Don Davies said his party believes floor crossers like Idlout should have to “put that decision to the voters”, and most Canadians appear to agree... More (41%) prefer that if an MP wanted to cross the floor, they should have to step down and re-contest their seat in a byelection. One-in-five (22%) say they should have to serve as an independent until the next election and one-in-ten (11%) believe they should have to vacate their seat."

Stephen Maher on X - "Everyone complaining about Carney getting a majority through floor crossers is wasting their time. It's how our system works."
Jasmin Laine on X - "Actually, canada has never in our history had a majority government we didn’t vote for and the powers that grants through floor crossers.   But, as with many other systems in this country—many of which may have been created in good faith, are riddled with failure and abuses by bad actors—when people can take advantage of them without any penalty (because that’s just how the system works), they will.   It’s rather telling to witness a Prime Minister of all people, abuse the system for his own gain.   That shows us a lot about him and his respect for us as a country, the tax payer, and his intent."

Ryan Williams Bay of Quinte | Facebook - "Enough is enough. Should floor crossers face their electorate? I can’t get over this one. The others, you could at least see it coming. Matt Jeneroux… not exactly known for grinding it out. Chris d’Entremont… always a bit of a centrist read. But Marilyn Gladu? She was as conservative as they come. Chair of the Freedom Caucus. Outspoken on COVID policy. Ran for leader. Built her brand on being unapologetically Conservative. And she didn’t just believe that, She said it clearly in an op-ed just in January:  If you cross the floor you should face your voters in a by-election.

Let’s be honest about something most people don’t know: If she had an issue with Pierre Poilievre… the Conservatives are the only party where 25% of caucus can trigger a leadership review. You don’t like the direction? You fight it internally. You organize. You challenge. Crossing the floor isn’t step one it’s the last resort.

And that’s what makes this different. This is a full reversal… overnight. From calling out Liberals on immigration, Charter rights, and government overreach… To joining them. And why? We may never know

Meanwhile, the Liberals under Mark Carney will take it. Of course they will. Every seat gets them closer to a majority. But when a party can absorb someone who argued the exact opposite weeks ago… you have to ask: What are the Liberals principles?  And what are the principles of the traitors who join them?"
PP passed the leadership review with 82% approval, but left wingers are pretending that all the floor crossing shows that his MPs hate him

Sukhman Gill on X - "Check out this interview where Marilyn Gladu tries to explain why she betrayed the over 40,000 Conservative voters in her riding. She reveals something pretty damning: this Liberal government will only help Liberal ridings.  Marilyn, your voters should not be seen as less because they are Conservative. Why do they deserve less, and why are you okay with joining a leader who sees them that way?  Carney promised to “work for all Canadians,” and clearly he has broken that promise. Only Conservatives will fight for all Canadians!"
Dean Skoreyko on X - "Gladu admits Carney refused to send money to a Conservative held riding until she crossed the floor. Which is highly illegal."

The odd floor-crossing is one thing, but on this scale it undermines our system of government - The Globe and Mail - "Seeking to explain just where the Liberals draw the line on accepting members of other parties into their midst, House Leader Steven MacKinnon said the party would “keep a light on and a door open for all of those who want to support Liberal Party principles,” which he described as “immutable.”  And of course, he’s right. Liberal policies may come and go – see carbon pricing, immigration, defence spending, from a long list – but Liberal principles are as constant as the North Star. There’s only one. It is this: whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to get and stay in power. What. Ever.  We are now seeing that principle in action. The party has succeeded in luring not one, not two, but five opposition MPs to cross the floor, from two parties, in five months. The last of these, Marilyn Gladu, has established herself, in a decade in politics, as being not only well to the right of the Liberals but to the right of the Conservatives, at odds with the government on everything from abortion to vaccine mandates to, well, floor-crossing.  And that is why the Liberals now have a majority in the House of Commons. It wasn’t the by-elections. They merely confirmed the Liberals in seats they already held. It was the tide of defections: enough, for the first time in Canadian history, to catapult a party from minority to majority status. With, we are told, more to come.  What’s troubling about this isn’t what it tells us about the Liberals, or the motley collection of mutually hostile ideologues now sharing space on the government benches. (There are big tents, and then there’s just a circus.) Neither is there anything objectionable, in principle, with an MP leaving one party for another, if he or she genuinely feels more aligned with the latter party than the one whose banner they were elected under not 12 months ago... Still, this is getting ridiculous. A few more of these and we are edging into Italian territory. Floor-crossing is so endemic in the Italian parliament it even has a name: trasformismo. Recent parliaments have seen as many as a quarter to a third of the legislators switch parties, often in pursuit of office of some kind.  Is that why all of these opposition MPs have separately and simultaneously decided to join the Liberal party? Were they offered some sort of quid pro quo, a perq, a committee assignment, even a cabinet post? Maybe, maybe not. Even if they are eventually given some reward, it’s difficult to prove they were offered it in advance. But that’s not the point: the public should not be put in the position of having to wonder if their MP is on the take. Worse still is the reason offered by Ms. Gladu, who told reporters that government ridings tended to get more “support,” meaning government spending. Again, whether that’s true or not, to offer that as justification for crossing from opposition to government – I mean, if that’s your argument, why have an opposition at all?  This sort of thinking is insidious. You hear too many journalists sympathetically clucking at the fate of the Conservative MP, “stuck in opposition” for three more years – as if the only point of being an MP was to be on the government side.  Really? It’s not enough to hold government to account, to expose wrongdoing by those in office, to demand ministers answer for mistakes by their departments, to critique government policies and offer alternatives? As opposed to government-side MPs, whose role, no matter who is in power, is to wave through whatever the prime minister proposes and cover up for government mistakes and malfeasance.  It wasn’t always thus. The notion that MPs on the government benches, no less than those in opposition, were supposed to be watchdogs on the government, was once taken seriously in this country – so seriously, that whenever an MP was appointed to cabinet he was obliged to resign his seat and run in a by-election. After all, his job had changed: now he was part of the government. The least he could do was ask his constituents’ permission. Seems like the least an MP crossing from opposition to government could do."

Why the Liberals may pay a price for the party's increasingly big tent - "the critics of the Liberals’ ideological flexibility, like the poaching targets, are also on the left.  Avi Lewis, the New Democatic Party’s new leader, said Liberals’ ideological malleability has reached a new level, particularly with the addition of Gladu, who he says has taken positions from the “furthest reaches” of the social conservative wing of the Tory party.  “If Marilyn Gladu is a Liberal, what does being a Liberal mean?” asked Lewis. “At what point does a tent get so big that the fabric is stretched beyond recognition?”  Lewis has also said out in recent days that the Liberals’ attempts to secure a majority through floor-crossings are undemocratic and disrespectful to voters. If an MP wants to cross the floor, Lewis said, he or she should resign and face voters in a byelection.  The Liberals’ big-tent flexibility has never been more stark. Beyond the poaching MPs from the left and right, the party is still benefitting from making a dramatic shift early last year in its leadership, from the uber-progressive Trudeau to Carney, widely seen as a business-oriented Liberal.  With the exception of former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who resigned from cabinet late last year after Carney struck a deal with Alberta to support a new pipeline, none of the more than 100 Liberal MPs in the current caucus who were also part of the Trudeau government seemed to have expressed any reservations over the massive agenda shift.   The Liberals’ ability to shapeshift with the times is the source of much dispute, and sometimes derision, around Parliament Hill. Partisan Liberals view it as a strength, giving the party the breadth and agility to respond to the issues of the day and Canadians’ changing needs.  Party officials tend to believe they’re attracting new supporters because they’re doing a good job and reflecting Canadians’ views. They also argue that Liberals, one of the democratic world’s most electorally successful political parties over the last century or so, are pragmatic and less beholden to any ideological position, unlike their rivals on the left and right.  Carney himself is also a prime example — perhaps even the personification — of this flexibility...   Just four years before becoming prime minister, Carney wrote a book that emphasized how markets sometimes fail, notably when it comes to the environment. After gaining power, one of his first moves was to cancel the consumer carbon tax, a signature piece of legislation from Justin Trudeau’s green emphasis.  The Carney mantra was clear: Big, flexible tents are better.  The Liberals’ opponents, however, tend to roll their eyes at such claims about the advantages of flexibility, saying there’s only one thing that binds Liberals together: the pursuit of power...   André Lecours, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, said the risk to the Liberals will be minimized if the government continues to focus largely on issues such as economic restructuring that are unlikely to expose rifts within their big tent."
Damn conservative sore losers!
Demonising the US is an easy way to unite left wing and many non left wing Canadians, but what happens after Trump leaves?

Canada told mentally ill must be euthanized lest they kill themselves - "The Liberals have just added a fifth floor-crosser to their caucus, and the fourth Conservative overall. On Tuesday, Marilyn Gladu, the four-time MP for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong, announced she was now a Liberal. All of the other four joined the Liberals despite multiple public statements denouncing the Liberal record. Just 23 days before becoming a Liberal, for instance, Michael Ma delivered a speech in the House of Commons denouncing the party as valuing “common criminals” over regular Canadians. “Fairness for the thief, the murderer and the drug dealer, and firmness for the honest citizen and the compliant taxpayer,” he said. But with Gladu, the phenomenon becomes downright surreal. Gladu was one of the most right-wing members of the Conservative caucus, including being an open supporter of Freedom Convoy. Just two weeks ago, Gladu was admonishing Green Party Elizabeth May for suggesting that the Liberals were not anti-religionists. “Is (May) aware that there are current Liberal MPs sitting on the benches who think I should be in prison for quoting scriptures as a youth leader,” said Gladu in reference to Bill C-9, the Liberal bill which critics say could criminalize the quotation of “hateful” Bible passages. Most surreal of all, it’s been just two months since Gladu was publicly denouncing the other Conservative floor-crossers. In January, she sponsored a House of Commons petition demanding that any floor-crossing trigger an immediate byelection. “Really, the whole point of being an MP is to represent your constituents. So, if they’re voting you in under one platform, for you to switch for whatever reasons, just seems to me to not be representing what you’re supposed to be there to represent,” Gladu told local media at the time. That same month, when Conservative MP Amarjeet Gill publicly revealed that he had rejected an offer to join the Liberals, Gladu issued a social media post in support that said, “Thank you for being true to the voters who elected you!!” As to what prompted Gladu to reverse all of this, her official statement doesn’t provide many clues. Like all the other floor-crossers, there’s no specific issue listed. Rather, Gladu says she’s merely fulfilling her constituents’ demands for a “stronger and more independent Canadian economy.”"

Chris Selley: Gladu’s defection is the new vanguard of cynicism - "It makes you, and will make the Ottawa Press Gallery, wonder: What does Carney need to accomplish in the House of Commons that he can’t now that would justify bringing an arch-conservative on board? She stands for pretty much everything the Liberals have self-righteously run against for decades. In 2016, she voted for a bill that would have made it a criminal offence to “injure or cause the death of a preborn child while committing an offence.” That’s not a crazy idea. But every Liberal MP voted against it. In 2021 she voted for a private member’s bill that would have outlawed sex-selective abortion. That’s also not a crazy idea. Every Liberal MP voted against it. Also in 2021, she voted against Bill C-6, the first attempt to ban ( though it wouldn’t really have banned ) so-called “conversion therapy.” Every Liberal MP voted for it. In 2023 she voted for a private member’s bill that would have explicitly established the pregnancy of an assault victim as an aggravating circumstance on sentencing. Again: Not crazy. Every Liberal MP voted against it. During the pandemic, Gladu went on CTV News with her future caucus-mate Evan Solomon — who welcomed her to the family on social media Wednesday afternoon — and flapped her gums about the relative risks of polio and COVID-19 and criticized vaccine mandates. It was not at all to leader Erin O’Toole’s liking. She later apologized for spreading “misinformation about the severity of COVID-19 and the safety and efficacy of vaccines.” And her trailer was firmly hitched to the Freedom Convoy crowd’s cab during the Ottawa protest. “Let those freedom truckers roll 10-4. Standing up for freedom!” Gladu posted on social media on Jan. 22, 2022. As forgiving of Liberal prime ministers as some of the Ottawa Press Gallery can often seem to be, they’re not going to let this one go. Gladu ticks all the “problematic Conservative” boxes — abortion, the convoy, pandemic lockdowns and vaccines. Also, guns. On Jan. 28, which was all of 10 weeks ago, Gladu congratulated the Sarnia Police Service for refusing to participate in the Liberals’ gun “buyback” program, accurately describing it as a “federal government overreach that will do NOTHING to stop gun crime.” She now lives under the same tent as Nathalie Provost, the École Polytechnique survivor, gun-control activist and MP for Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville. All in all it might be a good thing if someone like Marilyn Gladu could inhabit the Liberal caucus — assuming she’s not just going to fall into line like another drone. It’s a party that believes in nothing but gaining power, and they’re remarkably good at it, so the broader the coalition, the better. But we know Mark Carney doesn’t always respond super-well to tough (or even not-so-tough) questions from journalists, and he’s going to be getting a ton about this stunt over the next few weeks. Unlike the Leafs, the Liberals have a tradition of winning. They’re almost guaranteed to lose Gladu’s riding next time around — it has been a very safe Tory seat for years. The Liberals are famous for their willingness to sacrifice almost literally anything to win or gain a seat, even if it’s not obviously urgent. Even by their standards, though, this is a humdinger."

This is 100% true BTW : r/CanadianConservative - "What people fail to understand about these floor crossings is that the Carney liberals for the 1st time pretty much in Canadian history have admitted to meeting candidates and convincing them to cross the floor. Basically they are asking them what it would take to join their party in secret closed door meetings.  They are actively in talks with numerous MPs trying to convince them to join the liberals.. It's not like these MPs have had falling outs and have decided to cross For example some of these negotiations like the one for D'Entrement have been going on for a year.  They have admitted to this.  It wouldn't matter who was the leader... Convincing Mps to floor cross is part of their strategy.. More people should be outrage at this total lack of respect to the Canadian voter."

Meme - Foreign Policy CAN @CanadaFP: "Dissenting voices disappearing from your feed? It might not be an accident. Some foreign regimes silence critics through takedowns, legal threats and intimidation campaigns. Learn their tactics and #ThinkBeforeYouShare"
Readers added context to this video: "The Canadian government is currently in the process of drafting bill C-9 which would criminalize forms of protected speech and protest."

Dr. Leslyn Lewis on X - "Bill C-9 creates a real possibility that clergy could face prosecution or even prison for quoting Scripture.  Under Bill C-9 a pastor, imam, rabbi, or priest can be investigated or penalized if someone claims that a verse from their Scripture is “hateful” which can lead to imprisonment.  This is not an exaggeration. It is the direct legal effect of deleting the exemption.  A free society should not put clergy at risk for teaching their own faith.   Removing this safeguard crosses a line that Canadians of every belief should be concerned about."

Tamara Jansen | Facebook - "Today in Parliament, something happened that Canadians should pay attention to. The Liberal government voted like this: Stronger bail laws for repeat violent offenders — defeated. Tougher sentences for repeat sexual offenders — defeated. Protections for families of murder victims — defeated. But Bill C-9? Passed. A bill that removes long-standing protections for Canadians to express their faith in good faith. I hear from families all the time who are worried about safety in their communities. They expect their government to focus on protecting them. So it’s fair to ask… are these the right priorities? If this concerns you, take a moment to share this post."

Bill 21: Supreme Court chief justice calls English community's argument 'almost outrageous' - "the federal government’s position on the notwithstanding clause clashes with that of Quebec and some other provinces, which argue that the Constitution deliberately gave legislatures broad leeway to use the clause... Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan stressed that the notwithstanding clause was a key compromise when the Constitution was patriated in 1982, allowing provinces to maintain a role in protecting regional differences. Those now urging the court to place limits on the clause “are asking you to create what they believe should have been agreed upon in 1982,” said Doug Downey, a lawyer for the Ontario government.  “They are advancing an alternative universe of what could have been, but never was.”  He said if Canadians want new restrictions on the clause, that must happen through a formal constitutional amendment, not a court ruling.  Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan say the Supreme Court should not rule on hypothetical charter violations when the clause is invoked.  They say that would put too much power in the hands of judges, when the Constitution leaves the final word to legislatures — and, ultimately, voters."

Attorney General warns Canada faces ‘downfall as a nation’ if rights eroded : r/LawCanada - "I don't think the drafters of the Charter ever envisioned that the notwithstanding clause would be used over pronouns.  I also don't think those same drafters thought the Charter would be used to prevent government from removing shanty towns from public parks but here we are"

CTV News on X - "Sharan Kaur: Why moderates are fleeing the CPC, and what it says about Poilievre"
Alan Fryer 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 on X - "I can’t remember a time with so much critical coverage of the Opposition and so little the actual Government."
Clearly, you need to Trust the Media, which has absolutely no Conflict of Interest. Ootherwise you are going to fall prey to Misinformation

Canada restricts drug boat intel from U.S. navy's Caribbean airstrike operation | CBC News - "The Department of National Defence says it has safeguards in place to prevent intelligence from being shared with elements of the U.S. military that have carried out numerous lethal strikes on small boats in the Caribbean."
As usual, the TDS squad had their cope about a meme promoting this, including claiming this was fake (despite citing this CBC article, with a date)

Jason James on X - "Mass formation psychosis. Manic delusion.
Trump pointed out a number of Canada's obvious failures and made some simple requests:
Close your borders
Secure the Arctic
Crack down on organized crime
Root out corruption
Fund the military
And instead of doing things that would not only benefit the United States, but would also greatly benefit Canada, Canadians soiled themselves at the audacity of an American president requesting we clean up a mess that is clearly visible to anyone watching.  Now 57% of Canadians say they'd prefer Chinese communism to our historic alliance with the United States.  Chinese communism—the version of communism that has killed more people than any other system in human history. 100+ million dead under Mao, millions more since.  The version of communism that runs concentration camps and organ harvesting farms to this very day.  Yes, that communism.  But Canadians don't know that because 57% of us are fucking retarded.  And now that the Canadian death cult is pushing to euthanize the intellectually challenged, these people are going to get exactly what they deserve.  The rest of us are just going to suffer through it all as a consequence."

Nearly 60% of Canadians support becoming a full member of the European Union, poll says - The Globe and Mail - "A Nanos Research survey conducted for The Globe and Mail shows that 57 per cent of respondents would either support (28 per cent) or somewhat support (29 per cent) Canada becoming a full member of the EU... The results follow similar findings from a Spark Advocacy poll conducted in March, suggesting that one in four respondents thought joining the EU would be a good idea, with an additional 58 per cent saying the idea should be considered further... Benefits of joining the EU include economic integration with a large market and subscribing to the union’s human-rights commitments, Prof. Paris said. The poll also found that 84 per cent of respondents believe strengthening economic ties is the best path forward for relations between Canada and the EU... Even if Canada joined the EU, Prof. Paris said it would take at least a decade to bring Canada’s laws and regulations in alignment with Europe’s. In most cases, Canadian laws would also become subordinate to the EU’s under full membership."
Losing sovereignty to the US = bad. Losing sovereignty to the EU = good. But then, Canadians believing destroying the economy to spite the US is a good idea

Convicted Child Sex Offender Organizing Carney Candidate's GTA Campaign — Met Prime Minister and MPs - "Yusuf Ali Talukder, convicted in 2010 of sexually touching a child student, lobbied Carney on making Liberal candidate Doly Begum a cabinet minister at an event featured on CBC News."

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