Poilievre comes out swinging in defence of his leadership after fourth defection

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre offered a defiant defence of his leadership of his party on Thursday, one day after losing a fourth MP to the Liberals in almost as many months. 

Marilyn Gladu’s stunning defection to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals has raised fresh questions about his grip on the Conservative caucus and suggestions that his leadership has been weakened in the wake of another MP leaving the party’s ranks.

Speaking in Richmond B.C., Poilievre dismissed any notion that the latest turn of events warrants reflection on his future.

“That reflection comes from the record-smashing 8.3 million Canadians who voted Conservative in the last election, and the 87 per cent of grassroots Conservatives who backed up my leadership less than 90 days ago to fight for an affordable, safe and strong Canada,” he told reporters.

“Our mandate and my leadership does not come from dirty backroom deals. It comes from the people of Canada.”

Amid swirling speculation that more Conservative MPs could leave the party’s ranks, Poilievre slammed the act of floor-crossing as betraying the will of voters, adding that he believed constituents of representatives who do so ought to be able to petition for a byelection .

That’s what voters in Gladu’s riding of Sarnia —Lambton—Bkejwanong ought to be able to do, he said. 

Poilievre also suggested his former MP had him to thank for her success in the last election, where she captured slightly more than 50 per cent of the vote, compared to the Liberal candidate, who garnered almost 40 per cent.

“In fact, and if I can be blunt, under my leadership, she had a massive increase in the Conservative vote in her riding.”

Dan Robertson, who during the party’s 2021 federal election campaign worked as its chief strategist, said a fourth defection undoubtably weakens Poilievre. 

“That can’t be hand-waved away,” he said.

He says the number of exits were reaching the point where questions needed to be asked regarding leadership, not the motives of the MPs who had left.

“You can dismiss one or two, but it’s much harder to dismiss, you know, four or five and possibly more.”

Gladu told the Sarnia Observer that she had been thinking about the move since last summer and characterized her decision as reflecting the feedback she says she has received from constituents who approve of Carney’s government, even among Conservatives.

She outlined to the newspaper how she hoped the move would lead to more government spending in the riding, saying she had observed through her more than decade in Parliament that those on the “g overnment benches tend to get more for their ridings and their projects.”

Chris d’Entremont, Michael Ma and Matt Jeneroux, the three former Conservative MPs who individually joined the Liberals in the past six months all pointed to Carney’s leadership and focus on the economy and getting more major infrastructure projects as reasons why they joined his caucus. Nunavut MP Lori Idlout also left the New Democrats for the Liberals back in March.

d’Entremont also told CTV News on Wednesday that he has “absolutely” fielded questions from some his former caucus colleagues who are “unhappy.”

Ginny Roth, who served as Poilievre’s communications director during his 2022 leadership campaign, suggested Gladu’s defection does not change much and chalked up concerns being expressed within Poilievre’s caucus, including by MPs who may worry about losing their seats as the Conservatives trail Carney’s Liberals in the recent public opinion polls, as “still just grumbling.”

“The circumstances right now are challenging for Conservatives. They would be under any leader, and there’s no other leader I can think of who would do a better job,” she said.

“And I think when push comes to shove, if you press the complainers on that, they have yet to mount any strong argument for an alternative leader or an alternative path.”

Not only would overriding the vote of confidence party members cast for Poilievre back in January raise concerns, Roth said Poilievre stands as the leader who can speak to the range of voters within the Conservative voter coalition, from Western Canada and those who are more right-wing, to fiscal and social conservatives.

If Poilievre plans on using the current defection to look inward, he is showing no signs of doing so, at least publicly.

Dimitri Soudas, who worked as a communications director for former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, said that Poilievre in his remarks on Thursday appeared “calm, cool, collected and tone deaf.”

“He does not acknowledge the fact that he’s now lost four caucus members in six months, and the last one, albeit the fourth one, was also a true blue Conservative,” he said of Gladu.

Besides factors like the fact that the party is trailing Carney’s Liberals by double digits from before the 2025 election, where they had a massive lead in the polls over former prime minister Justin Trudeau before his exit, he said “caucus hemorrhaging is obviously a serious warning sign.”

He pointed to the recent email Poilievre’s policy director sent to parliamentary critics last week ahead of a potential shuffle asking to show the work they had done in their roles and to advise if they do not wish to continue in them, which was first reported by the Toronto Star.

“Don’t you pick up the phone, call your shadow cabinet members, check in how things are going?” Soudas said.

Robertson says as party leader, Poilievre has two roles to fill: leading the national party and its parliamentary caucus.

While he enjoys overwhelmingly support among its grassroots, that support must also come from his MPs.

“I do know that there’s been no caucus leader in my lifetime who survived the loss of even a fraction, the confidence of even a fraction of caucus.”

National Post

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