Big tents beat “purity tests.”

Mark Marissen, your CBC clip spinning Marilyn Gladu’s floor-crossing as “big tent” politics over “purity tests” is textbook Liberal propaganda, pure seat-count arithmetic dressed up as principle while Canadians pay the price for Carney’s minority government clinging to power. This is the fifth MP defection in months, fourth from the Conservatives, bringing Carney’s Liberals to 171 seats, one shy of a majority ahead of next week’s byelections. Gladu, elected in Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong as a Conservative in 2015 and a leadership contender with a record that included voting against the conversion therapy ban and openness to abortion restrictions, didn’t suddenly see the light. She calculated the incentives in a minority Parliament where backroom deals and targeted funding announcements have already lured Chris d’Entremont, Michael Ma, and Matt Jeneroux across the floor. No by-election. No fresh mandate from her constituents. Just transactional politics that bypasses the voters who sent her to Ottawa under a blue banner. Let’s stick to the evidence, not the spin. Under Carney, now a year into this minority after the April 2025 election, Canada’s federal debt has ballooned past 2.35 trillion dollars (roughly 56,000 dollars per man, woman, and child), with deficits doubled and spending at 30-year highs. We’re the only G7 economy shrinking while per-capita GDP declines for the third straight year, unemployment sits at 6.7 percent after 84,000 net private-sector job losses in February alone, and 42.3 percent of the average family’s income still disappears in taxes (Fraser Institute 2025 Canadian Consumer Tax Index). Over 670 billion dollars in resource and energy projects remain stalled under Bill C-69 and net-zero mandates, driving up household energy costs at the exact moment global shocks (Hormuz disruptions, 100-plus dollar oil) hit the pump. Housing shortages, ER waits, and productivity 20-25 percent behind OECD peers aren’t “growing pains”, they’re the measurable results of a decade of Liberal choices that Carney’s technocratic reboot has failed to reverse. If this floor-crossing were really about “big tent” pragmatism and reduced polarization, Gladu and the others would be demanding measurable outcomes: fast-tracked permitting to unlock those 670 billion dollars in projects, real tax relief that drops the 42 percent burden, one law for all under the Charter instead of parallel systems, and energy sovereignty that puts Canadian households and jobs first. Instead, it props up a government whose own fiscal watchdog and Auditor General reports document the same waste, missed targets, and regulatory gridlock that have produced the weakest per-capita growth in modern history. Poilievre’s Conservatives, with 87 percent-plus leadership support and a platform of evidence-based cuts, deregulation, and merit-based immigration, represent the actual alternative Canadians voted for, not this parade of defectors chasing incentives. Canadians aren’t fooled by the “big tent” rhetoric. These crossings are power grabs that undermine democratic accountability. They don’t deliver lower taxes, more homes, or stronger sovereignty, they just delay the reckoning Carney’s record demands. Precision over propaganda. Evidence over excuses. Citizens first. Canada First. Barry E. Sharp @BarryESharp 🇨🇦

Anybody with 2 working braincells can see this is a power grab. Calling it a big tent... Libs got an MP that is far more to the right than Poilievre, and she magically changed her entire politics and is now a lib overnight? Your a joke trying to justify this kind of behavior

What is next, PPC candidates running under Liberal banners?

David Frum says the same @marissenmark Video below

Big tents are used by the circus . You might be alright with her but many of your base aren't . You would have got your majority on Monday without Gladu . This makes no sense . It's poor judgement by Carney . Will she be seated next to Rob Oliphant in the house ?

What's the benefit to having a racist and bigot come under the "big tent?"

When can I get my ivermectin from the big tent...

Is it even a big tent anymore if you let all of the outdoors in?

Ya we’ll have you in our big tent as long as our opinion becomes yours You are that daft

Yes. Thank you @marissenmark for the bluntness. Carney and his vision and agenda are pretty much right smack in the centre of the people of this country. And his “big tent” ⛺️ or “long house” 🏠 stretches across the continent. Open on all sides to those who wish to come in. Ready to work on the peoples’ agenda. Focused, united and at speed.

If every @CPC_HQ MP crossed the floor to @markjcarney, @liberal_Party when would CDN's grocery bills begin drop & CDN's standard of living begin to improve? 👇 I'd call these floor crossing 'theatre. But it's worse than just theatre — It's theatre that consumes the oxygen that should be spent on the actual crisis. Every news cycle devoted to who's crossing the floor is a news cycle not devoted to the fact that CDN GDP per capita has been declining relative to the US for nearly a decade, that food bank usage is at record highs, the Bank of Canada's own senior deputy governor was ringing emergency alarms over declining productivity a year ago & CDA's economy is structurally imploding.👇 Political heads like you ar essentially arguing about seat counts while the house is on fire. There is nothing value added in any of your commentary for struggling CDN's. The brutal reality now for Carney: Owning a stronger parliamentary position means fewer excuses. Minority gov gave him cover — "we can't move fast, we need coalition support," "blah blah blah." That cover is gone. If affordability doesn't materially improve over the next 18-24 months, the floor crossings will look even more cynical in hindsight, b/c he'll have had the numbers to act & blew it. The one thing worth watching that isn't theatre: whether Carney uses the 'majority' to make genuinely hard deregulation, tax and productivity calls — cutting interprovincial trade barriers, housing supply reform, capital investment incentives, 'energy superpower.' Those are real levers. My guess. He'll accelerate pursuit of his #netzero ideological quackery & futher decimate the economy. He can't help himself. But floor crossings themselves? It's like me watching the Mrs. rearrange the living furniture--- except waaaaay more boring. #com #cdnpoli @CPC_HQ @VassyKapelos @acoyne @ctvnews @conservative_bc @robertfife @rupasubramanya #bcpoli #vanpoli

This era of the liberals have never been focused on big issues. And Carney so far (despite talking a good game) seems to flip flop on all issues.

Too bad the government hasn’t focused on the issues that have concerned Canadians for the last decade. Big tent will ruin this country more than it has already. Watching the end of this country in real time.

It's a good point Mark. The CPC could have easily occupied this space but chose to blow off the Red tory portion of their party. Tough to win elections if you are in the single digits in seats from Quebec to Newfoundland.

Couldn’t agree more @marissenmark

Congrats on winning with a party that has no real values.

You guys are so fucking dumb It's hilarious how you always have room in your "big tent" for rightwing lunatics who want to turn our communities into a corporate dystopia, but you never have room for folks who want more public services and democratic control over the economy

Without purity tests, you don't have values or ethics. A party technically means including ideas you do like and excluding ideas, and therefore people, you don't like. That's definitionally what a party is. Name 1 thing, just 1 value, the Liberals stand for. What is a Liberal?

Why do you lie like that? What’s the fucking point just be honest you stupid fuck.

A week ago ypu would have called her a piece of trash that is a right wing nut, now you have a big tent. Fk off you lying power commie Liberal fk.

Perfect put Mark.

Are they really a big tent with voting along party lines being required? He runs a tight ship.

Tents like these serve Bay Street. I feel some more bailouts coming soon.

Bull shit !!! How can anyone support the EVIL Liberial Party that is actively and systematically destroying our country? Shame !!!

You’re a fucking retard, Mark

Big tents are for the circus, clown.

You need to fumigate that tent. It's full of Snakes, Rats, Cockroaches and Bull Shite. The stench is horrendous.

Canadian media talking about traitorous floor crossers.

This woman was a Nazi last week by your standards, today she’s your ally. Maybe look at yourself.

Pierre Poilievre is all about purity tests?! Do these guys even listen to him?

Although I agree with the observation, and perhaps the platform did not allot more context, but it should be highlighted that this ‘polarized’ political element of the past decade does not happen in a vacuum. It was presented that way by you in referring to PP. Fair enough, however this past decade of polorization is 100% a Yin Yang effect of a feeding loop as presented by this chameleon party known as the Liberal Party of Canada. Sure, Carney’s making a shift of 10 years of obvious leftward shift of the Red team. You cannot be complete with your observation without addressing some culpability towards the Red team’s behaviour this past decade. This is a blindspot of progressive’s as there is a lack of introspection regarding thier own behaviour.

I guess you don’t have any gay or trans friends. Cool.

Liberals: Why don't we have just one big tent?