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Bell: 'Good riddance' — Conservative outrage at turncoat MP's desertion to Liberals

Canada's Conservatives are disgusted when they see one of their own is a traitor to their cause

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On Wednesday, John Barlow gets a ton of texts about Ontario Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu jumping ship and joining Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal crew.

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This is no inside baseball yarn, only catching the attention of the political talking heads.

People are ticked off, steamed, hot under the collar.

Barlow is a Conservative member of parliament from southern Alberta’s heartland and on this day he is on his way to talk to folks in the town of Claresholm.

Gladu was elected as a Conservative less than a year ago and now she’s a Liberal trying to peddle nonsense about how Carney is a serious leader and how she became a turncoat because it was the right thing to do to help the people she represents.

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It is mighty tough to swallow that swill. The self-serving rationalization burns the throat and triggers the gag reflex.

The locals in Barlow’s neck of the woods are asking what Gladu was offered to abandon her party.

“How much did it cost to sell her integrity, her character, to turn her back on the people who voted for her?” asks Barlow, saying it is the question others ask.

For the Alberta Conservative MP, Gladu and the other Conservative defectors to Carney’s side obviously didn’t abandon their party “out of the goodness of their heart.”

“This is Mark Carney offering these people something. This is Liberal corruption and dirty politics at its best,” he says.

People Barlow knows and represents are enraged by how Carney is trying and almost certainly succeeding in getting a majority of the MPs in the House of Commons to be Liberals, to get a Liberal majority government.

It’s not by the vote of Canadians, it’s by backroom dealing, encouraging Conservative MPs to defect to the Liberals and four have done so already.

“In southern Alberta that is not the cowboy way, it’s not the honest way of doing things,” says Barlow.

It is then Barlow drops this nugget.

Gladu the defector invited Barlow to a Conservative fundraiser next weekend in her Ontario riding.

She wanted Barlow to meet with local farmers and deliver a speech to local Conservatives.

The Alberta MP says Gladu sent the invitation to Conservative party members in her riding about a week ago.

“This doesn’t seem like something she’s been mulling over for a long time,” says Barlow, referring to Gladu’s defection Wednesday.

Barlow says he is still going to Ontario.

“I want to show her members and the farmers in her riding it’s not the Conservatives who have turned their back on them.”

There are rumblings, loud rumblings in some quarters, that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s days are numbered.

Much of the volume comes from those who want the Conservatives nowhere near power in Ottawa.

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“I don’t see Pierre in trouble whatsoever. If anything I think he’s strengthened his support,” says Barlow, a strong backer of Poilievre.

He says Conservative politicians are behind Poilievre and party members are behind him.

Barlow points to Poilievre’s “exceptional performance” in his recent trip to the U.S., including his appearance on Joe Rogan’s incredibly popular podcast, and adds people have told him they’ve been impressed with the Conservative leader over the last few weeks.

As for Carney, Barlow is hopeful more Canadians will catch on to what the prime minister is all about.

“Liberals are the proven masters of the announcement and utter failures at actually following up with the hard work to make things come to fruition.”

Despite the nasty news of Conservative MPs crossing over to Carney and the Liberals, Barlow is hopeful.

The Alberta Conservative MP says the press in Ottawa makes it sound like Carney has accomplished something “when he has accomplished nothing.”

“Eventually that comes home to roost, where Canadians will see their life isn’t any better.

“If you can’t have some action and results, eventually people are going to look at the team offering tangible solutions.”

The day’s story comes full circle, back to Gladu, the latest Conservative defector.

“These people who crossed the floor, they weren’t disillusioned with our party or our leader or the Conservative movement. They sold their integrity and did this for personal reasons.

“If they are so easily swayed and manipulated then, good riddance.”

In no universe is Barlow, the MP for the riding of Foothills, leaving the Conservative ranks.

“My integrity is not for sale. I would never sell out the people of Foothills. There is no price you could put on that.”

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