The uncertain byelection is in Terrebonne<\/a>, where Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste is in the running again after her win by one vote in the last federal election was overturned by the Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/p>\nMarilyn Gladu, the latest Conservative party member to defect to the Liberals, became a focal point on the first day of the convention. She was ushered into the Palais des congr\u00e8s by Carney himself amid a sea of Liberal supporters and media called to the event.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, the Liberals called an impromptu press conference with Gladu to respond to numerous questions about how a former Conservative who had espoused views not in line with Liberal policies, including on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, could fit into the party.<\/p>\n
Gladu said she would vote with the government and \u201cprotect the rights and freedoms of women to choose, for people to be who they are and love who they love.\u201d\u00a0Her comments mirrored almost word for word statements made earlier by Carney when he was asked about Gladu\u2019s previously stated views on abortion.<\/p>\n
Gladu also said members of Parliament who choose to switch parties should be forced to run in a byelection to preserve their seat. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he supported that view as well. This week, Gladu said crossing the floor was the best thing for her riding, her nation and herself \u201cat a critical time for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the hallways of Montreal\u2019s convention centre, Liberals were passing the message their party was one built on differing viewpoints.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat mix of opinions is really important, because political parties don\u2019t represent an ideology \u2014 they represent Canadians, and Canadians are diverse,\u201d said Christy Clark, the former Liberal premier of British Columbia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked whether the floor-crossing was caused by Poilievre\u2019s leadership or political opportunism, Clark said both could be in play, but ultimately most MPs get into politics \u201cbecause they want to get things done, and it\u2019s hard to do that in opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byelections, Clark said, are expensive and take a lot of time, and barring MPs from crossing the floor would give prime ministers and political leaders almost dictatorial powers. Members of Parliament need to have the independence to choose which party they want to be in \u201cand the voters will have a say in the next election,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Party members gave their opinion of floor-crossers Friday during a panel on the importance of strengthening Canada\u2019s international partnerships. Among the speakers was former Alberta Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux, who defected to the Liberals in February.<\/p>\n
Members gave him a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
The convention is the largest in the party\u2019s history, organizers said, bringing in more than 4,500 members to debate party policy, network and get training in how to run local political campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carney is scheduled to address the convention Saturday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
rbruemmer@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Building affordable housing and protecting the French language were among the main agenda items on Day 2 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-595500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}