Journalists have had their fun trying to deflate the floor crossing to the Liberals last week.  As we all know, MP Marilyn Gladu, a Tory, crossed the  floor to join the Liberal caucus, bringing PM Carney to within one seat of a majority government.  And after the byelection today, he’ll have two, possibly three more seats to boost and safeguard his majority. 

Some wag has joked that the floor-crossers outnumber the NDP caucus. But that’s cruel and unhelpful. There’s also a pretty wide ideological gap between the Tory and the NDP floor-crossers. But the Liberals insist they’re a broad church.

Pundits are having a go at Gladu because as a four-term Tory MP veteran  and a social conservative,  she has championed everything most aware Canadians oppose: 

1. She opposed abortion
2. She supported the Freedom Convoy 2022 that gummed up Ottawa 
3. She said she was “vehemently” against the Liberal bill banning ‘conversion therapy’
4. She was opposed to the legalization of cannabis

Yet of course the PM welcomed Gladu with open arms. Some MPs grumbled they did not embrace Gladu and questioned her joining the Liberals.  But in the rush to sideline Gladu and push her from the pedestal – there may be another MP – a cabinet minister nonetheless — who needs that push even more. 

I know it’s not nice to say that the Minister of AI, Evan Solomon, has got to go—and he’s even a good friend of PM Mark Carney!  But twelve years ago, Solomon brokered high end art sales  with wealthy clients on behalf of a Toronto collector.   Solomon made $300,000 over two years in secret commissions on art sales to Carney (before he was in politics), and to Research in Motion CEO Jim Balsillie.  

The problem was that in 2015, Solomon was arguably the number one political journalist at the CBC.  He had hosted TV’s Power and Politics and Radio One’s The House.  In his job, he frequently interviewed or rubbed shoulders with influential often wealthy men such as Carney, Balsillie, industrialists and various politicians.  When the CBC found out about what Solomon had been doing, the broadcaster fired him citing conflict of interest—he had used his journalist’s connections to arrange art purchases by  high profile people he interviewed with the art collector.  When Carney, then Governor of the Bank of England purchased art, according to the Halifax Examiner, Solomon 

“ … tells his art collector partner that Carney’s international contacts will be very important as they move forward in their attempts to sell more paintings. ‘Next year in terms of the Guv will be very interesting. He has access to highest power network in the world,’ Solomon writes.”

Still, Solomon protested  his firing and insisted that he never used his journalist connections to arrange the art sales.  

Well never mind all that.  Today Solomon is a top cabinet minister – charged with controlling and/or promoting Artificial Intelligence. 

While we’re on the subject of bad behaviour, let’s look at three politicians two weeks ago – a Liberal, a Tory and an NDPer whose racist antics were all over the media.  On Mar. 30 PM Carney held a press conference in Etobicoke (on the western edge of Toronto) to announce a new housing initiative.  He was flanked by Tory Premier Ontario Doug Ford and Toronto’s Mayor NDPer, Olivia Chow.  

Chrissy Isaacs, a First Nations woman from Grassy Narrows reserve in northwestern Ontario, is suffering from mercury poisoning.  She led a demonstration outside the media conference to demand compensation from the Ontario government for mercury contamination.  In the 1960s and ‘70s, the Dryden Paper Mill dumped thousands of kilograms of mercury into the Grassy Narrows water and Indigenous people are still dealing today with widespread mercury poisoning –and the health and welfare “fallout”. 

When the PM got behind the microphone he said, “I can outlast her.”  He laughed briefly alongside Ford and Chow –who also giggled. 

When Isaacs and two First Nations’ chiefs demanded an apology from the PM, his office  dared to say he could not hear the words of the protesters outside and he did not know what the protest was all about!  Of course– he and his entourage paraded right by the demonstrators anyway.  A deliberate slap to Indigenous people. 

While some pundits have suggested that adding former Tory MP Marilyn Gladu, who is right- wing,  to the Liberal caucus may water down the Liberals’ values and ethics – clearly it has already happened.  It is now acceptable for the Liberals to insult and ignore people who are among the poorest and suffer the worst health of all Canadians.  

When the byelection polls close tonite in the two Toronto ridings and in Terrebonne near Montreal—I hope some voters do what byelections are supposed to do– allow voters to pull the plug on the governing party.  I hope voters have the courage to vote against the Liberals who are likely high-fiving one another in anticipation of their imminent victories at the polls.  

Cartoon at the Top and below: Mark Carney Thanks Trump by Randall Enos, courtesy of CagleCartooons.com