Sarnia-Lambton's Tory MP says the People's Party of Canada kept the Conservatives from winning the 2021 federal election.
Marilyn Gladu made the comment while speaking with Sue Storr on CHOK (103.9 FM, 1070 AM) Thursday morning.
"In 24 ridings that would have flipped Conservative, if everybody that had voted PPC had voted Conservative, we would currently have a Conservative government," said Gladu. "While the PPC didn't win any seats, they kept the Conservatives from getting a minority, and that is always the lesson of history -- when Conservatives divide, the Liberals win."
Gladu was elected to a third term in Ottawa during Monday night's 44th federal election. While the veteran MP said she was happy to be re-elected, she said it was unfortunate that the country didn't turn out the way she had hoped, despite Tory Leader Erin O'Toole winning the popular vote.
"Previously, Andrew Scheer won the popular vote, but again, did not win. So, there are a lot of people that are calling for a review of our electoral system. Proportional has been suggested and it was actually the recommendation of the special committee that studied it, but it doesn't favour the Liberals and so Justin Trudeau, so far, has had no interest in anything but the preferred ranked system that benefits [his party]."
The Liberal Party was able to form a minority government after winning 156 seats, one more seat than the party won in 2019. The election, which cost Canadians over $600 million, was called following Prime Minister Trudeau's request to dissolve Parliament.
Gladu mentioned how this year's election campaign was uglier than in 2019.
"Somehow I think perhaps the anger of having an election in a pandemic that nobody wanted, and the anger of all the lockdowns and loss of people's freedoms, is causing people to put that angst in the only direction they can put it in -- the people that they think are in leadership, or going to be in leadership, over the country."
Gladu said we saw protests and violence happening across the country, including an attack at Dunlop United Church where NDP candidate Adam Kilner is the minister.
She also said a huge number of signs were broken and defaced.
"There were [also] many lies being told about myself, my positions, and I just think that is so unhealthy for our democracy," said Gladu. "It's definitely not what we saw in the 2019 election when the candidates were very collegial to one another, and on the whole, there wasn't misinformation being put out there."