Marilyn Gladu and the move to delete our neighbours

The push to remove Bkejwanong from our riding name reveals a politician more interested in managing optics than respecting Indigenous sovereignty.

Marilyn Gladu is a busy woman. Between the exhaustion of switching parties to join Mark Carney’s Liberals and the subsequent best-thing-for-me victory lap in Montreal, she has found time for a new project. Gladu is currently using her newly minted Liberal power to back Bill C-25. Specifically, she wants to strip Bkejwanong from our federal riding’s name so we can go back to Sarnia–Lambton. This is the ultimate Gladu maneuver. She takes a seat at a new table and then immediately starts redecorating by throwing the neighbours’ history in the trash.

Gladu claims this push stems from feedback, but we have seen throughout her decade in office that her consultation is a closed loop. The reality is that Walpole Island First Nation Chief Leela Thomas says she was not contacted or consulted about the removal at all. This follows a consistent pattern for Gladu. She previously claimed she had the support of local churches to fight conversion therapy bans, only to have those same congregations publicly disavow her rhetoric. She does not actually consult people because she only informs them. When information like the existence of Indigenous sovereignty becomes a political inconvenience to her respectable brand, she simply looks for a way to remove it.

The floor-crossing was never a change of heart, it was just a change of vehicle. This name change proves it. Whether she is wearing Conservative blue or Liberal red, her core interest remains institutional hierarchy. By removing Bkejwanong, she is not just simplifying a map. She is actively signalling to the status quo that the spectacle of reconciliation is over. She is telling everyone from the Pinery to Walpole that the visibility of Indigenous people is a point of contention that needs to be managed out of existence. Inclusion is great for a photo-op, but for Gladu, it is a nuisance when it requires actually sharing space, power, or a line on a letterhead.

The irony is thick. In January, Gladu said voters deserve a redo if an MP switches parties. She denied us that redo for herself. Yet she is demanding a redo on the riding name because the current one is too inclusive. Walpole Island community members felt represented for the first time when that name was added. To Gladu, that feeling is expendable. Her seat is not a mandate from the people, it is a personal asset she is currently using to scrub the messy parts of our community’s identity.

Sarnia deserves better than a professional passenger. We are watching a politician use the final fumes of her relevance to pull back a meaningful step toward recognition. It is disrespectful and it is cowardly.

Marilyn, if Bkejwanong is too hard for you to represent, the solution is not to change the name. You should finally take your own advice and step down to give us that redo you promised. Until then, we see exactly what you are doing. You are not representing the people, you are just managing the optics of a status quo that prefers the neighbours stay hidden in the basement.