Federal departments and agencies to cut 12,000 full-time equivalent positions over three years

OTTAWA — Political parties, particularly those that are close enough to smell power, are quick to describe themselves as “big tents.” With the addition this week of Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, the Liberal party’s new tent — to riff off a crack going around some Parliament Hill circles — is now big enough to drive a truckers’ convoy through. While Gladu was the fourth Conservative MP to cross the floor and join Mark Carney’s government in recent months, the Tory caucus wasn’t the Liberals’ only source of growth. Gladu’s defection came less than a month after the NDP’s Lori Idlout...