Sarnia-Lambton's MP is fully behind the new Conservative leader and is excited about the party's prospects moving forward.
Marilyn Gladu said she was at Erin O'Toole's private reception in Ottawa Sunday night and had a chance to congratulate the new leader.
Gladu said she'd love to be part of O'Toole's team.
"I bet you'll see changes both in the opposition leader's office and likely in the party after the long wait that we had last night, and I wouldn't be surprised to see those changes -- I think Erin had a really strong team and I'd love to see some of those people take route," she said.
Gladu pointed to O'Toole's considerable experience and is confident he'll be the next prime minister of Canada.
"He's got experience both inside and outside parliament, in the military, and he's a person of integrity -- very well respected. So I think with congratulations that went around from all different sides of the party last night, people are ready to get behind him as the leader," said Gladu. "He brought some good policy, so we obviously need to extend that in order to add more young people and more women, make sure that the west feels appreciated and that Quebec knows that the Conservative Party is going to back them."
Gladu added O'Toole will be able to unite the party.
"I like the way that he did his true-blue Conservatives, so stuck to Conservative principles, but you can see, the social Conservatives came along to support him, and even in his speech last night, he's reaching out to enlarge the tent and I think that's fantastic."
The results of the four-way race for leader were announced hours later than expected after thousands of ballots were damaged by a mail-opening machine that malfunctioned.
Gladu had mounted her own bid for the leadership but was disqualified when she failed to meet the requirements by the March 25 deadline and the party refused to allow more time despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
-With files from Colin Gowdy.
