Marilyn Gladu described questionable encounters, conversations in 2020 book
· Toronto Sun
Marilyn Gladu, who crossed the floor to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals on Wednesday from the Conservatives, described in her 2020 book some of the questionable encounters and conversations she has had during her travels around the world.
Gladu, who has been the member of Parliament representing the Ontario riding of Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong since 2015, published Tales of the Globe Trot during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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It’s described as a “collection of experiences from a 36-year journey of a tall blond chemical engineer travelling alone” and includes stories that begin in the mid-1980s through to 2020.
In the book, she details travelling to exotic locales such as Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia and Aruba and other jaunts throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada.
“I had originally thought just my family and friends might want to read this book,” Gladu told the Sarnia Observer at the time , “but the editor said, ‘You have a great voice, it’s funny and I think it will have broader appeal.'”
However, the 64-year-old Gladu also detailed drinking and driving in her early 20s, visiting a suspected drug dealer’s property in Colombia and a trip to a Bangkok night market full of drug addicts and prostitutes.
Drinking and driving in Bermuda
In the book’s first chapter, Gladu opened up about being a new graduate of chemical engineering and set to start a job in Sarnia. But a friend invited her on a trip to her family’s property in Bermuda for a week after she completed her exams.
After a few days soaking up the sun, she and her friend toured parts of the island on motorcycles before grabbing drinks at the Swizzle Inn — which featured an alcoholic drink of rum mixed with pineapple and orange juice.
“I had grown increasingly fond of Gosling’s Rum, and the many cool drinks they’d invented,” Gladu wrote.
Gladu wrote that she and her friend grabbed a swizzle pitcher and played a few games of darts.
“I never did figure out why alcohol and sharp-object projectiles were favoured together, but in any case, we finished up our swizzles and mounted up our cycles,” she continued.
“In later years I would reflect back on this, in the aftermath of the rise of the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers movement, but in 1984, everyone was doing it.”
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Colombian drug dealer’s property?
At age 26, Gladu wrote that she felt doomed to be single the rest of her life, but decided to make it more interesting by taking a trip to Colombia.
After arriving at the resort she booked, Gladu wrote that she met entertainment director Reuben. She was informed about an excursion to a coffee plantation that would also make a stop at a private lagoon to spend time at the beach.
At the beach, she wrote, she asked why there were no other people around.
“Well, the guy who owns it is an exporter, but he only needs it at night, so he lets us use it through the day,” Reuben replied.
Gladu wrote that she immediately sensed the property’s owner wasn’t just a simple businessman.
“Think about it. Colombia,” she wrote. “An exporter who only uses it at night. If that doesn’t spell drugs, I don’t know what does.
“Oh well, it was a perfect beach day, and I decided to roll with it.”
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Escaped winter to Louisiana
The year before, Gladu wrote that she went on a business trip to Louisiana in February and decided to book an earlier flight to spend more time in the sunshine.
After checking into a Baton Rouge hotel, she went to the pool to relax. There she met a hotel employee vacuuming the pool. He was described as a “burly” Black man “with a nice smile and bright white teeth.”
The worker found it odd that she was tanning in the cold weather and asked where she was from. After informing him she was Canadian, she wrote that they struck up a conversation.
“He asked me about the reason for my visit and told me some of the places I might want to go while I was in town,” she wrote. “I asked if he had children, and he laughed and said he wasn’t married.”
Thailand night market
In 2004, Gladu wrote that said she was preparing for a trip to Asia that would span three weeks and begin in Netherlands.
After arriving in Thailand, Gladu wrote that she met a man named David in Bangkok who described himself as the general manager for Just For Men Haircare for the Asia-Pacific market.
They wrote that they struck up a conversation and he eventually wound up chaperoning her to a night market, where she purchased gifts for everyone on her list including her dentist. They then went to a local bar to grab a drink.
“I looked around the bar,” she wrote. “It was a host to drug addicts, prostitutes, and the general scum of the earth.
“‘Nice place,’ I said to David. I knew I should be more worried, but my instincts were that David was a good sort. He had a daughter about my age, and I thought that boded well.”