Many Canadians were disappointed to learn that Belinda Stronach had been re-elected in the Ontario riding of Newmarket-aurora. Some were surprised--they shouldn't have been.
The day after the election, Bill Carroll pointed out the obvious that most of us failed to consider. When Stronach was first elected as a Conservative in 2004 she won her riding by only a few hundred votes. Magna is a well respected employer in the community and much of her support came from non partisan Magna employees. Carroll noted that in order for Belinda to have lost her seat, Liberals would have had to turn on her and that was not going to happen. Despite many wishes to the contrary, she was about as safe as any other Ontario Liberal was on January 23rd.
Belinda has been and no doubt always will be in the limelight and it would be in the best interest of Canada that she remains in the political limelight for as long as possible. In her extremely short career as a Member of Parliament she has come to personify the Liberal Party of Canada that she joined not too long ago. There can be no greater living human being that can serve as a reminder of how shallow the Liberal Party is.
Stronach, or Belinda as she prefers, has been often described as "Paul Martin in a dress" and there certainly are parallels between the two. Neither Martin nor Belinda would have achieved anything close to what they have had it not been for their powerful fathers. and both are mere opportunists; content to spend their lives being weak carbon copies of their famous male parents.
Given Belinda's age and barring an unforeseen tragedy, she will be around long after Paul Martin shuffles off this mortal coil where he is destined to spend all of eternity being sternly lectured by daddy about the damage he has done to the Martin name, not to mention the Liberal Party. We need Belinda to stick around to serve as a reminder of what a shallow and self serving organization the Liberal Party has become. She is without a doubt, the truest of all true Grits.
Much like the party that she fled to, Belinda's crossing of the floor from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Cabinet room was nothing more than a sheer quest for power. No one with a minimum double digit IQ believes her reasons; that Stephen Harper was going to destroy and break up Canada. If there was any surprise that came out of the election it was the fact that Harper and the Tories picked up 10 seats in Quebec. Obviously a lot of those dumb French federalists who had previously been voting Liberal since before they were born seemed to disagree. Having lost the leadership of the Conservative Party, Belinda moved to the Liberals where she could at least be a cabinet minister if only for a day. She knew very well that the threat to unity in this country came not from Stephen Harper but from the Liberals in their belief that they could bribe Quebeckers into remaining in Canada with federal logos. Even someone with her limited gray matter knew that the bumbling Martin was on his way out and that the Liberals, like the Tories before them, would be in search of a new leader. Her willingness to dump boyfriend Peter Mackay after giving him a few minutes heads up that she was about to cross the aisle stands as a great illustration of how low the Liberal Party has sunk in order to try to cling to power.
as for symbolism, nothing can beat the role that she was given in cabinet--Minister for Democratic Renewal. Having exactly no principles, Belinda was given the job of travelling the country to determine why Canadians, especially young Canadians, are so cynical about the electoral process. Martin's making fixing the democratic deficit one of his many thousands of top priorities was bad enough; appointing Belinda to head up democratic renewal was nothing short of Paul Martin giving Canadians the finger.
Now that Paul Martin has indicated that he is stepping down, Belinda will undoubtedly become a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party. If tickets could be sold to watch the leadership hopefuls debate, we could wipe out the debt by charging admission to watch Belinda debate Iggy about the future of Canada.
It would be a great benefit to the country if Belinda were to stick around so that we never forget the shallowness and hypocrisy that is the Liberal Party. Unfortunately, Belinda never seems to stick to anything, including husbands and boyfriends for very long. She'll run for the leadership, lose, and then decide that the Liberal Party is out to destroy Canada. She'll leave the Liberals as quickly as she came.
Congratulations Belinda--Canada really does need you!
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