Belinda Stronach 

Belinda Stronach

I've been trying to get a post together saying there's really no news for bloggers to feast on. It's ironic, in a sense that goes a bit beyond Alanis Morissette (very good but, alas, over-rated), that there are probably more bloggers than ever now, especially with Huffington in the picture.

And then, in poor old Canada, Belinda Stronach, our local Conservative MP, crosses the floor and becomes a Liberal minister just in time for the big confidence vote on the Budget on Thursday.

She says she didn't want the Budget to be defeated--it includes spending which is good for her riding, especially on infrastructure. The subtext here is that the Tory party has tended to be anti-tax and anti-spending, so it's doubtful that they would match the spending on any item if they were in office. She also says she didn't want to be in League with the separatist Bloc Quebecois--she didn't want to give them more cards to play. That I can certainly agree with. The spending I'm not so sure about. In one interview this evening she mentioned daycare spending as a good thing. Was she ever a Tory?

The way she crossed may be about the lowest possible. She could have become an Independent. She could have simply voted for the Budget on Thursday, and waited to see if leader Stephen Harper and the rest of the caucus kicked her out, or what. Arguably she wanted to strengthen the Liberal/Budget cause, and hurt the Tory/Bloc cause, as much as possible, or make a confidence vote as much as possible a sure thing, as she says, "for the good of the country." But she also got the maximum price for herself--a Minister's job, and a corner office. (No one is even mentioning which Minister lost the responsibility she just picked up--Human Resources and Skills Development).

(From Paul Martin's statement:

I would like to take a moment to thank the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, who has so capably directed the ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development during this time in addition to her existing cabinet responsibilities and her role as National Campaign Co-Chair.


Finally, I want to thank Martha Hall-Findlay, who has agreed to stand down as the Liberal candidate in Newmarket-Aurora.


Hall-Findlay nearly beat Stronach in 2003).

She not only didn't confide in any of her fellow Tories, she kept going to their meetings and voting with them all last week. She has practically dumped her boyfriend, deputy Tory leader Peter MacKay, on national TV. (Of course, MacKay has a history about breaking promises in front of the media as well). She didn't warn her own constituency office staff; they saw the announcement on TV, and then were flooded with phone calls and angry visitors.

Maybe she's a rich kid who just keeps wanting more. Maybe she represents a problem the Tories have with the suburbs, and especially suburban women. They are not conservative on social issues. Belinda is not saying a lot about same-sex marriage today, but at the recent Tory policy convention, she spoke out strongly in favour of allowing same-sex marriage in order to attract as many voters as possible.

At any rate she seems very serious today. Critics are digging up the old lines, which were mostly muttered in the past, about how she's vacuous and unprincipled. She is avoiding taking any cheap shots at anyone, and she is speaking better on her feet than she used to.

A Francophone reporter (Chantal Hebert of the Star?) was just saying that Lucien Bouchard gave Brian Mulroney more notice that he might be leaving than Belinda just gave Harper. Harper did not give her a very important role or a high profile--probably a cardinal mistake for any leader in handling a former rival for the leadership.

I think back to Jack Horner, something of a right-wing Tory from Alberta, abruptly joining Trudeau's Liberals and getting a Cabinet job. Dalton Camp, who had never liked Horner or the Westerners in general, was given the job of asking if Horner could somehow be persuaded to stay, for the good of the party. Camp apparently said something like: you will be always be respected if you stay Tory. But the Liberals will never respect you; they are just using you. Horner apparently said: well, maybe we can kick a little ass in the meantime.

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