Belinda: hussy harlot or Smart Sister?

[M.Dancer]

My wife is a leafs fan....we try not to watch if the two are playing.........

Against Ottawa......I ask for a few pucks (2?) and bet $10 on Montreal

[jefferiah]

Not singling out Belinda, since we already mentioned there are many cases of floor crossing. But I think there should be some sort of restriction made on this. It's fine to change ideas and have a change of conscience. But when you are in office and you cross the floor, even if you are doing it from a genuine motivation, you have just changed the conscience and the votes of many people without asking them.

[Drea]

Her being the daughter of a rich man breeds resentment and jealousy over her inherited wealth and the perceived benefits people think come from it. Her being ambitious and competitive are treated with a sexist double standard since if she was a man no one would think twice but since she is a woman cause people to think that somehow is unbecoming of a woman which is b.s. Her looks also play a part because she is attractive and being cute and attractive also breeds resentment among men who think she is too good for them and women who are fatter or uglier then her and who are hung up on their looks and therefore externalize their insecurity on her for being what they perceive cute or having the physical attributes they wish they had.

That said, as for her record, there is none. She has presented no political visions, nothing original. So from an intellectual perspective, or political perspective, I would say there is nothing there to discuss.

In regards to her private sexual affairs, I could care less who she bongs and when. As far as I am concerned anyone who wants to judge her for bonging Tie Domie or being divorced, etc., is probably got their own sex hang-ups.

As for Peter McKay, he was wrong to make the comment he did and should have kept his feelings to himself and behave like a grown man after she switched parties and keep his feelings to himself.

As for her switching parties, plenty of people have. Bob Rae, Jack Horner, Scott Brison, Paul Hellyer, what's his face, the guy from B.C., so in that respect why the big deal. She aint the first or the last to switch parties for reasons of ambition.

I personally think all this focus on her is stupid.

I would also like to think most women appreciate that the kind of men that dwell on her sex life or call her bitch or are put off by her ambition, etc., probably are insecure about the size of their wee wees.

If she does debate or present something of substance, then let us talk about it. Giving her the time of day for these other issues is in my opinion dumb and dumber.

Well said.

[Remiel]

I am of the opinion that if you vote for party, and ignore candidate, and candidate decides to change party, then it is your own fault, because you were supposed to be paying attention to the candidate as well as the party.

[Drea]

Yah but what if I like the party but not the candidate?

Joe Blow is an a-hole, but his party is the party I want running the country. Do I abstain from voting, vote for a different party or suck it up and vote for Joe A-hole for the good of the cause?

[M.Dancer]

Yah but what if I like the party but not the candidate?

Joe Blow is an a-hole, but his party is the party I want running the country. Do I abstain from voting, vote for a different party or suck it up and vote for Joe A-hole for the good of the cause?

I tend to look at it like an equation. I have in the past voted for a candiate who's affiliation was not my first choice and I have also avoided a party man who in my mind was a dip.

[jefferiah]

I am of the opinion that if you vote for party, and ignore candidate, and candidate decides to change party, then it is your own fault, because you were supposed to be paying attention to the candidate as well as the party.

How can you predict, when you vote, whether or not a person will change party, no matter how much attention you pay? Yes, thats right, when votes get stolen from people, its their own fault.

[August1991]

Ralph on Belinda:

“I don’t think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body. Well, except for one,” he said, to a mixture of groans, laughter, claps and whistles.

“Well, speaking of Peter MacKay,” he continued.

Link

Stronach responds:

In response, Stronach told reporters in Montreal that many women she speaks to shy away from getting into politics because it’s so “rough and nasty.”

Rough and nasty? Wait a second here. Stronach is supposed to be a hard nosed business woman. She ran for the Tory leadership. She negotiated a floor crossing. She wants us to believe that she doesn't know rough and nasty?

What does Stronach think of Margaret Thatcher? Or Golda Meir?

And how many women are in law faculties now? Heck, how many women have defended well their rights in rough and nasty divorce suits?

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear August1991,

Rough and nasty? Wait a second here. Stronach is supposed to be a hard nosed business woman. She ran for the Tory leadership. She negotiated a floor crossing. She wants us to believe that she doesn't know rough and nasty?

Her quote indicates that it is not her that is put off, but rather

that many women she speaks to shy away from getting into politics

I was going to look through this thread last night, because I was sure I had heard this 'conservative boner' joke before, I thought it was here.

Celebrity roasts used to be all about 'inappropriate jokes', had this been about reporters, news figures or movie 'actors', this joke would have been the hit of the party. I've heard priests make colourful jokes too, but in a different setting.

Does this sort of joke belong in politics? Why not? Belinda could have replied, "Sex can be a powerful tool in politics, look how many times Ralph bent over to please the energy industry when he was Environment Minister!" What do you think she would have been called then?

[Charles Anthony]

What do you think she would have been called then?

I honestly think she would have been called a Smart Sister for beating them at their own game. My respect for her would go up.

[Ricki Bobbi]

Her being the daughter of a rich man breeds resentment and jealousy over her inherited wealth and the perceived benefits people think come from it.

How many other people have became President and CEO of Fortune 100 Canadian Business companies without an undergraduate education at a minimum?

Other than the founders of the original businesses I can't think of one.

There are more than "perceived benefits" from Belinda's status as Frank's daughter.

[KrustyKidd]

And how many women are in law faculties now? Heck, how many women have defended well their rights in rough and nasty divorce suits?

She is a sexist who plays the slut or victim card when it suits her.

As for her switching parties, plenty of people have. Bob Rae, Jack Horner, Scott Brison, Paul Hellyer, what's his face, the guy from B.C., so in that respect why the big deal. She aint the first or the last to switch parties for reasons of ambition.

And they are disloyal a**holes who don't play the slut or victim card when it suits them. So really, there is no big deal. None of them are worth a plugged nickle. Oh, forgot about temper tantrum throwing Copps. Maybe she would've played the slut card if she could have.

[August1991]

Good column about Belinda and Canadian politics in general.

In a previous life, I had a business card that described me as an "adviser" to the minister of education. In truth, I was a kid in a cheap suit who met parent groups the minister couldn't or wouldn't. I was, in other words, a flunky.

But the parents didn't mind. They'd get in their cars in Sudbury, Windsor or Cornwall, drive most of the day to the office tower canyons of Toronto, and step off the elevator with the look of determination and excitement people have in those Norman Rockwell paintings celebrating democracy. Because they were meeting me. The flunky.

I cannot know for certain, but I very much doubt that Belinda Stronach has ever, in her whole life, been excited to meet a minister's flunky. Or a minister for that matter. It's not her fault, I suppose. For those born to the nation's politico-corporate aristocracy, access to power is as natural and unnoticed as the air they breathe. One is not excited to receive what one has always had.

...

A few years ago, as a university dropout elevated by her father to the status of corporate titan, Belinda stated her desire to be prime minister. True, she had not had much to do with politics or policy, had never run for office, and had no real accomplishments to her name. She knew little and could communicate less. But these are the sorts of considerations that deter plebs, not those born to loftier stations. The true mark of the aristocrat is a cheerful, unflappable, demented confidence.

...

I'm guessing that by this point in the column some readers are seething at the author's sexism. Ms. Stronach is a victim. Nasty men said horrible things about her. And now here is another nasty man saying horrible things about her, demonstrating once again that the patriarchy despises Belinda because patriarchs -- me and the Pope, in cahoots again -- despise smart, strong, confident women.

...

But it is a bit much to conclude from this that the woman behind cash register number 12 at the local Wal-Mart should embrace Belinda Stronach as another sister beaten down by The Man.

...

As for the shots she took for crossing the floor, the key thing to notice is that they came almost entirely from third-stringers. The heavyweights kept quiet. Even those who had sponsored Ms. Stronach's entry into politics and were personally humiliated by her switch -- notably Mike Harris and Brian Mulroney -- did little more than quietly grumble.

That's because Belinda's father is Frank Stronach. Frank decides who sits on the board of Magna. And if you look at who sits on the board of Magna -- including one Michael D. Harris -- and those who are connected to those sitting on the board of Magna -- everybody who counts -- you will see almost the entirety of the little club that holds real power in this country.

Call them the elite. The aristocracy. Or, if you prefer a Canadian reference, the Family Compact. Whatever they are called, they are Ms. Stronach's people, which makes it laughable to suggest she was beaten down by The Man. Belinda is The Man.

Of course, we're not supposed to see things this way. Class is so 20th century. Everything today is race and gender. Even robber barons can be counted among the downtrodden if they have breasts.

Dan Gardner

In a way, it's reassuring that Belinda Stronach was a total failure at federal politics.

[Michael Bluth]

In a way, it's reassuring that Belinda Stronach was a total failure at federal politics.

Sadly, she wasn't a total failure.

She didn't play her cards very well. Had she been willing to bend a little to Harper's will she would probably be in Cabinet now.

Why would she though? Daddy is rich and almost took control of Chrysler.

Better to be President of Chrysler than *maybe* a Parliamentary Secretary is the Liberals can in next go around.

Sadly she won't get either.