The Trouble With Belinda

I'm glad I don't live in Newmarket/Aurora. Liberal MP Belinda Stronach controls this riding. She certainly is an interesting character in Canadian politics. She replaces Sheila Copps and Caroline Parish as the most controversial female in parliament. So who is Belinda Stronach? She's a business woman and heiress, her father owns auto parts giant Magna International. She was ran for the Conservative party leadership in 2003, loosing to Steven Harper. In 2004, she was elected as a Conservative MP for the Newmarket/Aurora riding in Ontario. Shortly there after, she engaged in a whirlwind romance with Conservative deputy leader Peter Mackay. She later dumped him, and the Conservatives and crossed the floor to the Liberals. She was re-elected as an MP in the same riding under the Liberal banner in early 2006 and continues to serve as an MP.

This week, she's back in the news after Mackay allegedly called her a dog in parliament. This was after a Liberal in opposition made a comment about Makay's actual dog. Stronach was not sitting in parliament at the time. No evidence of the infamous dog remark has been found on the record. Only Liberals claimed to have heard it. Somewhat disgustingly, it has dominated the news. Sometimes I wish Canada was more like the Republic of China, where they have first fights in their parliament. Issues with other MPs would certainly be solved faster that way.
This is not the first time Stronach has been in the news. She allegedly had a sexual relationship with hockey tough guy Tie Domi. She flatly denies this despite photographic proof existing to the contrary. Stronach had demanded an apology from MacKay over the dog comment.

Stronach herself is a political pawn. She knows this and plays it well. Her favorite defense is sexism. She only gets treated poorly simply because she is a woman. In reality, she is simply a poor little rich girl who knows how to manipulate people to get what she wants. The dog comment and the Domi incident only testify to her pawn role. However, this makes her a very ineffective leader. She simply does nothing other than play political games, and in reality stands nowhere on the issues. She would probably have joined the communist party without second thought if they offered her the same sweet deal that the Liberals did. The Liberals have carefully crafted the dog issue around her in order to make it appear that the Conservatives are anti-woman. They are in fact succeeding as female support has dropped sharply over the comment that many people in parliament weren't even sure was made. The Conservatives just the same played her in the Domi issue, attempting to destroy here credibility. When the next election comes, I highly recommend that Newmarket residents vote Stronach out on her backside, if only to put an end to the nonsense political games.