Belinda PING!
Posted on 05/18/2005 11:32:55 AM PDT by GMMAC
Independent annoyed at defection
May 18, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - The addition of Belinda Stronach to the Liberal cabinet has annoyed an Independent MP whose vote is crucial vote in a looming non-confidence showdown.
David Kilgour says Stronach's recruitment will figure in his decision whether to help bring down the government Thursday.
The Alberta MP's response was caustic when asked whether he was impressed that the Liberals had catapulted a rookie Tory into their cabinet:.
"Was anybody impressed? Were you impressed?"
"No, I was not impressed - either on what the prime minister did or what Ms. Stronach did.
"And that's one of the factors that I'll be considering."
Kilgour, who recently left the Liberal party to sit as an Independent MP, said he'll also weigh several other factors before he votes on the federal budget Thursday.
Kilgour and another Independent - B.C.'s Chuck Cadman - have the potential to send the country into electoral mode by week's end. They haven't said how they will vote.
The opposition will likely need both their votes to topple the Liberals.
The government took a big step towards survival when it courted Stronach, naming her human resources minister Tuesday.
Before Stronach's defection, the opposition needed only one Independent vote to topple the Liberals.
So what happens to Lucienne Robillard, the previous HR Minister?
One more vote in our favour! Good boy Kilgour - even the bribes couldn't buy you! Now let's get Cadman on board and seal the deal!!!
Likely on the backbench; she'll probably lose anyway to the Bloc.
David Frum's diary on NRO.com had something to say about this Stronach gal, as well as links to some mighty good Canuck blogs. This story is just so bizzare. Belinda Stronach is the young (39) elegant scion of one of Canada's richest families. She went to work for the family business and apparently did a fine job. At age 37 she decided to run for a seat in the Conservative Party.
She created quite a stir and was alternately criticized or lionized for unhesitantly trading on her glamor factor and well-established history of bankrolling the Party with the family fortune. But according to Frum at least, she seemed to have spent a solid year with her nose to the grindstone, learning the trade and standing for solid, conservative principles. Then a few days ago, right out of the blue, she gives an impassioned, Jeffordsian speech and abruptly crossed the aisle over to the reigning Liberals in exchange for a second-tier cabinet post in the spectacularly corrupt govt of Paul Martin. Martin, a scandal-riven Prime Minister is hanging by a thread and its unlikely he can possibly last much longer. He is in fact, defying parlimentary rules that require a government to either resign or call an election after losing a no-confidence vote. He is also spending money like a drunken Gray Davis trying to desperately buy his survival.
Belinda Stronach had bright future and almost certainly would have scored a good position in a future Conservative government but has now unquestioningly committed political suicide with this bizzare action and has left friends and colleagues shaking their heads. It seems she has a serious Arianna streak in her personality.
http://www.electionprediction.org/2005_fed/riding/24075-westmount-ville-marie.htm
Did you see Paul Martin during the news conference to discuss this? He said, laughing, "I can count".
Oh yeah? How come when he was finance minister at least $100 million was stolen, and according to AG Sheila Fraser, maybe $7-800 million.
If he can count, where was he then?
This is just amazing. It's as if a Democrat jumped to the GOP in order for a position in the Nixon White House in August 1974.
I don't know much about Stronach, but it's hard to feel anything but revulsion towards a person so consumed with climbing the ladder of power that she makes Hillary Clinton look like Paul Wellstone.
With a few billionaire in the bank, "political suicide" might look like an attractive option.
Does she have any family or siblings that are also in the Conservative party?
Encyclopedia of Stronach Quotes
# "However, at its core, the budget is flawed and defective on two accounts." (Speech in the House on Budget: March 07, 2005)
# "First, it is built on an accounting shell game that seems out of step with the revolution in corporate good governance following scandals like Enron and WorldCom.2 (Speech in the House on Budget: March 07, 2005)
# "Second, it is focused on spending taxpayer money with very little attention to enhance economic growth." (Speech in the House on Budget: March 07, 2005)
# "If Paul Martin is too distracted by his own political misfortune to govern, we will continue to step up to the plate," Stronach said. "Someone must defend the interest of hardworking and suffering Canadian ranchers and farmers." (The Toronto Sun, May 8, 2005).
# "I think it's sad for the people of Ontario that we have to wait for death-bed repentance before we see some action," she said. "That's not good, sound fiscal planning." (Globe and Mail, May 9, 2005)
# "If Paul Martin is too distracted by his own political misfortune to govern, we will continue to step up to the plate," Stronach said. "Someone must defend the interest of hardworking and suffering Canadian ranchers and farmers." (Toronto Sun, May 8, 2005)
# "However, I think it's important to say that if this government is serious about doing some good and doing what's right in the public interest, they could pull out certain elements of the budget that all parties could move forward on and agree to." (Chronicle-Herald, May 4, 2005)
# In politics? "What amazes me is how promises can be made and never delivered on." She cites Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's promise to grant Newfoundland and Labrador 100 per cent of the benefits of its offshore oil revenues. "That to me is shocking. If you do that in business, you make a promise and you don't deliver? Gone," she says, swiping her hand in the air. (Toronto Star, January 8, 2005).
# "My first goal is to be a good Member of Parliament because if you don't represent your community well and look after the needs of your constituents, you won't be in government. "Number two is to do a good job on international trade, on the portfolio I've been given responsibility for," she says. "The third is to continue to help build a stronger Conservative party and to voice my viewpoints within that maturing of the party. So, we'll see where it goes. "I'm not in this forever, I'm in this for a period of time in my life and to do well at it," she says. "I'd like to see that we start talking more about the economy, and we start talking more about jobs and the dollar being so high, how are we going to be productive in this kind of environment. I'd like to see that we start talking about those issues now, not five years from now." (Toronto Star, January 8, 2005).
# Belinda Stronach, the Conservative international trade critic, said the ruling highlights the failure of the Liberals to establish better relations with Washington on a range of issues, including missile defence. "When the prime minister should have been nurturing support throughout the American political system to keep the border open, he and his cabinet were skulking away from a proper discussion of missile defence with the U.S. government," she said in a release. "The border closure on BSE is a perfect example of the kind of real-world situation where Canadian interests would be looking for maximum help from the administration." (Montreal Gazette, March 3, 2005).
# But Conservative MP Belinda Stronach (Newmarket-Aurora) said Jennings' remarks only add to the strain in Canada's relationship with the United States, which has shown signs of fraying over recent disagreements on missile defence, beef and softwood lumber. "Could the Prime Minister explain how this is going to foster stronger Canada-U.S. relations to get the border open," Stronach asked in the Commons. (Toronto Star, March 10, 2005).
# "If Paul Martin is too distracted by his own political misfortune to govern, we will continue to step up to the plate," says Tory MP Belinda Stronach (Newmarket-Aurora). "Someone must defend the interest of hard-working and suffering Canadian ranchers and farmers." (Toronto Star, April 23, 2005).
# Opponents said that chapter was full of platitudes: expanding trade around the world, smoothing out disputes with the U.S., and kickstarting failed WTO talks.
A plethora of countries got named as select trade partners but there were few clear details about how to achieve anything, they said. ''(It's a) text book for a first-year college course in Canada's international business relations,'' said Conservative critic Belinda Stronach. ''There are no timetables and no targets set for anything ... no bold thinking, no strategic decision-making.'' (CP, April 20, 2005).
The government took a big step towards evil when it bribed Stronach with Liberal resources.>... how it should be written.
Stronach is your typical Eastern Canadian elitist. Western Canadians will not soon forget what Stronach did.
It shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who follows both U.S. and Canadian politics that Belinda Stronach once said she admired people such as Bill Clinton. I can remember the buzz in the American press that were asking "Is she Bill Clinton's new love interest?"
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