Bewildered by Belinda (More on ex-CINO's defection to Canada's Liberals)

The Toronto Sun ^ | Sat. May 21, 2005 | MICHAEL COREN

[GMMAC]

Pompous windbag and sometime social conservative Coren gets one right!

[GMMAC]

Belinda PING!

[Piquaboy]

Isn't she one of Clinton's main squeezes?

[David Isaac]

You do not have to look very far or very hard to find some of the very same in American politics, male and female.

In the entertainment field, I can hardly suppress the gag reflex when I hear the ame Paris Hilton.

[Archidamus]

One of the earliest truths I learned is that it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. Thank heavens, because her first answer is usually, NO.

[Neville72]

They refer to her in Canada as Slick Willie's "holla back girl". BWAAAHAHAHA!

[MadIvan]

Of course, let's remember who Belinda has kept company with in the past -

Bill Clinton Spotted with Billionaire Blonde

April 21, 2005

She's been spotted all over town with former president Bill Clinton: a blonde bombshell, who resembles Hillary. Wednesday night, the mystery blonde was by Clinton's side once again at a New York BLT restaurant with Jack Nicholson and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Be sure to catch Thursday's "Extra" to see the pictures of Bill and Belinda that have everybody talking.

So who is the mystery woman? And what's she really doing with the former president? Only "Extra" has the answers.

New York Daily News columnist Ben Widdicombe told us the woman, Belinda Stronach, is a billionaire member of Canada's Conservative Party, and she's very possibly a future candidate for prime minister of Canada.

"She's blonde, she's ambitious and she's in politics, but she's not Bill Clinton's wife," Widdicombe said. "It's Belinda Stronach, his friend from Canada who's been visiting Bill in New York this week."

"She gives money to his pet projects and in return, he supports her projects, for instance, a children's hospital in Canada," Widdicombe revealed.

Stronach and her father donated money to Clinton's presidential library, and she nearly became an investor in his friend, JFK Jr.'s, George magazine, meeting with him just a week before his death.

And Belinda is no stranger to the limelight either. She's divorced from Olympic champion speed skater Johan Olaf Lass and currently has romantic ties to another politician: Canadian Brian MacKay. Still, there have been rumors of a romance between Belinda and Bill since they met five years ago at a charity event.

"Anytime Bill Clinton is seen with a beautiful blonde, there's going to be rumors," Widdicombe insisted. "But in this case, they really are just friends."

And there's more good news for Bill watchers too: his good behavior is carrying over to his diet. While Jack, Jerry and the rest of the party dined on steak at BLT Wednesday night, Bill feasted on a healthier meal of swordfish and white asparagus.

..."just friends"...right, I believe that. Not.

Regards, Ivan

[freekitty]

Sounds like a Clinton protage'. More stupid stuff that means nothing because what they do and say means nothing.

[freekitty]

"She's been spotted all over town with former president Bill Clinton: a blonde bombshell, who resembles Hillary."

In your dreams....More like someone's nightmare.

[GMMAC]

Given that Belinda appears to be well under 200 pounds - a tad slim for slick Willie's well-known far more rubinesque "tastes" - one suspects any relationship with Belinda is more likely a political alliance of convenience: much like his "marriage" to Hillary - LOL!

[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

Pompous windbag and sometime social conservative Coren gets one right!

As they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day... There needs to be lots of emphasis on the 'sometime' aspect of your description of Coren - far more appearance than substance.

[Clive]

There was a caller to CFRB who claimed "steam was coming out of my ears".

He is an elector in Belinda's riding,

He had just finished listening to Belinda's explanation about how she just had to cross the floor to support a budget that she felt was in the best interests of Canadians when he picked up his mail and found a circular letter from Belinda as his MP in which she thorouglyl trashed the same budget.

It seems that Belinda had been on he road to Damascas between the time she sent out the letter and the time that the letter arrived in her electors' mail boxes.

Perhaps one of the speediest conversions in history.

[Peter Libra]

The man who engineered Stronach's deal was David Peterson,a former premier of Ontario.

In the light of Gurmant Grewal, Conservative and his allegations- and tape, of an attempt to tacitly bribe him to stay away from the vote, they(Canadians) believe that?. Oh yeah,with about 72 hours to go. "Oh, squeaked Belinda,David this is so sudden."

Almost spilt my Timmys, prior to my little jaunt over to the good old USA. LOL

[bc boy]

Thanx for the posts GMMAC...I am taking a break from the Barbie and Dithers crime story..I need some clean oxygen...All that I will say today is that with Mr. Strum I concur..those dickheads and dickless heads that are destroying our country with great enthusiam are one SICK bunch..have a good weekend...EH

[bc boy]

sorry,forgot to mention Mr. Strum's diary commenting on this mess can be found posted in main forum this am and apparently comes from NRO

[Para-Ord.45]

I sound like a broken record but canada really is a banana republic.

Anyone have a link to the FBI documents on Gagliano and his mob connectionc ?

[GMMAC]

Here's a link to the NewsMax story largely based on the initial New York Post artcle if that's any help.

[GMMAC]

Coren's a strange mixed bag when it comes to both his ideology and his theology. He's a Brit ex-pat with a nominally Catholic mother and a Jewish (non-practicing?) former taxi driver father. He's famous for picking up causes, wringing all of the personal publicity out of them he can, and then seldom or never mentioning them again.

For years, he was a very vocal "born again" evangelical, fundamentalist Protestant - while seldom missing any chance to mention his Jewish roots. Apparently, about 6 months ago, he accepted Confirmation - back into or maybe missed out on same as a kid? - into The Roman Catholic Faith. (go figure and for how long?)

In fairness, he has always been consistently pro-life and largely pro-American. However, on other social policy and economic issues he's constantly all over the map but far too often way out in left field.
At one point this week, he was ever lauding NDP Leader and all round slimeball Jack Layton as a man of principle and great integrity !!!

IMHO, even when Coren's right, he's a still dangerous loose canon and a contradictory self-promoting blowhard.
In fact, he's not all that much unlike Bill O'Reilly - LOL!

[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

I think you got him nailed about right, GMMAC. One thing about him is that if you send him an email, he almost always responds. He told me a few weeks ago that he responds to about 50 to 100 a day on average. I found this out because I have sent him several over the years - sometimes to congratulate him on a column and other times to challenge him on an issue (as was the case a few weeks ago). My view of him changed for the negative after the last round of email discussion with him - I had challenged him on a 'homosexual comment' that he had made to a caller on one of his evening radio talk shows. He gave me what I considered to be an awful response and even after I asked for clarification, it was clear that he is only an ally on some very selective issues.

The sad reality is that he gets considered to be slightly right of centre simply because the company that is further to the right is very thin indeed. I wish there were more decent Canadian radio/tv political commentators but we are so bereft. Who do you end up listening to? Got any decent suggestions?

[AshfieldK]

I've been following this a little more closely than I should (being an American, not Canadian), and it sounds to me that Belinda's publicly-stated reasoning behind her walk has to do with her fear of the Bloc. I'm curious as to how non-francophonic Canadians feel about the Bloc. Is there a real fear? If so, why? It seems to me that Canada would be better off without the mal de tete that is Quebec, if for nothing else but to stop worrying.