Posted on 05/21/2005 6:10:59 AM PDT by GMMAC
Bewildered by Belinda
TORONTO SUN
Sat. May 21, 2005
By MICHAEL COREN
Welcome to the brave new world of Canadian politics, influenced to the core by none other than Barbie. As the song goes, "I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic ... I'm a blond single girl in the fantasy world. Imagination, life is your creation. Come on Barbie, let's go party."
Or let's go Liberal party.
Before I am pointlessly urged to succumb to some feminist guilt trip, let me stress that I have never applied the Barbie epithet to any other women politicians, even those with whom I have vehemently disagreed.
Alexa McDonough, for example, is a highly intelligent and impressive politician, Kim Campbell is experienced and capable and even Caroyln Parrish, while sometimes extreme, is clever and accomplished.
Belinda Stronach is different. People do not vote for her because of what she believes, because very few people know what she believes. Her speeches have been brief and fluffy and totally lacking in substance. With all of her expensive and allegedly expert advice, she still appears as an empty vessel.
But an apparently decorative vessel with, according to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, "great shoes." She flaunts the external and the banal to the neglect of the internal and profound. If anything, Stronach has put the cause of women back rather than forward with her apparent emphasis on glamour rather than grey matter.
Yet it's less for the way she looks than for the way she behaves that she deserves the Barbie label. Yes, the Barbieization of Canadian politics. A cheapening of the process. A crass vulgarity, an obvious obsession with power.
Only days before she felt the irresistible pulls of conscience and crossed the floor this week, Stronach was criticizing Paul Martin, the Liberals and their budget. The very day she left the Conservatives for the sake of the budget, her official website was busily condemning the same budget.
At the end of February she thought the budget for which she cares so very much was "flawed and defective" and "focused on spending taxpayer money with very little attention to enhance economic growth."
As for Paul Martin, less than two weeks ago she said that if he "is too distracted by his own political misfortune to govern, we will continue to step up to the plate."
Surely there is no thinking person who believes that Stronach did what she did for the sake of the country. She seems to get bored very easily, partly proven by her failure to complete even a basic university degree. She knew she had no future in the Tory party and, suddenly, there was Ken offering her an opportunity that would never be repeated.
And here the cynicism becomes positively glutinous. She leapfrogs over dozens of gifted Liberal backbenchers straight into cabinet because of her -- wait for it -- ability. Yet she's been in Parliament for less than a year and not even her strongest advocate would claim she has made a serious impact.
The trade and investment committee of which she is a member has met on 28 occasions. Stronach managed to attend 11 of them. She is an anonymous performer in the House of Commons itself and has yet to impress the mass of constituents in her riding.
The man who engineered Stonach's deal was David Peterson, a former premier of Ontario who performed so poorly that he was swept out of office by the province's only NDP government.
He revealed that he and Stronach knew one another because they "went skiing together." Why not? Barbie likes to ski and clearly likes the "fantasy world" in which she finds herself. A fantasy world where so very recently she campaigned to lead the Conservatives and smash the Liberal party once and for all.
The people of Canada were robbed this week. Of representative democracy and of the fundamentals of an open parliamentary system. Not by screaming revolutionaries or brilliant philosophers. But by Barbie and Barbieism. Then again, if we vote for B.S. I suppose we deserve B.S.
Isn't she one of Clinton's main squeezes?
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.
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.
They refer to her in Canada as Slick Willie's "holla back girl". BWAAAHAHAHA!
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
Sounds like a Clinton protage'. More stupid stuff that means nothing because what they do and say means nothing.
"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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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 ?
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?
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