I resent the criticism of her as ambitious or opportunistic. I see no one in the liberals, conservatives, or the BQ who haven't plumbed depths for their ideological skullduggery. I would rather a conservative join the liberals for personal gain than wholeheartedly row for the conservative cult of personal gain. The PCs who joined the Alliance and then the combined Conservatives themselves have been doing anything, anything at all for the last year to get a chance at toppling the government and getting elected. They are willing to allow the BQ to run riot if they just get one sure shot at taking the reigns. The fact is if they told Martin (the biggest whore of them all) that they will support him as long as he bends conservative instead of NDP, he would probably have agreed. His instincts are conservative rather than left-wing. But, that's the thing- Harper doesn't just want to resuscitate the liberal-conservative brokerage system. He wants to bring in a pure ideological stream from Alberta. I think that troubles all the Red Tories who signed up for this venture.
Now Harper's trojan horse is coming undone. Their founding member and most mainstream female voice in Ontario and Quebec ditches them for greener pastures. Now, suddenly the conservatives have become honourable and not willing to stoop to any level. Suddenly they find their moral composure and surety. Very good. Wrt honour among thieves- I find that statement needs disdain and nothing else. Any credit that falls upon thieves, murders, rapists, paedophiles, politicians, businessmen, law students, babes-in-the-wood and programmers who are "honourable" amongst themselves is miniscule compared to the larger moral nature (whatever) into which they are placed. In cricket, people slag people on the pitch the most, are the ones who are always say, "what happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch". The people who say that are the biggest rats- they are the ones with most to lose in a given power equation. Fuck that. It's because of honour among thieves that the RCMP and CSIS remain unbending to change. Honour among thieves keep the Vancouver mayor from criticising his former police colleagues when they go vigilante.
What I can say for Belinda Stronach is not only that she is a mover (she did set up the damn Conservatives a year ago) but she also has the most exquisite sense of timing. If machiavellian instinct were enough to define a politician then Harper, Martin and any other dog would do. Politics like everything else (unfortunately for me) is about timing. With the undercutting of the Quebec youth wing who supported her as well as the hard line being pushed by Harper (which would have undercut both mainstream opportunities in ON as well as any budding ones in QC) Stronach doesn't have much of a place other than being the poster-girl companion to the perma-second-in-command, i.e. Peter Mackay. I'm glad she decided to stab Harper and his reform buddies in the back.
I think the Liberal Party has the probably the least charismatic group of people they've had in the last few decades. They have no one- absolutely no one to campaign for them in QC- the old guard of Trudeau, Claude Ryan, Chretien are dead or discredited. Ontario doesn't necessarily need poster-children but after Mike Harris, Ontarians are looking for something more moderate than Mike Harris, Ralph Klein and Stephen Harper. Stronach was the moderate conservative female face for that sell. Stronach is going to bring Ontario home to the liberals. In terms of campaign material, compared to a bunch of old white men, she should do really well among young people, and women voters in both urban ON and the ruins of the federalist movement in QC.
At first I thought a conservative moving over to the liberals will help tilt the platform away from the liberal left, preventing NDP haemorhaging but the fact theat she is young, good-looking and female is probably going to hit NDP target audiences as well. And that unfortunately is trouble.
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