Stronach crosses the floor to become Liberal MP (Whoo Hoo!!)

[Spazito]

CTV.ca News Staff

Prime Minister Paul Martin has announced that Conservative Member of Parliament Belinda Stronach has crossed the floor and has been appointed to the Liberal cabinet to become the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.

More to come . . .

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1116339348919_111748548/?hub=TopStories

This is GREAT news, the Cons in Canada were just dealt a MAJOR blow!!

[Kagemusha]

1. Oh yeah! This is the woman Harper beat to lead the Cons.

Interesting to say the least.

Keep your enemies closer.

[Mother Jones]

2. WOW

OMG!!! I'm Speechless.....absolutely speechless. I am without speech.


This is amazing news! thanks for posting.

[laundry_queen]

3. Holy crap!

That is not something I expected. woohoo is right!

[SidDithers]

4. Wow...

Wonder how this will affect the confidence vote on Thursday.

Maybe no quickie election after all?

Sid

[Railroader]

5. One vote moving fromt the Cons to the Liberals

should make for a tie. Then the speaker votes, and the house has confidence in the government. No election til next winter, and Harper throws another hissy-fit.

[LeftistGorilla]

6. amazing...

really....

[MrPrax]

7. Boy! She just got Sexier...

Ah...good news.

Makes you wonder if MacKay is next and with Danny Williams hammering the NewFee Tories over their lack of loyality to the 'Newfoundland people'... the Budget vote should go through.

I am actually surprised Belinda was able to hold down her bile for so long in the Tory caucus and now the Tories have lost their 'poster girl' for moderation!

And to the Tories...Go fuck yourselfs, you racist bigoted homophobic Nazi shitheads

[Hand]

19. Ugh! Not MacKay! Please!

Jaysus, the last thing Martin needs is old Pond Scum Peter skulking around waiting for his chance... :puke:

Belinda, leave yr. boyfriend at home! (Oh, and I'm sorry for referring to you as "Shit for Brains". Really. I am. Oh hell, NO I'M NOT!) :evilgrin:

[Kralizec]

8. I always hear liberals are attempting to "buy votes" through

progressive social programs... seems like the last spin they can use when the people are happy with the liberal governments.

[Spazito]

9. To slam the Liberals for progressive social programs doesn't

work, Harper has no political acumen at all and that is why he is not trusted by the majority of Canadians.

[Binka]

10. Any Relation To Frank Stronach?

Big money, gambling, race tracks etc. I think his company is called Magna.

[Minstrel Boy]

12. daughter n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

11. I can't cheer Belinda Stronach being made a cabinet minister.

She is a privileged no-nothing fool. And now she's in the government.

And I think this will register as a desperate ploy by the Liberals to cling to power, which will not do them any favours in the long run.

[Spazito]

13. I can cheer it, she supports many liberal causes (small L)

and is suited more to the center than the right. Anyone that nails the faux Cons has my support be they Liberal or NDP.

[iverglas]

14. anything that averts a stupid pointless summer election

gets my vote. Er, doesn't get my vote. ;)

Re: Magna -- David Peterson (ex Liberal Premier of Ontario) is one of the personalities on the board of directors. Along with Bill Davis (ex Conservative Premier of Ontario, and the other one, Mike Harris) and Bob Rae (ex NDP Premier of Ontario). Also Brian Mulroney (ex Conservative PM of Canada) and Brian Tobin (ex Liberal Premier of Newfoundland).

Being a fly on the wall with all the go-betweening that surely went on in this situation would have meant rubbing wings with just about the entire pantheon of big-business / political elite in Canada.

Historically, Magna is of course most closely twined with the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party -- which is not the Conservative Party of Stephen Harper, of course. But Magna knows where its bread is buttered, and the federal Liberals are just as willing and able to do the buttering as any Conservatives.

Methinks Stronach took the most available route into electoral politics, but never stopped checking out the chances.

The question now is: where's Peter MacKay?? (For any foreigners reading: the ex leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party who took it into a merger with the Reform Party/Alliance, and is regarded as a traitor by old-time and Eastern Canada-type Conservatives, and risks losing Atlantic support if he assists in defeating the Liberal government that is promising Atlantic Canada many goodies if it stays in power.)

Hiding behind voicemail, so far. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see him become an independent before the vote, then re-seek the Conservative nomination whenever the next election is, hoping for a Reform meltdown in the meantime.

[Spazito]

16. I have little doubt this is a coordinated attack on Harper by

both Stronach and MacKay. If the Libs win the vote Thursday, Harper will face attacks from within his own party for his poor showing and my bet is MacKay will lead that 'behind closed doors' attack.

I watched the faux Con leadership convention and wondered at that time why Stronach was with them, her philosophical beliefs were definitely more center than the faux Con party.

[iverglas]

23. and you still fondly believe ...

her philosophical beliefs were definitely more center than the faux Con party

... that "philosophical beliefs" have something to do with the political positions and activities of the corporate élite.

Me, I believe that an election at this time was not in Belinda's intersts. And that a Liberal government is very much in Belinda's interests.

Belinda lives (very, very well) off the avails of daddy's corporations, daddy having spent decades doing things like fighting unionization and railing against (and evading) taxes, and the corporations now making fresh millions from the opportunities presented by business-friendly politicians outside Canada.

Frank moved himself to Switzerland to avoid taxes, and production to places that are nice to him ... can't find a damned link now, but the manner in which he extracted his auto plant in Austria from unionization is apparently regarded as less than legal.

Oh my goodness. Things one had forgotten (the Liberal connection, not the neo-Nazi connection; I don't forget that):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stronach

He sought the York Simcoe seat in the Canadian House of Commons in 1988 as candidate for the Liberal Party, but was not elected. He is the father of Belinda Stronach, the Conservative MP for Newmarket-Aurora.

Magna International has also been noted also for its connections to the Ontario PC Party and the Ontario Liberal Party, ...

Also a major figure in Austria, Frank Stronach has been noted for his support for several members of Jörg Haider's Austrian Freedom Party.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/todaysnewsarchive/ttodaysnewsviewarchive.asp?ArchiveDate=02/04/2000
(heh; quickest reference)

Magna official part of new Austrian cabinet

Karl-Heinz Grasser, the Austrian spokesman for Magna International Inc., the auto-parts conglomerate founded by racing mogul Frank Stronach, was sworn in as Austria’s finance minister Friday as a controversial coalition government took the reins in Vienna.

The 31-year-old Grasser, Austria’s youngest finance minister in modern history, is a member of the right wing Freedom Party, which has five members in the new cabinet.

The Freedom Party’s leader, Joerg Haider, stands on an anti-immigrant platform and has stated his belief that some Nazi policies were sound. Despite the fact that Haider did not accept a cabinet position and apologized for some of his past statements, the European Union has threatened Austria with sanctions and Israel withdrew its ambassador in protest to the Freedom Party’s ascendancy.

... Stronach also has developed ties with other political figures. Former Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, a member of the Social Democratic Party, is a member of the Magna board of directors.

Belinda is indeed not Frank, but she's also not the People's Candidate.

[Jack Rabbit]

25. A few points, ma'am

Belinda is indeed not Frank . . .

Let's not forget that. She deserves to be judged on her own merits. Of course, I say the same thing about Bush every time somebody tries to suggest he's a Nazi because his grandfather lent money to Hitler's regime.

. . . she's also not the People's Candidate.

In my own post (no. 20) below, I describe Ms. Stronach as being one who would fit in with the fiscally conservative/socially liberal Democrats; specifically, I might suggest people like Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein and Joe Lieberman, to name a few who frequently annoy many of the friendly members of DU, including your humble servant.

However, right now neoconservatism is the major threats to human freedom. We on the left will have plenty of time to hash out our differences with those in the center after we have defeated the neocons; in the meantime, we must make common ground with them and welcome all who cross to our side of the barricades. Ms. Stronach's act today may prevent -- and hopefully will prevent -- the likes of Stephen Harper from ever becoming Prime Minister of Canada. That makes it worth celebrating.

[iverglas]

28. to quote Redd Foxx (speaking as Tonto)

We on the left will have plenty of time to hash out our differences with those in the center after we have defeated the neocons ...

... "who 'we', white man?"

This here be Canada, not the US of A.

We have, and really are entitled to have, our own concerns. As am I, of course.

In my own post below, I describe Ms. Stronach as being one who would fit in with the fiscally conservative/socially liberal Democrats; specifically, I might suggest people like Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein and Joe Lieberman ...

And you're welcome to the lot of them. I wouldn't touch any of 'em with a 10-foot whatever. That doesn't mean that if I were in the US I wouldn't vote for 'em. But I'm not. And I don't want the likes of them running my own country.

Now, at the moment, I don't have much choice either. I very much don't want the likes of Paul Martin running my country, but I very very much don't want an election. (Frankly, I wouldn't really care all that much, if there were an election, if the Conservative Party won it. It wouldn't last, and it wouldn't make a whole shitload of difference. Any more than it would make a whole shitload of difference if Lieberman were running the US.)

... in the meantime, we must make common ground with them and welcome all who cross to our side of the barricades.

Stronach did not cross any barricade. Did you miss my entire point? Her corporate ties to the Liberals are just as tight as her corporate ties to the Conservatives. Her corporate fortunes, and all her cronies' corporate fortunes, are very probably better protected with the Liberals in power, in fact.

And whatever speedbump she might have crossed, it most certainly was not to MY side of anything. Except the issue of whether or not to have an election.

If there is no election, MY side gets a few things it wants -- like a good step on the path to a national childcare program. But only because the Liberals have been forced to do those things in order to stay in power (despite having promised that particular one a decade or so ago).

She deserves to be judged on her own merits.

And as long as those "merits" include living off the avails of Magna Corp, I'll not be judging her gently, if it's all the same to you.

(Edited to add: did you really not notice how much Magna Corp looks like a younger cousin of, oh, Haliburton?)

Ms. Stronach's act today may prevent -- and hopefully will prevent -- the like of Stephen Harper from ever becoming Prime Minister of Canada. That makes it worth celebrating.

I'm not not-celebrating it. I zipped back next door to home to tell the c.v. what I'd just seen on the net had happened when I read the news, and he game galumphing downstairs saying "woo, that's big!", and we watched the noon news in delight. Not for Martin and the Liberals, and not for the diminished possibility of a Conservative government.

I'm celebrating the greater likelihood that the NDP will be able to continue doing what's good for Canada by pulling a few Liberal puppetstrings for a little while. That's what I'm celebrating.

If it takes having Belinda Stronach as Minister of Human Resources Development, then bring 'er on. She'll flame out all the sooner.

[Jack Rabbit]

31. Response

Who's we?

All of us. Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Latin American peasants and Asian factory workers. And many, many more.

In case you haven't noticed, this is an international struggle. There were 10 million of us who marched against Mr. Bush's colonial war in Iraq in February 2003.

The Bushies regard the so-called War on Terror as World War IV (III being the Cold War), but anybody who thinks its really a war on terror is just naive. It is a war to extend unbridled global capitalism to every corner of the world. It is a war to allow the rich (who are better than the rest of us, or so they think) to make decisions that will affect the rest of us but without worrying about our input on any matter. Their interests are tantamount; ours don't count.

By the way, they call this democracy; They tell us that freedom is on the march and other lies.

These people don't have to be as brutal as the Nazis to occupy the same niche that Hitler and his thugs occupied sixty-five years ago: arrogant war criminals bent on world domination. It's going to take all of us to fight them back.

The ascendancy of Stephen Harper in Ottawa would be seen as a victory by Bush and Cheney in Washington. It must be prevented.

I'm celebrating the greater likelihood that the NDP will be able to continue doing what's good for Canada by pulling a few Liberal puppetstrings for a little while. That's what I'm celebrating.

Me, too. And I will give credit where credit is due and thank Ms. Stronach for putting her finger in the dike today. Even if she doesn't see eye-to-eye with us on all matters, she sees Harper for he is and the Canadian Conservative Party for what it has become under his leadership. Her leaving it will make it easier to defeat and mean that Bush will have one less reliable ally in his next foreign misadventure.

[Spazito]

30. To post her father's position, which by inference, tries to point that

she follows the same is disingenuous even in the best light and then, as a last comment, disavow you were doing what you were doing is also being disingenuous. It serves no one to do that, imo.

[iverglas]

32. Excuse me.

The positions in question -- the ones that I actually present as problematic -- are not her father's. They are HER CORPORATION'S.

It is HER CORPORATION that is associated with these neo-Nazi pigs in Europe. It is HER CORPORATION that is tied so tightly to all those right-wing politicians in Canada. (The fact that you evidently decline to define the Liberal Party of Canada as right-wing ain't my problem.)

And it is SHE who lives so high off that corporation, and who is where she is now for NO OTHER FUCKING REASON except her birth into that corporation.

A Minister of Human Resources Development (what we used to call the minister of labour) whose corporation is a poster child for union-busting. Cute, if nothing else.

And gosh ... perhaps just a tad bit disingenuous on her part?


<edited to insert missing word>

[iverglas]

35. fast move by the Conservatives ;)

http://www.conservative.ca/english/..%5Cmedia%5Con%5Cstronach.htm

That link's dead. All that's left is google's cached version:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:Z0luVtG2xcUJ:www.conservative.ca/english/..%255Cmedia%255Con%255Cstronach.htm+%22belinda+stronach%22+%22magna+international%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

<Official Opposition banner>

Belinda Stronach
International Trade / Commerce International

... Raised in Newmarket, Ontario, Belinda was President and CEO of Magna International Inc., the world’s most diversified automotive parts supplier.

Perhaps I should have been clearer about the point of the earlier info:

Karl-Heinz Grasser, the Austrian spokesman for Magna International Inc., the auto-parts conglomerate founded by racing mogul Frank Stronach, was sworn in as Austria’s finance minister Friday as a controversial coalition government took the reins in Vienna.

The 31-year-old Grasser, Austria’s youngest finance minister in modern history, is a member of the right wing Freedom Party, which has five members in the new cabinet.

Frank may be the semi-closeted neo-Nazi in the family, but the corporation has its own neo-Nazi connections.

Ah yes, that one was appointed to the Austrian cabinet the year before Belinda became president of Magna International. I guess maybe everything changed then.

Me, I'm still seeing Haliburton Lite.

[Minstrel Boy]

15. The NDP is the only one coming out of this crisis looking good:

A principalled compromise on the budget to strengthen social programs.

Broadbent's high road of pairing with a sick MP so he wouldn't need to travel for the vote.

And the NDP is only national party without former Conservatives MPs - even former contenders for the Conservative leadership - in its caucus.

The Liberals look desperate to cling to power, and the Conservatives look desperate to take power. The NDP just appear to be doing the right thing.

[Spazito]

34. No disagreement there, the NDP has greatly increased their

visibility and viability as an alternative to the two other parties, imo. Layton is very impressive.

[Gloria]

17. Stronach has been hanging around with Clinton....

A few weeks ago a NY Post gossip column reported on them and another guy eating a late dinner out....

I remember saying: Oh, that's all we need, more gossip about Clinton and the ladies....

When I checked out her site, my first comment was: she looks like a young Hillary...

[Spazito]

18. Salacious garbage by the NY post, imo

Clinton knows Canadian politics and the Stronach family. I have no doubt he was discussing with her where her best political future lies and it would NOT be with the faux Cons.

[Hand]

21. Hell, whatever it took...

Should have known the Big Dawg would step in and save the day! :toast:
Frankly, I hope he did give Belinda a quick one. Poor lady can't be getting much satisfaction from Pond Scum Pete. :evilgrin:

[KlatooBNikto]

29. Was that all he and she were discussing?Or was Clinton doing all

the talking and Belinda had her mouth full?

[Spazito]

33. Clinton is very well respected here, comments such as yours

would be seen as republican talking points signifying nothing but crap.

[Jack Rabbit]

36. Young Hillary?

Photo from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

[Jack Rabbit]

20. This is huge news

This makes passage of the Canadian budget this week more likely; if that vote fails, the government will fall and new elections will be held. That is exactly what the Conservative Party leadership wants.

The Liberal Party is beset by a serious kickback scandal that involves its Quebec wing. Although it is unlikely that Prime Minister Martin is personally involved and Martin has fired one former minister who appears to be the connection between the federal government and the Liberal Party's Quebec wing, the government is vulnerable as a result of the scandal.

Neither Martin nor his predecessor, Jean Chretien, have made any attempt to shield the guilty in the scandal. Chretien ordered the Auditor General to look into the matter, which is what brought the scandal to light. In addition to firing an errant former minister, Martin has convened a commission headed by Justice Gomery to look into the scandal and report to him. The report will come out later this year. Martin would like to hold off having elections until after the report is released.

As it is, the budget will only pass by a vote or two. The Liberal Party is governing with the support of the New Democratic Party and a few independents; the opposition consists of the Conservative Party and the Bloc Quebecois, the Quebec nationalist party that has some separatist tendencies. The opposition has almost as many seats as the government and its supporters in Parliament.

The Conservative Party leader, Steven Harper, is a neoconservative sympathizer who would bring Canada into the Bush camp on international events. Harper co-authored with Stockwell Day, a leader of the Canadian right wing, a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal decrying the Chretien government for not supporting Bush's war in Iraq. In addition, he is an opponent of many socially liberal initiatives in Canada.

Belinda Stronach is basically a centrist who would fit with fiscally conservative/socially liberal Democrats in the US. She was a rising star in the Conservative Party who ran for its leadership in 2004. She definitely has ambitions. This was a gutsy move on her part, as she is staking her future ambitions on the success not only of the budget vote on Thursday, but on the Liberal Party's long term prospects of success after the Gomery Report comes out later this year. Were she to return to the Conservatives anytime soon, she would be toast.

Comparing this to Senator Jeffords' defection from the Republicans in 2001, Ms. Stronach's defection is more profound. Although Jeffords' defection caused an immediate shift in the balance of power in the US Senate, Ms. Stronach's will make it more likely that the Canadian government will remain in power at least until December or January, when conditions for new elections will be better for the Liberal Party. In addition, Jeffords made his stand in the twilight of his career and will not run for re-election in 2006; Ms. Stronach, on the other hand, is 39 years old and hopes to be an MP for some time.

[Spazito]

22. Excellent summary, thank you for this!

You are right on point with regard to the Jefford's defection which is the first thing I thought of in comparison. It is more profound for exactly the reasons you stated.

[ironflange]

26. Good summary, one complaint

To say the Bloc has "some separatist tendencies" is like saying Dubya is "slightly scatterbrained." The Bloc's only real function is to remove Quebec from Canada, this is Mulroney's legacy.

[Jack Rabbit]

27. Thank you

And noted.

[TrogL]

24. Conservative Stronach joins Liberals

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/05/17/stronach-liberals050517.html

OTTAWA - Belinda Stronach, who ran for the leadership of the Conservative party in early 2004, has crossed the floor to the Liberal party and will sit in Paul Martin's cabinet.

The millionaire businesswoman becomes minister of human resources and skills development, the prime minister said Tuesday morning. She will also help the Liberals implement the recommendations in the Gomery report on the scandal-plagued sponsorship program when it is delivered later this year

Stronach's defection could keep Martin's minority government in power as it faces two key votes on its 2005 budget Thursday.

I just noticed this a few minutes ago on another board. The yelling and screaming has already started.

Get out the popcorn. This is gonna be good.

[Logiola]

37. Harper interview was just on NewsWorld..

He had that look of defeat in his eyes.. and not once did he say "corrupt Liberals"

[Anarcho-Socialist]

38. Canada defection boosts coalition (Conservative defects to Liberals)

A top member of Canada's opposition has defected to Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party in a move that could save the government.
Mr Martin said Belinda Stronach had quit the Conservatives and would vote with the government on a key motion.

Correspondents say the move all but assures Mr Martin of winning a crucial federal budget vote on Thursday.

Ms Stronach, 39, is to become the minister of human resources in Mr Martin's coalition. She says she swapped sides because the Conservatives were risking national unity by joining forces with the Bloc Quebecois, which wants Quebec to become a separate state.

(snip)

The defection of millionaire businesswoman Ms Stronach leaves the outcome of the vote in the hands of two undecided independent members of parliament. If one voted for and one against the government, the result would be a tie with each side having 153 votes.

More at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4556349.stm

[getmeouttahere]

39. I sure wish I could understand....

why the Bloc wants to be in bed with the conservatives. I'm no Canadian government expert, but it never added up for me. I would just hate to see another conservative government in North America. Can't Canadians see what BushCo is doing to us???

[Anarcho-Socialist]

40. They're both proponents of nationalism

albeit different kinds of nationalism.

I think the CPC would be willing to partition Canada if it meant that the Conservatives would dominate the anglophonic remnant.

[Logiola]

42. just think if she won the conservative nomination..

It would sure be a different world in canadian politics

[iverglas]

46. nooooo

"They're both proponents of nationalism"

The oooold Conservative party was economically nationalist -- like several decades ago, and back in the days of "no truck nor trade with the Yankees" in an even older century.

The new Conservative brand is in no way nationalist -- not culturally, not economically, not politically. Former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his good friend Ronald Reagan brought us the Canada-US free trade agreement, don't forget.

The tie that binds Quebec sovereignists and right-wingers in the rest of Canada is their desire to have powers (money) devolve from Canada's traditionally strong central government to the provinces.

This would enable the destruction of much of Canada's social safety net -- in particular, the health care plan -- because provinces would be freed to organize their own plans, without the control that comes from the exercise of the federal spending power. At present, provinces that do not adhere to national standards, which pretty much preclude any parallel private health care system, for instance, would lose the funding needed to run their public systems.

It would be the Albertification of Canada: economic measures that equalize benefits in society would go, along with humanistic measures (e.g. equal rights and cultural diversity measures) that do the same.

Quebec sovereignists maintain that they can do everything Canada does in those respects, only better. It is true that Quebec has, in recent years, had some better social programs than other provinces, e.g. for child care and worker protection.

It is also true that present-day Quebec sovereignists at the provincial level are *not* social democrats any more than their governing Liberal opponents are, and there is little reason to believe that they would do anything other than take the money and run. Tax cuts create jobs.

Think of the strange bedfellows as what you might sometimes see in the US on the issue of "states' rights". It's pretty much always a cover for some right-wing agenda or other. And that's what it has really become in the case of Quebec sovereigntists and their bedding down with Conservatives outside Quebec, despite the federal Bloc Québécois' social-democrat rhetoric.

[Canuckistanian]

41. Belinda? Belinda Stronach? Didn't see THAT coming

Does that meant that she and Peter McKay are no longer an item?

[Logiola]

43. self delete

[Logiola]

44. Canadian dollar jumps on political defection

http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_business.asp?id=73668

[Logiola]

45. Nfld. Tories waver

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=51f88a66-2d1f-4220-87f1-fbd326366cbd

[croat]

47. Bravo Belinda

Yaay for Belinda!! I applaud any loss of votes for that Harper schmuck and his gang, though I will still vote (as always) for the NDP whenever there is an election.

[daleo]

48. Belinda Stronach stabs Harper in the back.

But Harper stabbed Stockwell Day in the back.
But Stockwell Day stabbed Preston Manning in the back.
But Preston Manning stabbed Brian Mulroney in the back.

Peter Mackay stabbed David Orchard in the back.
I am not quite sure yet if Belinda Stonach has stabbed Mackay in the back or not. Time will tell.

The howling from the right wing media ought to be amusing.

I bet Belinda Stronach's internal polling in her own riding showed her losing if she ran as a Conservative in a spring election, the way Harper wanted. She saw this as a matter of personal political survival, among other things.

[enigmatic]

49. This is huge...

And I'm stunned about this; happy, but stunned.

Harper looked like a guy who knew his carrer as leader of the CPC was circling the drain in his statement today; couldn't have happened to a better guy..

[Maple]

50. Rumour has it

two more Cons will be joining her.

http://www.640toronto.com/news/metro.cfm?cat=7428109912&rem=9725&red=80110923aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1&gm=metro.cfm