dennis.ca

Now that Belinda Stronach has crossed the floor to join the Liberal party of Canada, who ends up as the biggest loser on the day?

The misfortune firstly falls upon her (former) Tory peers, whom I may actually feel a slight sympathy toward. If there's any solace for them, its that if she jumps ship once she may well do it again. Quite frankly, Ms. Stronach can claim that her true aspiration is "to serve Canadians", but I suspect she's got a dog-eared copy of The Prince jammed in her back pocket (probably stolen from Peter MacKay's night table).

Next in line is Dalton McGuinty. Once it appeared that the fall of the Liberals was imminent, McGuinty negotiated a deal with Conservative Leader Steven Harper to correct Ontario's fiscal imbalance. Depending on your skew this move was either savvy, desperate, or somewhere in between. I call it embarrassing.

Finally, the biggest loser of all -- Belinda herself. Her website has been meticulously sanitized, but a few tidbits from cached pages may help pull the curtain back on Belinda's intentions:

Speaking about the Liberal budget:

"'This is a political budget with a chicken in every pot,' cautioned Belinda."

A David Emerson (Federal Industry Minister) quote from a Steven Chase article (Globe and Mail) reprinted on her website:

"A lot of business people are making half a million [dollars] or more and they are doing things that are very interesting, and the idea of going into politics and sitting in the back benches would not be of great appeal to most of them."

From an editorial piece submitted to the National Post:

"A healthy and vibrant Conservative party will do Canada good by providing an antidote to the sort of wasteful big government spending that is routinely supported by other parties. It will also give Quebecers seeking a federalist choice in national politics a 'third way,' rather than having to rely on the debilitated machinery of the Liberal party."

An excerpt from an address to the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party:

"A reason why the standards of the generations of Liberal governments over the past eleven years had fallen so low was the absence of real competition in the market of politics."

And finally, a quote from an address to the Joint Newmarket-Aurora Chambers of Commerce:

"The Liberals have made many promises over the years and they keep repeating those promises. Where I come from, if someone has to keep repeating a promise, 'it just ain�t getting done.'"

...Where I come from, I call this sort of legendary about-face "megalomania".

By the way (and at the risk of ruining any valid points I actually managed to make) -- does anyone else find it amusing that Belinda's website was designed by Bald Eagle Consulting?