Canada Needs Belinda Stronach Like Jean Chretien Needs Another Stroke

When rabid Liberals attack

What would you say if someone told you that Canada needs Belinda Stronach?
I know what I'd say -- but (believe it or not), it isn't fit for print here. Scary, huh?

And, yet, a group of pro-Belinda Liberals have insisted that Belinda Stronach is just the man... er, woman... for the job of federal Liberal leader.

Never mind the fact that she ran for (and failed to secure) the leadership of the federal Conservative party. Never mind the fact that she jumped ship to the competing Liberal party strictly to further her own career. AND, not to mention the fact that she has tried to steal a job out from under any man with whom she's spend as much as three minutes in the back of a grody taxi cab...

But I digress. Mostly because some of that is borderline slanderous. And while I do love my slander, I feel it is better spent on Jack Thompson (by the way, Jack, I'm still waiting for you to sue me).

While it is true that the race for the federal Liberal leadership has yielded few quality candidates (go Bob Rae! After all, Ontarians won't remember that whole "incompetent premier" thing), the absolute last thing that the Liberal party needs is for Belinda Stronach to enter the race and provide Liberals with yet another bad candidate for the job.

After all, there is a reason why Stronach withdrew from the race, even after having done some preliminary informal organizing for a run at the leadership.
When bowing out of the race (before even formally entering), Stronach cited a "flawed selection process" as the reason for her change of heart. She claimed that the process was too closed, despite having praised it as "open accessible and accountable" in March. At the time she said, "the rules... demonstrate the party is vibrant and is ready to take the next steps to renew and rejuvinate itself."
This particular flip-flop comes less than a year after she criticized the Liberal budget in the house of commons before jumping to the Liberals to help them pass it in May 2005. For Belinda Stronach, that's just how the world turns. It's how she rolls, if you will.

Liberal officials had warned that they would stringently enforce limits on large campaign donations, nixing what would have been a massive advantage for the Auto Parts heiress (Stronach's father owns Magda International, a company for which Belinda served as both president and CEO -- despite dropping out of business school).
There is another reason for Stronach's withdrawal that she certainly won't publicly admit to -- Elle nes pas parles francais. Translation: she evidently doesn't speak french well enough to order fries from a Burger King in Quebec.

This was exactly the opinion of a commentator for CTV, who reported that after asking her a question in French, she asked him to repeat it -- in English. Certainly, a party that wants to believe itself the flag-bearer for federalism in Quebec can't have that. So, Belinda was done before she ever started.

Aside from all this, the simple fact of the matter is that Stronach is entirely unqualified. Once one becomes familiar with her life story, it becomes plainly obvious that he has gotten where she is in life not by hard work, but by back stabbing anyone she could get close to. When it became apparent the same tactic would not yield results within the Conservative party, she jumped to one where the practice is more commonplace, only to find her blade dulled by her own untrustworthiness and incompetence.

From business school drop out to Liberal party leadership race drop out, one thing is certain: even an embattled organization like the Liberal party can do much better in choosing a leader -- although all the remaining candidates have their own issues to deal with.