May 17, 2005

• There's some suggestion that other Tory MPs may jump ship as well. Should be an entertaining afternoon.
• She will lose. Everyone who jumps is elected out, because they were elected for themselves and their party. But I didn't know Toronto had any Conservative MPs - which riding?
• Belinda holds the Newmarket-Aurora riding...and my heart.
• Rocket. You're up against Bill. Good luck.
• Newmarket-Aurora is usually Liberal, so Belinda shouldn't have a problem getting re-elected. She only won by 600+/- votes over the Liberal candidate last time, right? And full marks to her, for squeezing the Grits for a great deal for herself. Me, I just love seeing Harper so downright pissed off. But hey -- he's the one who couldn't keep her in the tent. This is just the price for imposing the Reform/Alliance views of the party on top of the old Tories.
• Her views are halfway in between the Conservatives and Liberals anyway. I'm a bit disappointed because this means she'll never get the Conservative leadership, and I think her moderate influence would have been good for that party. On the other hand, if it means she has a chance to influence the Liberals farther to the right, I'm all for it. And I'm with the Capt on this. I think she has a good chance at winning as a Liberal. Stronach is probably a lot more popular than her party in her riding. At any rate, this certainly makes things more interesting.
• There are many in the ultra-conservative camp who think that Belinda has always been a Liberal; planted in the Conservative party to destroy it from within. Her rumoured relationship with Conservative house leader Peter McKay never sat well with the extremists in the party (nor with me). She may be the Mata Hari of Canadian politics.
• I don't see why Peter McKay should be all torn up -- he's just as much a turncoat as she is. You'd think a deeper level of understanding of each other would only strengthen their love...
• I just have to say - this is tremendously amusing to me, that this made it on Monkeyfilter. Canadian newsfilter? It interests me, but god knows what the rest of the Monkeys think about it, heh. Harper's response of "ambition" was just ridiculous. I personally was rather surprised she jumped - I think she had a better chance of getting the Conservative party nomination at some point, and is very, very unlikely to ever get where she needs to be with the Liberals. While the fact that she got a Cabinet seat makes it feel like she was bought, there is a scent of good MP work here - her riding really likes the budget and would do well if it was passed. So I'm trying to think positive thoughts. (It doesn't help that we saw her speak during her leadership campaign, and she was really, really uninspiring and struck us as having very few original thoughts. But, maybe she's doing the right thing now.)
• Yeah, the only thing more ridiculous than Harper's "ambition" line was hearing about McKay's "feeling of betrayal." Not that Canadian politicians have avoided looking ridiculous in the last couple weeks.
• This is good. :-D
• Peter and Belinda will have much hotter sex now.