The obligatory Belinda Stronach post

One of my enduring memories from the media coverage of the 2006 Liberal leadership convention is of Belinda Stronach (along with John Manley) looking incredibly sour after Stephane Dion's surprise victory. Given her fairly frosty attitude at the time - not to mention the fact that being the CEO of a Big Three automaker is far more exciting than attending, for instance, the Newmarket Liberal Riding Association Golf Day and Clam-Bake - I'm not too shocked by Belinda's departure from the green chamber.

Nor am I surprised that various big-and-small "c" conservative pundits (there seem to be so many scurrying around these days) are crowing about rats and sinking ships. You have to at least admire the consistency of the conservative forces (interesting, parentheticaly, that the word "neoconservative" seems to have gone out of style in the media). One of the things that has always bedeviled progressives is a tendency to "discuss" (read: bicker) policy and position in a very earnest, honest and public way. Conservatives, from what I've seen, have no such problem.

Nor, for that matter, did some of those said-same Conservatives have any problem belittling Stronach, in ways so coarse and misogynistic that the only thing more incredible than the attacks themselves was the apparent acceptance of their appropriatness as public statements by the Canadian press and people.

But I digress. Politics is often a game of egos. Retirements aren't uncommon, and it's perfectly fair to say that some Liberal MPs who had a good run under the old regime are moving on to other things, some perhaps for reasons to do with the new leadership, most likely not. But the presence of Belinda, or Stephen Owen, or Lucienne Robillard, in the House wasn't going to sway too many people to vote Liberal one way or the other. The press's constant inflation of the story will do a much more effective job of that.

Oh, and Conservatives: wasn't the previous administration so corrupt and despicable that none of its members ought ever be trusted with high office again? Shouldn't you be pleased, in the name of a safer, stronger, better Canada, that Belinda is retiring? Or would you prefer "put down"?