April 6, 2006

Belinda Stronach did the Right Thing

It is kind of sad to see Belinda go. She saw the writing on the wall.

She will announce she is not running today at noon, in about an hour.

We still love you Belinda, now you have all the time in the world to learn French, without Denis Coderre screaming at you.

Edit: I have to address the numbskulls who are turning this into a gender issue.

Belinda Stronach could not seek to lead a party when she could not effectively communicate with 30% of its citizens. Martha Hall Findlay is a bilingual, intelligent, and respected woman. We need more people like her in the party.

Belinda should continue to learn French. Dont let this setback stop her. Next time, she can tell Denis Coderre to go you know what.

Also, Belinda was called a dumb blonde by Tories attacking her when she left. I never called her stupid. Despite that it was handed to her, she still did one hell of a good job. When a man inherits a company from their father, its also nepotism.

There are more great women in the Liberal Party: Shiela Copps, Aline Chretien, Anne McClellan, Carole Taylor, Marlene Jennings, Liza Frulla, the list goes on and on.

There are strong women up and coming in the Liberal Party including Belinda Stronach, Ruby Dhalla, Martha Hall Findlay, Tina Keeper, and my favorites Brigitte Legault and Denise Brunsdon.

There is no shortage of estrogen in the Liberal Party. However, the goal is to choose the best candidate. Belinda did the right thing and put the good of the party first. For that, she should be congratulated.

27 Commentaires:

Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

She showed real class today. She put the party before her own ambitions.

4/06/2006 11:32 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Finally!

It's about time too

4/06/2006 11:36 a.m.  
Blogger S.K. a dit...

This is a load of horse manure that she put the PArty first. This sounds like the last leadership race where candidates were 'encouraged' to drop out. She should be in the race. The auto industry is just a tad important to the Canadian economy. With her gone there is now only one woman in the race. What does this say to young canadian girls. It sends the wrong message. If girls don't see women even attempt leadership they will not aspire to it. It is a sad day for women in politics. And she was attacked unfairly for being a women. She was called a whore a dumb blond etc. When men inherit companies from their fathers aka most of Canadas buisiness elite its normal, when a woman does its nepotism. Its a sad day for Canadian women. 21% representation in PArliament a whole lot less representation in this leadership race.

4/06/2006 12:34 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

The Liberal Party= NO GIRLS ALLOWED

A sad day for politics.

4/06/2006 12:36 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

OMG!

Can we organize a chairty drive for Brigette? She's going to starve now that she is out $80,000 from her sugar-momma.

ALL LIBERALS JOIN ME IN MAKING SURE BRIDGETTE DOES NOT GO INTO POVERTY AND JOIN THE NDP.

4/06/2006 1:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

viva conservativa!!! i love harper ! i love harper ! i love harper!

4/06/2006 1:04 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Good for Ms. Stronach, a very smart move on the part of a very smart woman. I was struck by the pertinence and strength of Lucienne Robillard's comments following the first question period of this new legislature earlier this week, particularly on UNESCO and Quebec. Robillard is smart, knowledgeable and she has plenty of political and management experience. Too bad she, too, is not bilingual....

4/06/2006 1:50 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

SB: if so few women are in politics, why don't you do it. Stronach isn't dropping out because she was a woman, but because she sucks and doesn't know French - oh and the selection process is unfair. I'm a woman and I'm glad to see her go, along with all the other women in my office.

Re: Brigitte. Haha! Look whose in the doghouse now! Supposedly Legault was considering Iggy before she went for Stronach. If she wants to go anywhere with Iggs, she'll have to kiss Antionio's ass.

Good bye Brigitte! Your organization is dead. How does it feel to lose that much power? When Quebec YL wing chooses another leader, you will be a footnote on how to destroy yourself and your organization. hahaha!

4/06/2006 2:38 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Start the campaign for ANTONIO DI DOMIZIO to become COMMANDANTE of the Quebec Liberal Youth Wing! Even though he doesn't have a French last name, his love for poutine is evidence of his Quebecoisness. Hopefully, he won't be deported before his election victory, or he'll be a leader-in-exile, based in Portugal of all places.

4/06/2006 2:50 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Est-ce que ça signifie que Brigitte sera payée $70k à ne rien faire? Ou bien perd-elle l'argent? Ou bien va-t-elle se recycler en tant qu'organisatrice de, disons, John Godfrey?

4/06/2006 4:54 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Franchement, les gens ont vraiment rien à faire sur ce blog que de parler de mon soit disant salaire... au lieu de toujours parler dans l'anonymat ayez donc l'audace de m'appeler ou de me le dire en pleine face... bande d'hypocrites.
Belinda Stronach a pris sa décision et elle va s'investir dans le parti pour l'aider à reprendre des lettres de noblesse.

merci,

Brigitte

4/06/2006 6:16 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

At least she's lived in Canada for month than 9 months...

4/06/2006 6:18 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Good on Belinda for realizing it wasn't her time...

It's a nice contrast to the arrogance of other individuals who feel they can move to Canada solely to become our Prime Minister.

4/06/2006 6:20 p.m.  
Blogger Anthony a dit...

The insults against Belinda and Brigitte on this site have been disgusting and completely out of line.

I have been pitched several times to stop allowing anonymous commentary on the site...I am seriously considering it now.

This is not about bashing. If you are going to slander someone, at least identify yourself.

4/06/2006 6:38 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Antonio,

Granted, we may have been a little harsh on Brititte, but the jokes were simply too easy.

As for Belinda... I'm not sure that underlining her utter ignorance of ze language (which she still doesn't speak and/or understand) and her André Boisclair-esque lack of substance qualifies as "slander"... While there was a certain irony in these comments, anyone would have a hard time arguing that they were inaccurate.

Et John Godfrey, il est bien, non?

4/06/2006 8:26 p.m.  
Blogger Sherlock a dit...

"au lieu de toujours parler dans l'anonymat ayez donc l'audace de m'appeler ou de me le dire en pleine face... bande d'hypocrites."

Mais voyons ma belle Brigitte, certains d'entre nous n'ont jamais parlé dans l'anonymat et avons critiqué très ouvertement ta position qui me semblait personnellement très douteuse.
Malgré que j’aie un préjugé favorable envers les femmes et la politique, le fait que la présidente des jeunes libéraux du Canada (Québec) appuie une candidate unilingue anglophone démontre un manque de jugement politique flagrant.
Comment expliquez-vous qu’en tant que présidente de l’aile québécoise, vous appuyez une candidate qui ne puisse s’exprimer avec les citoyens du Québec dans leur langue officielle?
Nous parlons du Parti Libéral du Canada ma chère, le parti du bilinguisme.
Personnellement, je n’ai vraiment pas apprécié votre sortie.

4/07/2006 9:36 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Antonio:

You have been saying privately, what people have been writing about Brigitte's salary for two months!

You are a hypocrite in the first order!

4/07/2006 10:11 a.m.  
Blogger S.K. a dit...

You know people should really try to be friends evenif they don't support the same candidate for leadership. Unfortunately personal attacks are easier than just accepting a difference of oppinion. Lots of people will be paid in the upcoming months to support various candidates. Yes Ms. Stronach had money, but the money rules are quite tight this time around. Only $5000 of your own money if I'm not mistaken.

Try to remember we have to be friends and win an election when this is over, no matter who is out of a job.

Play nice.

4/07/2006 11:52 a.m.  
Blogger Anthony a dit...

I have NEVER privately discussed what brigitte received in salary from the Stronach Campaign

because she never received any money. I have always maintained that position privately as well.

because it is true and brigitte is my friend. My relationship with Brigitte before this whole blog shenanigan was perfectly fine. We discussed her decision and I said you can make up your mind but I would not join her with Belinda on principle.

When I wrote the original post, I had no idea it would degenerate to this, and I am truly saddened.

People have been talking shit about me too. I know this and it pisses me off as well. It's nothing compare to the flack brigitte is getting, but either way, slandering people based on their opinions is wrong.

Me, Marc, Alex, and Denise have never had to remove a comment from the site. However, the damage that is being caused to our friendships with each other and with other colleagues has had some of us rethinking this blogging thing altogether.

pl: bring me the person who asid I was talking about salary when the amount was not 0$, when they say they can't its cuz they are lying.

4/07/2006 2:21 p.m.  
Blogger Paul Lehmann a dit...

You should move to preventing anonymous postings - it will at least slow down the drive-by libel.

4/07/2006 2:52 p.m.  
Blogger The Tiger a dit...

Re comment systems --

This may cross party lines a bit, but I'd like to recommend Mike Brock's TheirSay system to you guys.

Easy management -- easy to ban people -- and you can delete individual messages and threads (and close comments on a post after a given time). Makes dealing with trolls much, much easier.

Suggested the same to Jason Cherniak.

***

After all, I want my party to beat yours on the campaign trail, not in the internet spam and libel wars...

4/07/2006 3:24 p.m.  
Blogger S.K. a dit...

When I said paid to support candidates, I meant paid to work for various candidates campaigns. Everyone has staff. This is very different than paying people to support a candidate. My mistake. Sorry. I could try to pretend that really I'm French and English is my second language, but that's not true. I just screw up sometimes. lol

4/07/2006 3:36 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

I have to address this before comments continue. Perhaps it is already been addressed but perhaps not. I haven't scrolled down that far yet.

Shoshana... Honestly... Everytime I read anything considered an intelligent comment on a site, you always have to go into women's issues and the lack of female representation in affairs such as this.

There is one woman declared in this race so far. If you happened to have watched yesterday, you'd have realized that there were three more women taking a strong consideration into the race. Dr. Bennett for example would be an incredible force of female representation in this race. Then again, the three women taking consideration are all Doctor's! I see one male doctor out of the candidates which is Ignatieff and that's an Academic PHD! Their roles in this government and this party are invaluable.

If we're going to be bringing up issues like female representation then let's bring up some more then shall we? How about gay candidates? 1!! Mr. Brison is the only gay candidate. Let's encourage other gay politicians like Mario Silva and Pierre Pettigrew to get into the race. Let's bring up minority representation! Let's have Gurbax Malhi and Ujjal Dosanjh join the stage with Ruby Dhalla to represent the sikh community in this race! Let's bring up Francophone representation and have Mauril Belanger run. Let's bring up Aboriginal representation and encourage incredible people like Tina Keeper and Gary Merasty to run for leadership.

The point is Shoshana, there are far more important issues in this race to consider then the number of women running. If you think there is such a lack of female candidates then start organizing for one instead of just doing nothing. It's like the old saying goes, "Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what you can do for your Country".

You don't need to be a woman to stand up for women's rights, or ethnic rights, or even francophone and aboriginal rights. Endorse the candidate that represents your interests in social and progressive policy and organize for them. And while doing so, encourage them to stand up for what you believe in and then Shoshana, you can come back from Montreal and tell everyone you know that the leader you voted for, represents your interests and concerns in this party.

Until then, please, please, please don't talk about female representation unless your going to include everything else.

4/09/2006 9:51 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Antonio:

From the moment Brigitte announced she was supporting Belinda Stronach, her so-called friends on the YLCQ began a campaign to discredit her. Why? because some of them had chosen to support Michael Ignatief. They posted time and time again about the 70 or 80,000 salary that she would receive from the Stronach Campaign.

I don't know the amount, however, Brigitte was more then entitled to receive a salary from Belinada's campaig. Why did the Ignatieff people begrudge her the right to have a salary? Why is it ok for Michel Ignatieff, Scott Brison, Bob Rae, Stephane Dion and probably others to hire young Liberals in Quebec but not Belinda?

This was all started by your original post. Everything denegrated from there. It is truly a shame. You chose Ignatieff, fine! Why try and tear down those that didn't. The other candidates are viable, legitimate candidates and their supporters deserve respect, free of ANY comment from you and the other Ignatief bloggers.

4/09/2006 6:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

NEWS JUST IN:

Antonio, who claims to want a fair leadership race, is refusing to give membership forms to non-Ignatieff organizers at Concordia University.

This is just unbelievable! Antonio you should be ashamed and in fact resign. This is exactly what we don't want.

This will be news in the media very soon.

Clean up your act Antonio and start acting like a Liberal.

4/09/2006 8:27 p.m.  
Blogger Anthony a dit...

Nobody has asked me for forms, I got 25 last week. They are for general recruitment, meaning one at a time.

If you want to recruit for a candidate, the permanence has numbered forms for every candidate. If he hasnt declared, no forms...I dont make up the rules...the concordia forms are for conU students only as they are numbered..I will give one to anybody who asks...I have never said otherwise.

As for Brigitte, we have spoken privately and I have already apologized for causing this mess. I knew I was never gonna post anything disrespectful towards a friend but it was quite short-sighted for me not to imagine others doing it. We have buried the hatchet.

I criticized her choice as it was for a unilingual candidate. That I thought was fair. I will get flack for supporting Ignatieff and I am ready to defend him as I already have.

4/10/2006 2:11 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous a dit...

Antonio:

Release your forms!

People are entitled to sign up without your restrictions!!!!

You are not King.

4/12/2006 9:58 a.m.  

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