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I absolutely have to talk about this situation, for I fear that another moments silence may kill me.

Belinda Stronach. Wow.

I happened to catch the live broadcast when Paul Martin and Belinda Stronach made the announcement. My jaw was hanging down somewhere around my knees. I was shocked, excited, slightly elated. What a catch! I’m sure she’ll go back to the Conservatives in a year or two – and if they don’t take her back, they are fools.

For those who don’t keep on their toes when it comes to Canadian politics, *coughAdnancough*, I’ll summarize.
Belinda Stronach is the MP for Aurora-Newmarket. She was one of the stars of the Conservative party. She is a young, engaging woman, with a strong sense of civic duty. Furthermore, she is one of the young moderates who are shaking things up with the Conservatives, taking liberal stances on issues like gay marriage, women’s rights, and so on. To me, she represents what a Canadian Conservative ought to be: She is financially conservative, but socially liberal. In fact, when she ran for leadership of the party, I thought things were really gonna change.

Yesterday, she made the announcement that she would be “crossing the floor,” and joining the Liberals. Her reasons for doing so are that she does not feel it is right to force an election right now, and she feels that the Tories aligning with the Bloc is “stacking the deck in favour of separatism.”

I, for one, believe Belinda Stronach when she says she made this move for reasons of public service. As a result, and am very proud to see a politician, especially someone with as potentially powerful a career, standing up against their party. I am also glad that an election is now less likely. I’m sad that I’m out of a job. ^_^

But I am appalled at some of the reaction that Stronach has received. I hate it how whenever a woman is in the public eye, people always comment on the most base of things. Everyone is so obsessed about her relationship with Peter MacKay (Deputy leader of the Conservatives). In fact, one of the first questions she was asked at the press conference was about her love life. If Mr. MacKay had left the party, I bet no one would ask about Stronach.
Miss Stronach is lucky that she’s pretty. The other thing people love to comment on is a woman’s looks. You’d think that in this day and age we’d be past this, but turn on This Hour Has 22 Minutes or Air Farce and the jokes about female politicians are always about looks. One critic of Stronach she is “a dipstick – and attractive one, but still a dipstick.” What the hell, why are they doing this? Anyone who watches broadcasts from Parliament will know that “criticize the ideas, not the person” doesn’t really happen, but why is it so vicious with women? No one ever comments on how the men look. Hey, everybody: Paul Martin is fat. But no one cares about that, do they? Stephen Harper’s eyes are too sleepy-looking. But that’s not gonna be anyone’s punch line.

I usually don’t support feminist cases, because I think that in the western world women have achieved equality. But then things like this pop up, and I wish I could just collectively grab all the politicians and news people and shake them, and say “What are you doing!?!”