In the discussion about whether Liberal MP Wajid Khan is planning to cross the floor to join the Conservative Party, Liberal insiders are using Belinda Stronach as an example. And not in a very complimentary fashion.
The Toronto Star spoke to Liberal Party insiders on the question of whether Wajid Khan is planning to cross the floor to join the Conservative Party:
The strange, dual-political citizenship of Wajid Khan - the Liberal MP serving since last summer as "special adviser" to the Conservative prime minister on the Middle East and Afghanistan - may be coming to an end this week.
But whether Khan intends to stay as a Liberal or cross the floor to the Conservatives became more of a mystery yesterday when neither he nor the Prime Minister's Office wanted to answer any questions about the political future of the MP for Mississauga-Streetsville.
"You are best to go to Khan directly on this," said Carolyn Stewart Olsen, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Some Liberal insiders say they're sure that Khan has been waiting to make his move when he can exact a maximum price for crossing the floor - like Belinda Stronach did when she left the Tories to get a cabinet seat in Paul Martin's government in the spring of 2005 or, more recently, as David Emerson did when he left the Liberals after last year's election to join Harper's government as international trade minister.
But Paul Martin said at the time of Belinda Stronach's defection that it was not about prizes and cabinet posts, but about principles:
Martin said he and the 39-year-old Stronach share common beliefs on questions of policy and politics, including the Gomery commission investigating the sponsorship scandal.
"Based on these shared beliefs, she and I have agreed that she fits more comfortably, can serve more appropriately and can contribute more substantially as a member of the government caucus," he said.
Seated next to Martin at a morning news conference in Ottawa, Stronach said she doesn't see Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper as being "truly sensitive" to the needs and the complexities of Canada.
Martin insisted the Liberals didn't woo Stronach with a plum post to win Thursday's budget vote.
But now Liberal insiders are saying the move was timed by Stronach to make sure she exacted the highest possible price from a Liberal government desperate to stay in power.
And that Paul Martin was wrong, or even lying, when he said this was about principles.
I'm shocked. Shocked, I say!
And as for David Emerson, let's remember that there was no confidence vote looming, that Emerson was given the same portfolio he had as a Liberal minister so that he could conclude a softwood trade deal that he had started, and that as a lumber company executive, he was qualified for the job. I'll leave it to you to decide if Belinda Stronach, university dropout and fabulously wealthy by virtue of family money was qualified to take over the ministry in charge of collecting on student loans from people who went to university to gain job skills in order to eke out a living as working schlubs.
But that's all in the past. What about the future?
That's an interesting question. Are these "insiders" just knowledgable folks, or are they people close to the new Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion? If so, what does this say about Belinda Stronach's future in the Liberal Party?
