Belinda Stronach, with her father, Frank Stronach, speaks to her supporters.

Stronach pulls off win, despite her defection

Updated Tue. Jan. 24 2006 12:02 AM ET

Canadian Press

NEWMARKET, Ont. -- Despite her notorious decision to cross the floor and prop up the Liberal government last year, Belinda Stronach coasted to victory in her riding north of Toronto on Monday.

Stronach's win was bittersweet, however, since her former Conservative colleagues will now be filling the government seats while she will be relegated to the Opposition benches with the Liberals.

Stronach rode her celebrity status and professed commitment to her riding to win forgiveness from the voters of Newmarket-Aurora for switching her political allegiance.

The win adds another twist to Stronach's whirlwind two-year political career, during which she ran for but lost the Conservative leadership, won a seat as a Conservative MP, switched to the Liberals to be rewarded with her first cabinet post, and then walked away with another win under a different political banner.

It's a story unmatched in Canadian political history and an example of horrendous political timing, said David Docherty, head of the political science department at Wilfrid Laurier University.

The Conservative election win gives Stronach's former colleagues reason to gloat, he said.

"This is the icing on the cake for Stephen Harper,'' Docherty said. "His legacy will live on, and she'll be more of a kind of a footnote in Canadian political trivia.''

Events are teaching Stronach and fellow floor-crosser Scott Brison that "a few months are a lifetime in politics, that politics in many ways is all about timing,'' Docherty said.

Stronach, however, has no desire to change the past.

"I have absolutely no regrets,'' she said. "I'm even more comfortable as I go forward that I made the right decision back in May.''

"You can never make a bad move when you follow your conscience and your principles.''

"I'm committed to public life for the long term, for the long haul.''

Stronach's departure from the Conservatives last spring was a big blow to the party, particularly because it kept the Liberal government from falling and because she had run for the party's leadership only a year earlier as she helped unite the Reform and Conservative parties.

But it will be a relief to Harper now, Docherty said, since he won't have to put Stronach _ with whom he had differences -- in his cabinet. Stronach would have been a likely cabinet member had she stayed with the party, he said.

"It is a thorn in his side that is removed in a whole host of ways.''

Stronach, heiress to the multibillion-dollar auto parts giant Magna, first stepped into the political limelight two years ago. At 39, she resigned as CEO at Magna, the company her father Frank Stronach started, to enter the Conservative leadership race against Harper.

Stronach's personal life also came under the spotlight because of her public breakup with Conservative MP Peter MacKay at the same time she split from the Tories.

Stronach beat out Conservative Lois Brown and New Democrat Ed Chudak, both of whom tried to capitalize on voters angered by Stronach's stunning political about-face.

"I don't think people have those kind of remarkable epiphanies all of a sudden and get rid of their whole value system,'' Chudak said.

In 2004, Stronach eked out a win by less than 700 votes as a Conservative.

Although Stronach claimed she had a difference of opinion with Harper on key issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, others viewed the move as political opportunism.

Stronach said that doesn't wash since she left a multimillion-dollar job to enter politics.

Harper isn't "a visionary,'' and will take the country backward in its social policies, she warned.

But Stronach also has star power, name recognition and a solid reputation in her riding to back her up. She rubs shoulders with friends including former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Toronto Maple Leafs player Tie Domi.

In 2004, Time magazine included Stronach in its list of the 100 most influential people.

David Ramsay sympathizes with Stronach's challenge to retain the trust of voters.

Ontario's Liberal natural resources minister arrived at the provincial legislature as a New Democrat in 1985 and crossed the floor to the ruling Liberals within 18 months.

He easily won his seat back in 1987 as a Liberal, becoming the first Ontario member to switch political sides successfully.

"It was tough,'' he said, admitting it hurt him personally since it wrecked many friendships.

But it was "cathartic'' to fight through the election and win under a different political banner, he said.

"People supported me for what I did, so that was total vindication of my decision,'' he said. "That cleared the air.''

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