BELINDA STRONACH -CANADA'S PARIS HILTON?
Now here is an interesting life. Belinda's main claim to fame is that she is the daughter of Frank Stronach and his main claim to fame is that he is a tremendously successful entrepreneur who as a child emigrated from Austria and without finishing high school built up a huge auto parts manufacturing empire. So here is a woman with money, power and fame. With the initials BS. How does she handle it? (Not many of us are in this position and its interesting to see how a person would handle it). As we all know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and in this case Ms. Stronach is not just living in the shadow of her famous father she is quite the impressive person herself! Belinda is not only a Canadian success story she is a world class success story!
Belinda became the Member of Parliament for Aurora- New Market in Ontario and is more correctly referred to now as the Honourable Belinda Stronach. She started off in the conservative party and at one time had a romantic relationship with Peter McKay now the Deputy Leader of that party. But, seeing more opportunities for advancement in the Liberal party she jumped ship and joined them gaining a cabinet post by doing so. As you may have guessed this action caused some comments. There is some talk that Peter McKay (also referred to as the Honourable...) called Ms. Stronach a "dog". As many dog owners know this could be considered to be a compliment but apparently it was taken the wrong way and an apology was demanded but not obtained. I digress her for a moment but this whole animal metaphor thing is a tricky feat to conquer -for example you can often get away with calling a man a Pussy but call a woman a Pussy and suddenly you loose your job. A female doggie is correctly called a bitch but call a woman a bitch and again you loose your job. I think its best to deep six the animal metaphors and use a nice safe adjective instead. Now back to the deed at hand...
The media was much more interested in Ms. Stronach's romantic interests due in part to the fact that sort of thing sells papers and most people are perverts. They report that she had an active life in that regard also being the mother of two and the divorcee of two also. Each time Belinda went out with a new man it was front page news. Personally, I don't see it but the press even began comparing Belinda to Paris Hilton. A foolish comparison because unlike Paris, Belinda with her sometimes blond hair doo, actually accomplished things with her life. Paris is still quite young though so we should give her a chance. I think she has potential too. In fact Paris Hilton is no dummy.
Belinda has been eye candy for the media, water cooler talk for bored office workers, a role model for women and single moms, one of Canada's leading executives, a target for envy and malcontents, a political target and a very successful human being. The fact that she is a friend of Bill Clinton and Brian Mulroney and other notables seems to intrigue the press. She was recently noted as one of the 100 most influential women...in the world!! That's pretty impressive! In fact that's amazing!
In April of 2007 Ms. Stronach underwent cancer mastectomy surgery. Best wishes for a full recovery and No I don't think you are anything like Paris Hilton. I think you are a genuine Canadian success story and a person with talent and energy who has done great things. I do think that you have had to put up with a lot of bullshit. Much more than you have shovelled out. Good luck Belinda! And thanks for adding a bit of excitement to Canadian politics which at time as many have noticed ...can be pretty dull indeed.
Update March 27/2008
Ms. Stronach is now back in the private sector working as the Executive vice-chair of Magna International. Magna is big with 83,000 employees in 23 countries. She remains a member of parliament but with a lower profile in the House of Commons and has only voted a few times and spoken twice during question period during since her announcement in April 07 that she was returning to the private sector. She has also had updates with her surgeon in California regarding her cancer treatment.
This story reminds me of the metaphor of two ships passing in the night. I really think Ms. Stronach had the potential to be a magnificent representative for business in the Conservative government and that would have resulted in huge benefits to Canada and Canadian workers. Jumping ship to the Liberals although probably seeming like a good idea at the time proved to be jumping to a sinking ship and she went down with it. What a shame -nearly all the ducks lined up there - then one fell over and all of the little suckers fell down. So to speak. Its unfortunate that the media persisted in covering the stuff that sells papers but really doesn't count. I didn't see one of the rascals comment on the fact that Canada lost a very capable person in Parliament when Ms. Stronach decided to return to her auto parts executive position.
Paris Hilton? Belinda Stronach? Nope not even close. Now Paris looks quite elegant but put her in charge of 83,000 employees and I don't think the poor kid could do it. Belinda can. I hope she re-enters politics at some point but we are in desperate need of industrial leaders too so whatever happens -happens. We need good leaders who are willing to give something back to the country and people who can lead not whine. Not to put too fine a point on it. This Canuck will miss her! But I know where to go for parts when we open our car plant!
LINKS
Magna International Check out the website and look at Magna's Corporate Constitution. That's certainly one of the best I have ever seen and seems to be working well.
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