Regina?? How could I forget a city named after a song. ooops! I heard on the radio today that a kid was told that Regina was named after the Queen, and he said ' well, then what is penis named after?'
hahaha.. but seriously BigBen, i remember Regina fondly as I drove through it at night enroute from Thunderbay to Calgary!!! (oh gawd I'm sooo funny... go ahead you earned your best shot now )
Seriously...
Why do the conservatives self-destruct? Harper camp leaking Stronach camp budget, stronach camp feuding with Harper??/ Camps? holy shit:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...acodalogin=yes
text:
Scolding was the final straw
Leader called her 'too ambitious'
Feud between two has long simmered
ROBERT BENZIE AND SEAN GORDON
STAFF REPORTERS
The end began with a shouting match in Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's oak-panelled Parliament Hill office.
Harper hauled in Newmarket-Aurora MP Belinda Stronach to his inner sanctum last Thursday to, sources say, "read her the riot act."
"You'll never have a future in this party — you're too ambitious," he told her.
"If we lose the confidence vote I will hold you personally responsible," Harper screamed, furious, insiders say, that she had expressed support for some elements of the Liberal budget.
While history might ultimately show him to be right on all three counts, the confrontation was the culmination of a feud that has been simmering since Stronach, 39, finished second to him in the March 2004 Conservative leadership contest.
"There was no outreach for a year after the leadership contest. There's an old saying in politics: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I don't know if Harper read that chapter," one senior Ontario Conservative strategist said yesterday.
The already-tense relations between Stronach and Harper have deteriorated since Christmas and the bad blood has periodically spilled out publicly.
In March, Stronach was furious at leaks surrounding the financial details of her leadership bid that were seen as a retaliation from Harper's people, who in turn were incensed by what they felt were Stronach-led attempts to disrupt the party's policy convention.
More recently, Stronach, received a dressing-down from fellow caucus members after telling an interviewer that her party should reconsider forcing an early election.
"Leadership politics were taking up too much space; she's turned a lot of people against her," said one MP who was at the meeting.
After her meeting with Harper, sources say Stronach "left shaking" for a flight to Toronto, where she was attending the Woodrow Wilson Awards dinner at the Liberty Grand in Exhibition Place that was honouring her friends former Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis and Galen and Hilary Weston.
She told confidantes at the event that she was "very upset" at Harper's comments and the way he and his associates had treated her over the past year.
Former Ontario Liberal premier David Peterson was among those whose counsel she sought.
"She was vulnerable and Peterson was skilful in recognizing that and he moved swiftly," says a Stronach friend who was at the dinner.
"It isn't as if this just developed on Thursday, this had been percolating," Peterson insisted to the Toronto Star yesterday.
"She's a friend of Shelley and mine, I know her kids, she knows my kids, she's been at our place, I've gone skiing with her, we're friends. I'm very fond of her," the former premier said.
"She's very idealistic about the stability of our political institutions. She's not a natural critic; she's not mean-spirited or nasty. She's a constructive person and I think if you put all those things together this was an option that turned out to be realized."
After a heart-to-heart conversation, where she outlined her uneasiness at the Tories siding with the sovereignist Bloc Québécois to defeat the Liberals, Stronach said she called Peterson the following afternoon.
"I said `It was great to see you last night, how are you,' just kind of touching base. And he said `How are you,' and I said `Well, actually I'm reflecting on things,'" she recalled yesterday.
"So as the conversation went on, I said I was seriously considering the options available to me and that included leaving the party. And David said `Look, if you want to serve, perhaps I have another option for you. Would you consider it?' I said it depends what it is, but I'd consider it."
Peterson, who ended 42 years of Progressive Conservative rule in Ontario by signing a pact with Bob Rae's NDP in 1985, plunged himself into the talks.
He immediately called Martin's chief of staff Tim Murphy, a former Ontario Liberal MPP.
"I said this is a possibility here, and what are your thoughts. And of course he was wildly enthusiastic," said Peterson.
"And I said she could be a very important player. She's very capable and so, there were no decisions made, she went back and thought about things, you know it was just back and forth, it was me in the middle."
On Saturday, Stronach was back in Ottawa, at closed-door Conservative election strategy sessions — policed by security guards — at the Delta Hotel with her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, Tory deputy leader Peter MacKay.
One attendee noted: "She was schmoozing and having lunch with people and sitting in the room with everyone taking notes," and that like other Tory candidates, she left with documents outlining "key messages and campaign strategy." Sources groused that Stronach would be able to deliver a full briefing to the Liberals about the Tory election plan.
But a Stronach spokesman said she only attended the introductory session of the party's "candidate college," and a long-time Tory MP who also sat in on the meetings said there were no sensitive discussions relating to the election platform or strategy.
After leaving the Delta, Stronach flew back to her Aurora estate, where she again called Peterson to set up a meeting.
"I was out at her place for about three hours on Sunday, and she didn't meet Murphy until Monday night. Then she had dinner with the PM," said Peterson, who drove up from his farm in Caledon.
Stronach's chief adviser Mark Entwistle, former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney's communications director and Canada's one-time ambassador to Cuba, was also in on the top-secret talks.
"The only people that knew were Mark, Tim Murphy, me and my wife," said Peterson, who flew to Ottawa with Stronach to ensure negotiations went smoothly.
All Sunday there were delicate conversations about the role the rookie MP could play in Prime Minister Paul Martin's government.
Considering what was at stake, observers say it is amazing that the talks were kept secret.
"(Peterson) had had discussions with the PMO and Tim Murphy ... and ... we came to a loose arrangement that evening," said Stronach, adding she felt it was important to meet Martin.
"I wanted to look him in the eye and say, `Look, are you serious about this, are you committed to this, do you really want to bring about democratic renewal and reform because that's what I'm passionate about.'"
The following day, Monday, Murphy quietly met with Stronach at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa for some last-minute discussions on her new post as minister of human resources and skills development and minister responsible for democratic renewal.
Then, Murphy, Stronach, Peterson, and Entwistle went to 24 Sussex Drive for dinner at the Prime Minister's official residence.
They dined on venison medallions, toasted pecans and partridgeberry compote, tiède salad of spring turbot composed of local greens, persimmon, grapefruit and home-pickled onions, young cucumbers with coriander, followed by chocolate semi-freddo, mango terrine, Valhrona chocolate mousse and brandy snap.
"It was a lovely dinner," remembered Peterson.
"Belinda and the PM just talked policy. They talked about their ideas for the country; they weren't making deals. It had been done at this point ... it was a very uplifting conversation," he said.
While the gourmet fare was delicious, Stronach, an auto-parts heiress who has grown up dining at some of the world's finest restaurants, said the conversation was even more fortifying.
"(The Prime Minister) gave me his assurance, I looked him in the eye, he gave me his assurance he is serious about democratic renewal, and I felt that this is a way I can make a contribution to Canada," she said.
It was then back to the Chateau Laurier, where Stronach reportedly broke news of her defection to MacKay, who had known her since before she helped broker the deal between him and Harper that merged the Progressive Conservative Party with the Canadian Alliance in late 2003.
Peterson stressed Stronach's decision was "wrenching."
"It's hard and there's obviously the personal consideration with Peter. She's a strong person, and I thought she handled it with complete composure and class," he said.
For her part, Stronach declined to discuss the apparent end of her relationship with MacKay, although the former couple did speak again yesterday morning before her dramatic appearance with Martin at the National Press Theatre across from Parliament Hill.
In six whirlwind days, the neophyte MP had gone from being scolded by Stephen Harper to being feted by Paul Martin.
"The biggest surprise," said Peterson, "was that it was such a surprise."
With Files From Susan Delacourt