I think your disdain for privilege is misplaced here; don't you have a Paris Hilton to despise?
Who said anything about privilege? I'm talking between the ears here sweetie,.....anyone can be rich.
Stronach was too rich, had too short an attention span
Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, April 20, 2007
The Duchess of Windsor is often quoted as having proclaimed the snippet of wisdom that one can never be too rich or too thin.
The late Wallis Simpson, herself so slender and so wealthy following a marriage to her besotted duke, at last has been proven wrong.
Belinda Stronach was too rich.
The auto-parts heiress, Liberal MP for Newmarket-Aurora, was in fact too well off, too indulged, too financially independent to withstand the rigours of being a common, garden-variety politician.
She might have endured in Canadian political life instead of announcing her pending retirement, as she did last week, had she been accorded the status of a party leader.
But given that this did not happen in 2004, when she made a bid for the Conservative party crown, and given that prospects for her leading the Liberal party don't look promising -- with Michael Ignatieff being heir apparent to Stephane Dion and Stronach herself not being bilingual -- she has opted to leave the political stage for better options elsewhere.
What is ironic is that she, of all people, is utterly unsuited to lead a political party. Truth be known, she is unsuited to lead any organization.
Successful leaders above all need staying power, endurance, a stubborn streak to go along with the strategic smarts that ultimately get them where they want to go, often after a great many time lapses. Ask Stephen Harper. Ask Jean Chretien. Ask Paul Martin. There is nothing like hunger in the belly to motivate.
Stronach is not hungry. And anyone who was surprised by her decision to not try to reclaim her seat in the next election is naive.
The record shows that Stronach was a fairly passable politician. A leader? Never.
Ironically, she is returning to the private sector where she certainly will be a leader. She'll assume a leadership position at Magna International Inc. This, however, will result not from personal achievement, but because she's the boss's daughter.
Some would argue that this is Stronach's downfall, in that it may prevent her from ever truly testing herself in life.
There is a pattern in her past. She dropped out of business studies at York University after one year of study to join her father's company. She was married and divorced twice by her mid-30s.
She lasted about a year in the Conservative party, two years with the Liberals.
Quite possibly, things have come too easily to Stronach, who, at 40, owns a mansion in Newmarket on her dad's estate, a historic Old Montreal penthouse, a luxury condo in Ottawa beside the Chateau Laurier Hotel, a Colorado ski chalet and a 5,000-acre Florida farm.
When she left Magna for politics she was earning nearly $10 million annually. You too might not be inclined to sit in a caucus and take orders on party discipline from some House leader if such a posh life beckoned from the background.
It's unfortunate that Stronach lacks the grit required to be a committed politician because, by virtue of her youth, looks and flashy background, she has the ability to draw public attention to both herself as a female role model in politics and to worthy causes, in a way that other, far more extroverted, MPs -- from Deb Grey to Sheila Copps to John Crosbie -- could not.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...c-ace6ca9a68cc