Random Thought For the Day

I was reading this article in the Star and a thought occurred to me: maybe Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal really did make a deal with the Liberals - and everything we've seen in the past couple of weeks has been him fulfilling his part of it.

If so I sure hope he got something good in return or the Liberals really ripped him off.

UPDATE: On second thought, this mess makes the Liberals look bad as well as the Conservatives - it must be an NDP plot. And of course, Ujjal Dosanjh is a former leader of the NDP party in B.C. - before *he* suddenly switched parties to join the (federal) Liberals. One switches ahead of time to act as the inside man and another comes along later and pretends to want to switch thus making both the Liberals and Conservatives look really sleazy - brilliant!

With this kind of genius planning, Greg may be right and we could be looking at an NDP government in no time.

There Has to be a Logical Explanation...

for this.

It's not that Stronach would be a bad fit with the Liberal party, but, notwithstanding the offer of a cabinet position, the timing of the move just seems really strange and poor (from her perspective). Maybe I underestimate the level of tolerance in political circles for people who switch parties or maybe I underestimate the fatigue of voters with the Liberal party, but it doesn't seem like a smart move to me.

Applying one part random guesswork, two parts vague memories of the movie 'Trading Spaces' and 0 parts Occam's Razor here is what I think is really going on.

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Cut to three years ago, the scene is a windswept turret in a fairytale castle nestled somewhere in the Austrian alps. A father and daughter are having breakfast.

DAUGHTER: "You know what, I'm tired of business, I think I'll become a cabinet minister"

FATHER: "Just like that?"

DAUGHTER: "Sure, I'm rich, attractive and moderate - how hard can it be?"

FATHER: "Well, it *would* make lobbying the government even easier than it is now, but you've never been involved in anything remotely related to politics - it's not as easy as it looks, you know"

DAUGHTER: "I don't have to be good, I just have to have connections."

FATHER: "Point taken. But still, it will take time, do you really want to devote ten or more years of your life to such a thankless task?"

DAUGHTER: "I'm pretty sure I can be a Cabinet Minister in three years"

FATHER: "No Way"

DAUGHTER: "Way!"

FATHER: "Wanna Bet?"

DAUGHTER: "You're on. $5 million to the winner"

FATHER: "Sounds good - just do me one favour, run for the Conservatives all right? This castle has some serious upkeep, so the more business friendly the government we have in power, the better.

DAUGHTER (smiling): "We'll see".

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Hey, it could have happened that way...

Update: On second thought, the scene I described is pretty implausible. There's no way Frank would have minded Belinda joining the Liberals from the very beginning.

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Note: There's lots more (serious) commentary all around the wonderful world of Canadian blogs: For example, Andrew and Timmy both have some commentary and roundup.