Tag: Belinda Stronach

Belinda Stronach was the Liberal Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal in the government under Paul Martin.

Stronach famously crossed the floor to the Liberals from the Conservative benches in 2005 saving the Martin government from defeat in the House of Commons.

Prior to this, Belinda Stronach was a contestant for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2004, a contest ultimately won by Stephen Harper.

Stronach is an heir the Stronach family fortune which was estimated to be in the range of $3.12 billion as of 2013. She is the daughter of Frank Stronach, founder of Magna International, an autoparts company.

She is currently the CEO of the Stronach Group which is a entertainment and horse-racing company. The company is also known as 1/ST.

2004 Leadership race: fundraiser breakdown

The numbers are out on the fundraising front for the CPC 2004 leadership election. The documents have been released (h/t BBS) and there are some interesting numbers from the “returns” of the Harper, Stronach, and Clement campaigns.

First, the total expenses of each campaign:
Tony Clement: $826,807
Stephen Harper: $2,073,084
Belinda Stronach: $2,496,482

and now, some interesting numbers from the returns.

Belinda Stronach contributed $3,950,000 of her own money towards her own campaign. Tony Clement, while contributing $0 of his own money, $3,000 was contributed by his family. The Harper family (or at least people named Harper) contributed $3,525.

Power Corp donated $25,000 to each of the three campaigns. EnCana did the same.

John Tory donated to $8,600 to Tony Clement’s campaign.

Belinda Stronach gave $100,000 to Tony Clement’s campaign, while Stephen Harper’s campaign gave $10,000 to Mr. Clement’s leadership bid. Everyone loves Tony…

Stronach did not have any financial support from any member (on quick glance) of the Conservative caucus (House of Commons), while Harper enjoyed wide support through many MPs (or through MPs spouses).

Leadership debate part II

Today at 2pm, Stephen Harper, Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement will be debating the issues on CPAC. This is the final debate between the three candidates before the leadership vote on March 20th. Therefore, I encourage all Conservatives and indeed, all Canadians, to tune in.

For those of you without cable, you can watch it live online at 2pm today

CPAC live feed (please select language below to watch the debate live at 2pm)
English | Français

Leadership Membership Dealine

I’d like to post a reminder to everyone that is interested in joining the new Conservative Party of Canada. The deadline for membership sales in order to vote for leadership is tomorrow (February 29th). You can, of course, buy a membership anytime after this date, but in order to participate in the leadership vote you must purchase a membership by tomorrow.

Here is a link to sign up through the Conservative Party of Canada:
Conservative Party Memberships

Through Tony Clement:
Tony Clement’s membership sales

Through Stephen Harper:
Stephen Harper’s membership sales

Through Belinda Stronach:
Belinda Stronach’s membership sales

Please note that the last date to purchase memberships to vote in the Kingston and the Islands Conservative nomination meeting is tomorrow as well. Thank you to all of you who have signed up through my website. I have been overwhelmed by your level of support. In order to process your membership application before the deadline tomorrow, please sign up through the Conservative Party of Canada’s membership sales webpage. You will still be able to purchase memberships after the deadline from my website, but for now please use the link above. The nomination meeting is on March 22nd and I hope to see all of you there.