The Globe And Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star have proved that personality trumps policy. Faced with two big stories on Wednesday April 11 –- Belinda Stronach taking her leave of the federal Liberals and a couple more Canadian soldiers struck down in Afghanistan –- all three papers awarded Stronach the lead story and a large picture for their Thursday editions. The national dailies rendered their judgment and ensured one thing: Belinda Stronach’s celebrity would endure.

The decision was understandable. Mere days earlier, six Canadian soldiers were snuffed out on the killing fields of Kandahar province and, while a difficult, troubling matter, not much more could be said about another two good men lost in the fog of war. The Stronach story, on the other hand, dripped with convenience. The news copy essentially wrote itself or could be easily recycled, and the hoary details of a presumptuous and avaricious woman provided ample ammo for “I told you so” editorials, also recycled. With another strong, forceful, and unpredictable woman, Barbara Amiel, temporarily providing no theatrics (and the Conrad Black trial slipping into the yawn-inducing miasma of non-compete agreements), the search for fireworks settled on Stronach.

In truth, both Stronach and Canada’s role in Afganistan are about confusion – the Conservative-cum-Liberal trying to sort out her identity in public; Canada’s defence-or-offense-or-foreign-aid-or-huminatarian-wedge activities in Kandahar utterly bewildering. In such a circumstance, it is better (or at least easier) to be confused on the side of a controversial personality than on an ill-considered policy. But there is also the sad point that Canada is “growing up”: that its tales of dead soldiers can now be told down the ledger. (A result somewhat ironic, given all the conflated converage of Canada at Vimy Ridge and Canadians today in Afghanistan.)

While it was no secret inside Ottawa that Stronach was preparing to go, there were some interesting things said in the immediate aftermath of her departure, most notably by the new executive vice-president at Magna International herself. I caught wind of one on cbc’s As It Happens. Interviewed by Carol Off, Stronach said that she thought she could do more for the public in private life.

As the role of the federal government itself is being brought into question by the Harper Conservatives’ steady devolution of power and money to the provinces, she might be onto something. One can only hope that debate will now swirl around Stronach’s striking summation, that editorial copy inches will be devoted not to “blond ambition,” but whether Canada can survive and flourish without Ottawa and if devoting oneself to public service is worth the inevitable private grief.

Regarding Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, as with the United States in the Vietnam War we are destined to only learn the full and layered truth long after the fact. This does not mean, however, that we should not diligently pursue partial stories: To what degree has the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade been marginalized? Has the notion of regulating poppy production and legalizing heroin sales (for the world market in morphine- and codine-based painkillers) gained any traction in offical Ottawa? Was Peter McKay’s trip to Pakistan to speak with President Musharraf about cross-border Taliban insurgencies consequential in any way? Is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan in Canada’s national interest beyond doing a favour for –- and shoring up our relationship with –- the United States?

Perhaps most importantly, are Stephen Harper’s policy decisions vis-Ã -vis Afghanistan informed by General Rick Hillier, military historian Jack Granatstein, and reading the “love thy troops” dispatches from Christie Blatchford? Pace Belinda Stronach’s newly informed belief in private practice, is Canada’s approach to the Great Game being determined by unelected officials like Patrick Muttart (whose entry on Wikipedia is a stub) and Ian Brodie (who at least merits considerable running text)? Is Harper essentially a Straussian, contemptuous of the public will, and, if so, is Belinda Stronach right? Did she not only get the picture, but also, finally, see the light of day? Go Chrysler Go. With so many buy-outs going the other way, a big Canadian purchase of a big American firm would prove Stronach’s point. Run Belinda Run.

And who is “informing” Stéphane Dion, anyway? Wouldn’t Canada’s former “natural governing party” be better off fielding a full slate of candidates? Where is Stronach when you need her?

Ken Alexander
Editor, The Walrus

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Posted on Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 10:32 am. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.