Sayonara, Stronach

As you've probably heard, the Honourable Belinda Stronach announced today that she's stepping down from politics to re-enter the business world that she left only three short years ago.

Stronach became a poster child for liberal feminism (see this excellent Tyee article from a couple years ago) when her ex-colleagues in the Conservative party had a field day bringing out their favourite sexist slurs. But is she actually a feminist?

I think that anyone who has aligned themselves even briefly with the Conservative Party of Canada is on pretty shaky ground in that regard, but let's look at her track record, courtesy of the Hansards and a fantastic website called howdtheyvote.ca (started by a Kamloops kid, by the way):

• For two years, Stronach has sat on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women to some good effect. She participated frequently in Committee talks and often took Bev Oda to task for the Minister's cuts to SWC;
  
  
• Back in the days of her battle with Stephen Harper for the CPC leadership, she came out as pro-choice and a supporter of gay rights (an arguably bold move considering the electorate to which she was hoping to appeal);
  
  
• As everyone knows, she voted in favour of "An Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes" (e.g. the same-sex marriage bill), going against the CPC party line in its first and second readings;
  
  
• She voted against two Conservative attempts to raise the age of consent for sexual acts from 14 to 16;
  
  
• Stronach chaired the National Liberal Women's Caucus in 2006 which published its well-intentioned, if frosting covered Pink Book of ideas for women-centred policy alternatives;
  
  
• She was a role model, not perhaps for her achievements while in office but because she did not back down in the face of immense criticism from her detractors who evidently took issue with a young single mother daring to join their fray;
  

She remains a fiscal conservative and a product of white, upper-class privilege, but so do many of the women who lead the fight for equality in this country. Kim Campbell-style, she played the "call me Belinda" card a bit too much for my liking (see her website for example), and she rarely voted outside party lines. But despite all that, plus her many publicity gaffes and failure to accomplish much of substance during her tenure, I would say that Belinda Stronach did, in a limited sense, represent feminist values while in office.

Incidentally, her departure may seem an unfortunate blow to a Liberal party struggling to fight gender imbalance among its MPs, but it may actually be a boon: now Dion can fly in a female candidate of greater skill and substance. Too bad for the people of her riding that Martha Hall Findlay was already shuffled off to Willowdale.