This is going to sound harsh, but Jeffrey Simpson's column in today's Globe and Mail shows why his stuff can't be taken seriously.
In a piece entitled "What drove Belinda out," (to get around the Globe subscriber wall, go to Google News here and click on the first link) Simpson claims it was social conservatives who forced Stronach out of the party. He then discounts each alternative explanation of her defection, as if he were writing from Belinda's living room:
If Ms. Stronach hungered for the party leadership, she should have waited for Mr. Harper to fail as Conservative leader, then sought to replace him. A jump to the Liberals made no sense if leadership ambition consumed her, since she isn't going to lead that party any time soon, if ever.
Simpson appears to have no clue how Stronach operates and how good she is at bringing people to her side. She will run for Liberal leader and I'd give her a better chance than not of winning it. Indeed, the next Liberal leadership could be a Brison v. Stronach race.
Simpson also doesn't explore the idea that she may have realized she couldn't win 24 Sussex at the helm of the Tories because the party is too weak in Quebec, one of her principal support bases in the last leadership. She knows she could win the Tory leadership next time around, but could she have become Prime Minister as Tory leader?
It is stunning that as seasoned an observer of Ottawa politics as Simpson would churn out such uncritical copy.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:16 AM
