12 April 2007

Canary in the Coalmine

Belinda quits politics.
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2 comments:

Harold Jarche said...

Maybe she couldn't stand the heat of a pseudo-democracy. It's much easier being a managerial corporatist.

Mark Federman said...

Perhaps. I think she misplayed the Liberal leadership convention and is now marginalized with respect to power and influence in the Liberal caucus. Rather than potentially going down to defeat in the upcoming federal election, she got while the getting was good, so to speak.

It's very clear that Belinda enjoys power and influence, which represent a particular configuration of four of the five valences (socio-psychological, identity, and to lesser extents, economic and knowledge). Being marginalized in the party means that her top two valences are significantly diminished, weakening her ties to the party, and making "going home to daddy's business" (yes, that's an unfair characterization) a much stronger pull.