It All Started When Belinda Crossed the Floor

It all started -- this started becoming my life -- back when Belinda Stronach crossed the floor, becoming a Liberal instead of a Conservative. Nearly two years ago now. I can scarce believe everything that has happened since then -- in my life, in Canada. If you had told me back then that Stephen Harper would be our prime minister within months, I would not have believed it. I thought for sure he was a sinking ship. Back then, the Tories were flailing about, and it seemed sort of fitting that their high school branch -- the Teen Right-Wingers of Canada -- had asked me to come and speak at their "convention" (can you call it that when it's teens?), being held at Western University in London, Ontario. That has always been what my career has been like. I never get invited by the big leagues, always the high school version. But still, I felt I couldn't say no. Nonetheless, I was horrified to discover that joining me -- it was a media panel -- in front of the kids would be Charles Taylor and Amos Loewenstein. When I say Charles Taylor, I don't mean one of the many, many Charles Taylors out there. I don't mean Charles Taylor the former president of Liberia, or Charles Taylor the pretentious Canadian philosopher. I mean Charles Taylor, Canada's foremost political columnist, the National Highbrow Tabloid's star! What the hell was he doing -- I wondered at the time -- agreeing to talk in front of a bunch of teens? Maybe his career wasn't going as well as I assumed it was. I mean, he was everywhere -- billboards, TV, radio, his very popular blog. A lot of women thought he was hot stuff, but frankly, he never did much for me. He has a long, skinny face, and his eyes look like they are on the sides of his head, like a horse or a fly. He has a seriously weird nose, moles and a receding hairline. He is tall, though. I guess his success and intelligence are what make women see him as desirable. Whatever. I felt intimidated, though I always knew him to be gracious and polite. The other speaker, Loewenstein, the founder and publisher of the Red Deer Report, Canada's most extreme right-wing magazine, was another matter altogether. It was not a matter of intimidation with him. It was a matter of my being terrified. I had met him once, years previously, with his wife, Rahel. She was an Orthodox Jew, quiet, gentle, very gorgeous, elegant, always with her hair covered and long-sleeved shirts and skirts. He, on the other hand, was known to be boisterous, aggressive, rude, tough, obnoxious, and quite inelegant. He was short and overweight. In other words, he had always seemed an odd match for his wife. He was Jewish, but not Orthodox, I thought. At any rate, at that time, that week that Belinda crossed the floor, the least of my concerns was Amos Loewenstein's marriage. It was dealing with Amos Loewenstein himself in front of our audience. As he was known to be so tough with opponents, so brutal and unforgiving, I was determined to not cross his path when we were up on panel. I was also anxious because I have always hated public speaking, and both Taylor and Loewenstein were expert at it.
So it was with a great pit in my stomach -- one that felt likely to rise and come up in the form of vomit at any moment -- that I boarded the bus that Saturday, four days after Belinda's defection, to London. And that's when my life really changed.