{"id":346,"date":"2005-05-18T02:11:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-18T06:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=346"},"modified":"2005-05-18T02:11:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-18T06:11:00","slug":"place-your-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"Place Your Bets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While many blogs will no doubt analyze the effect Belinda\u2019s defection to the Liberals will have on Thursday\u2019s vote, the next election and Stephen Harper\u2019s leadership, I am determined to analyze it based on the issue that most Canadians care about \u2013 Parliament Hill gossip. With Peter MacKay tossed aside like a flimsy \u201cno-merger\u201d David Orchard deal, Belinda is no doubt ready to move on. So, the big question is: <strong>Which Liberal will Belinda become romantically involved with?<\/strong> Here\u2019s the early line:<\/p>\n<p>Jean Lapierre (4-1): I\u2019m sure he\u2019d love to start a temporary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.liberal.ca\/bio_e.aspx?&#038;id=24047\">ad hoc rainbow coalition <\/a>with her, if you know what I mean.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Dryden (9-2): Belinda was married to an Olympic gold medalist, so she definitely likes athletes. And it would be fitting that Parliament Hill\u2019s Barbie winds up with someone named Ken.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Volpe (6-1): There\u2019s only one person in Ottawa with larger delusions than Belinda that they\u2019re a legitimate leadership contender and that person is Joe Volpe. In that respect, they\u2019re a perfect match. But would Joe compromise his morals and date a former Klanswoman?<\/p>\n<p>Paul Martin (13-2): Come on. Surely Paul had to do more to \u201cseal the deal\u201d Monday night than offer her a Cabinet position?<\/p>\n<p>Ralph Goodale (12-1): A good prairie boy. The problem as I see it is that, just like Paul Martin, Belinda would leave Ralph for Jack Layton once the going gets tough.<\/p>\n<p>David Emerson (15-1): This guy can bake a really, really big economic pie, if you catch my drift&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Reg Alcock (20-1): Obviously Reg had Belinda in mind when he said they wanted someone \u201chigher in the gene pool\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Brison (25-1): Yes, he\u2019s gay. But he might do it just because he hates Peter MacKay so much.<\/p>\n<p>Place your bets!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While many blogs will no doubt analyze the effect Belinda\u2019s defection to the Liberals will have on Thursday\u2019s vote, the next election and Stephen Harper\u2019s leadership, I am determined to analyze it based on the issue that most Canadians care about \u2013 Parliament Hill gossip. With Peter MacKay tossed aside like a flimsy \u201cno-merger\u201d David [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}