Belinda Stronach, multimillionaire divorcée and recent minister of the Crown, likes sex. She likes athletes' good, hard bodies. Acquaintances say she's partial to younger men. And, being a dude magnet, she appears able to come-hither any hunk who catches her eye.
Canadians, of course, have been down this road before with a public figure.
Pierre Trudeau, multimillionaire divorcé; prime minister, liked dancers, writers, academics, musicians, the odd U.S. heiress — who can forget Texas party blonde Lacey Neuhaus? — in fact, just about anything female and many years younger than himself.
It never deterred anyone in the country from labelling Mr. Trudeau an intelligent, serious public figure.
But welcome to post-gender equality in Canada: Never before have we had a woman politician playing out this narrative. "We're a young country yet," sighed a seasoned Liberal Party insider, who felt it wiser to speak off the record.
Ms. Stronach's three years in public life have been marked by a blizzard of gossip about her being a playgirl ditz, nightclubbing her way through champagne fountains and being dumb as a board with a breast job. (Come to think of it, there was a lot of talk about Mr. Trudeau having had a facelift.)
This past week, the 40-year-old, physically appealing, superbly fit and one-time Conservative, now Liberal, member of Parliament for the suburban Toronto riding of Newmarket-Aurora has been identified quaintly as "the other woman" in a divorce action against former Toronto Maple Leafs player Tie Domi, 36.
He is not her first hockey player. She had an affair with ex-Chicago Black Hawks defenceman Jerome Dupont (as well as Montreal Alouettes defensive end Marc Megna), she acknowledges in a biography that goes on sale next week.
There's Canadian mythology at work here. When he was prime minister, Jean Chrétien told U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci that every Canadian girl dreams of marrying a National Hockey League player, which Mr. Cellucci's daughter, Anne, was about to do.
It's an observation subtly reinforced by Amy Nugent of Edmonton, a doctoral candidate in Canadian politics who studies women in public life:
"It is part of a Canadian woman's genetic disposition to be sexually attracted to good skaters and hockey players, part of our Darwinian struggle. Nothing sets my ovaries humming like the spray of ice from a hockey stop. It's grace, strength, hockey-coach-for-your-kids, the measure of a Canadian man. I was never a puck bunny, but I get it."
Good skaters, yes, as well as hockey players. Ms. Stronach's second husband was Norwegian world speed-skating champion Johann Olav Koss, two years her junior.
All Canadian, she is.
As for sex qua sex, she tells her biographer, Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin, that she loves men and that sex is "great. Better than golf." She goes on: "What better thing is there? Let's face it. I don't sit at home and knit on Friday nights. I'm single. What do you expect me to be — a hermit?"
Exactly. But Canadians have to get used to hearing a woman in public life talk that way.
At which point, they will be able to discover there's a real Ms. Stronach — a person, a politician, attempting to contribute to Canadian public life — beyond the smirks and this week's lip-smacking media coverage of her revealed affair with a man reportedly caught sneaking in and out by the security cameras on his own house. Which admittedly is pretty funny.
And a real Ms. Stronach beyond the media's interest in her shoes (she was astonished and irritated to see a TV cameraman filming her feet as she was being sworn in as a cabinet member at Rideau Hall) and breast-adjustment rumours. Mr. Martin writes that, when asked to comment on the supposed "cosmetic improvements," she snapped: "Have you ever had a rectal examination?"
