Belinda Stronach’s next act
When Belinda Stronach turned the big 5-0 in May, there was no party, no special trip.
The Toronto heiress — whose family fortune is estimated at $1.4 billion (U.S., 2015) — opted instead for a low-key dinner around the corner from her house at Nao on Avenue Rd. where, she notes, “there were no candles.”
“Every day is a great day,” she said over a cappuccino at the Four Seasons some days later. “Every day is a blessing.” Giving off a don’t-sweat-the-small-or-big-stuff serenity that’s a part of the Stronach arsenal, her birthday philosophy seemed like the M.O. for the way she’s been operating of late: not exactly hiding, but quietly and on her own terms.
It wasn’t always thus. In the mid-naughts — back when Lost was still on the air and “selfie” not yet a word — the woman known simply as “Belinda” was as ubiquitous as “Justin” is today in the Canadian sphere. Living her life in big font, the erstwhile politician and irrepressible businesswoman — known for her party-hopping, in Parliament and beyond, and her vivid romantic resumé — was someone you’d see at Bymark (with her friend Bill Clinton, for instance) or making the charity-round circuits in Montreal (with Prince Andrew on her arm).
Once ranked No. 2 by Fortune Magazine in its list of most powerful women in business, she also made Time’s “100 Most Influential” list (the same list Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made this year), flying into the party for the list in Manhattan where I saw Martha Stewart buttonholing Stronach to tell her, “We need more women in politics!”
Today — after that abbreviated legislative career, a victorious battle with breast cancer, spending a fine fraction of the year at her home in California and a renewed focus on her two children — she’s venturing back into the spotlight. Somewhat.
The lemony beauty is the honorary chair of the arty perennial known as the Power Ball, happening June 2 to support the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Sponsored by Max Mara and spearheaded by the gallery’s power director Gaëtane Verna, the fundraiser is a tent-pole event and Stronach — who says she’s been collecting since she was 20 — was only too happy to be involved.
“I remember not buying Cindy Sherman and John Currin,” she laments, remembering the throughthe-roof-now pieces that got away.
What’s hanging over her sofa these days, art-wise? A video art piece by the legendary Marina Abramovic, she says. It loops. “Takes about 45 minutes and in the dark it kinda scares everyone.”
Stronach’s involvements now run a spectrum: they include the recently opened Belinda’s Place, York Region’s only shelter for homeless women (“I did not ask for it to be named that,” she says) to her romp in the fountain of youth with an investment in the ingestible beauty brand Age Quencher (“it’s beauty from the inside out”) to her partnership in the private equity firm Acasta Capital.
Her principal focus these days? Building the next generation of racing fans in her stewardship of the Stronach Group, the leading owner of horse tracks in America. The demo-shift has involved luring Jennifer Lawrence to a track and also a big VIP tent that Stronach just hosted at the Preakness, a marquee thoroughbred race held every third Saturday in May in Baltimore, Md. “Soho House meets Ralph Lauren,” was the concept for the do.
The family enterprise connects a lot of dots: not only is her daughter, Nikki, a professional rider (she’s jumping all over the world), but her son, Frank, is an in-demand DJ who was on hand to play at the Preakness. Both 20-somethings — their father is Belinda’s first husband, Don Walker — have a great deal of charm, from what I’ve observed.
“My kids are awesome people,” Stronach says. “We legitimately have fun together.”
Asked what her own father — auto parts mogul Frank Stronach — makes of his namesake DJ grandson, she says he’s “into music and young people” though, admittedly, “my dad doesn’t totally understand the DJ world.”
Does she have time for romance? We had to ask.
“Know any candidates?” demurs Stronach, whose paramour parade has included everyone from Norwegian Olympian Johann Olav Koss (her second husband) to Toronto Maple Leaf Tie Domi to, perhaps most famously, former Tory pretty boy Peter MacKay. No, she’s not against the idea of marrying again. No, she doesn’t have a “type.” No, there isn’t currently anyone special.
Yes, she’s remained on good terms with all her exes — except for MacKay. Since their sensational frontpage breakup more than 10 years ago — when she stunned her beau by crossing the floor to become a Liberal — she hasn’t spoken to him. About the woman that became MacKay’s wife, Nazanin Afshin-Jam — activist, writer and a former Miss World Canada — Stronach says she knew her way back when. “She’s cool,” she says.
“Life is great,” Stronach reiterates finally, with an everyday is a birthday beam. “I’ve packed a lot in. Be a good person and have fun. What else is there in life?”