OTTAWA - It was on the family compound over Christmas that Belinda Stronach's retreat from federal politics began.
Long before word erupted publicly of a possible Chrysler takeover, the Stronach household was informed of big changes looming in the family business.
Her billionaire father Frank Stronach turned to the woman he affectionately describes as his twin.
"He asked her about returning to the company,'' said a Liberal source.
"People think of Magna as a huge company, but it really still is a family business. The fact is her dad's 75 years old, and there's no one else from the family (involved at Magna).''
That company will face the stresses of growing pains, restructuring, and new roles for a number of senior executives if the multibillion-dollar purchase comes to fruition.
Against the backdrop of a booming family business Stronach weighed the benefits of a political career mired in neutral.
She entered politics barely three years ago with aspirations of becoming the country's first prime minister under a newly united Conservative party.
A year later, she was a Liberal cabinet minister. The year after that, an opposition critic. Now she's a regular opposition backbencher with no formal role under new leader Stephane Dion.
And then there were the stalkers.
In her high-profile political life, Stronach had attracted enough of them that she was under constant protection everywhere she went. Some of the stalkers called, some wrote, and at least one made it to the front gate of the family compound before being apprehended.
Her final decision was made during the current two-week parliamentary break period -- again in the company of family.
Stronach spoke to her two teenage children, to Magna executives, and to her parents, who live in the mansion next door to hers on the compound in Aurora, Ont.
She finally picked up the phone and informed Dion on Wednesday. He did not try changing her mind.
"She told him she'd like to continue helping with fundraising,'' said a source close to Stronach.
"(Dion) was very gracious. . . He expressed disappointment but knew from the way she told him that her decision was made.''
Stronach had broken the news to her senior-most staff earlier in the week and headed off for a meeting Wednesday with the rest of her constituency workers.
She gathered a half-dozen employees around a boardroom table in the brick heritage building in downtown Aurora which houses her constituency office, and patched her Parliament Hill staffers in by conference call.
Stronach broke the news to Dion just as the meeting was wrapping up, when he returned the call she'd placed earlier.
There were some red eyes in the room but no tears. Much of her staff saw it coming, said the source close to her.
Stronach was compared to a whore by her political opponents -- and, privately, even by some jealous Liberals -- when she crossed the floor and was given an instant cabinet seat.
Her alleged affair with hockey enforcer Tie Domi became public gossip fodder while another onetime boyfriend -- Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay -- referred to her as a dog in the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, Aurora offered proximity to her family, a lucrative career, and the relative freedom and anonymity of private enterprise.
"People have been scratching their heads for a while and asking themselves why she would even stay (in politics),'' said her associate.
