TORONTO - Two weeks after announcing her planned departure from federal politics, Belinda Stronach outlined her plans to remain active in public life through humanitarian causes Wednesday.
The Liberal MP made headlines earlier this month when she announced she wouldn't run in the next federal election, and would instead rejoin her family's multibillion dollar empire Magna International Inc.
During a promotional announcement in Toronto for the "Spread the Net" campaign aimed at raising funds to buy and distribute 500,000 bed nets in Africa to prevent the spread of malaria, Stronach said her role in the public sphere would now continue via her charitable work.
"I didn't leave politics because I don't have an interest in public service and the issues, I left for other reasons, family reasons," said Stronach.
"There's many ways to be involved in the issues and public life, and this is one of the ways to do that," she said.
Stronach, who often received more attention for her personal relationships than her contributions to public policy, said she hoped her charitable work would have more of an immediate impact.
"I will be dedicating increasingly more time to humanitarian issues," she said. "And in this case, the goal is to protect children in Liberia and Rwanda as they sleep."
Stronach co-founded the "Spread the Net' campaign with comedian Rick Mercer last November in a partnership with UNICEF, after the two visited Africa in 2004 and saw first hand the devastating affects of malaria amongst children in Africa.
"We were affected like anyone would be," said Mercer. "But we learned there was a very simple, tangible solution, and the solution was bed nets."
He said that on their return to Canada, the two collaborated to figure out how to raise funds for this initiative.
For Stronach, one solution was by tapping into her vast network, said Susan Smith, a communications consultant helping to run the campaign.
"Having someone like Belinda is incredibly effective on a campaign like this...because she is able to bring other people to the cause."
Through her network, Stronach was able to help raise funds to purchase 33,000 bed nets for the campaign.
The charitable donation was presented to Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf when she came to Canada earlier this month, in a visit Stronach was instrumental in arranging.
According to UNICEF, malaria is the largest killer of children under five in Africa, and more than three thousand children die from the disease daily.
