A lot of people will no doubt try and spin Belinda Stronach’s decision to quit politics as a blow to the Liberal Party. But I think we should take a moment of silence for the people this retirement will affect most – the blogging Tories. When you think of the hundreds of jokes at her expense they’ve posted over the past two years and the thousands of insightful comments those posts have generated (“you’re sexist!”, “no I’m not!”), this is clearly the biggest loss to the blogosphere since Jean Lapierre resigned his seat.

UPDATE: As many have pointed out, the highlight of the CBC wire story:

Lower-profile MPs who are not running again are Jean Lapierre from the Quebec riding of Outremont and Bill Matthews from the Newfoundland riding of Random-Burin-St. George.