Cracks In The Trudeau Veneer
A vulnerable point for public figures, and especially for one as narcissistic and egotistical as Prime Minister JustinTrudeau, is when people start laughing at them. This is what happened after his inane “peoplekind” comment in Edmonton earlier this week. The resulting mockery was universal.
As one writer put it, selfies and socks can only take a person so far. Another wondered if Trudeau had ever heard of Nelson Peopledela? Even the relentlessly pro-Liberal Toronto Star referred to the “unicorns in his brain.”
And that wasn’t even Trudeau’s most odious statement this week. That dishonour goes to his answer to a veteran amputee who questioned him about inadequate compensation for wounded veterans. Trudeau’s astonishingly tone-deaf response was, “You’re asking for more than we can give.” This from a prime minister who had no trouble justifying his decision to compensate terrorist Omar Khadr to the tune of eleven million dollars. The last time I saw Khadr on TV he had all his limbs intact.
You may also recall Trudeau commenting on how he admired the Chinese government.
Then there was his contention that the Aga Khan, a person whom he had seen only once in over thirty years, and then just briefly at his father’s funeral a couple of decades ago, was a “close family friend.”
It’ll be interesting to see if he’s ever sufficiently chagrined to, as the saying goes, engage brain before starting tongue. Given the breadth and depth of this man’s conceit, I very much doubt it.
An Ontario Trump?
The Ontario Progressive Conservative party seems hell-bent on electing a female leader to square off against the unpopular Liberal leader, Kathleen Wynne, and largely invisible NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, in the provincial election this coming June; a strategy that may well have an unintended consequence.
At the moment, the serious contenders are Caroline Mulroney, Christine Elliott, and Doug Ford. Someone named Tanya Granic Allen is apparently poised to run but is unlikely to be anything more than an unwanted distraction for the party. Given that Mulroney is a completely unproven commodity, and that Elliott is a previous two-time loser in Ontario PC leadership races, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they could sufficiently split the vote to allow Doug Ford to come up the middle and win.
Most pundits think it unlikely that this will happen, and even less likely that Ford could beat Wynne in the general election. But there weren’t many people who thought that Donald Trump could win the leadership of the Republican party or had any chance of defeating Hilary Clinton. He’s now President Trump.
The Ford-Trump comparison doesn’t end there. Ford is every bit as toxic to many voters as is Trump, their styles are similar, and their egos are about the same size.
Last Sunday’s Super Bowl
I belong to three different luncheon groups and it happened that all three met this past week, so I heard a lot of discussion about whether this was the best Super Bowl game ever. I don’t know enough about the game of football to opine on that, but I can say without reservation that it not only was the most enjoyable Super Bowl game I’ve ever seen, it was the most enjoyable football game I’ve ever seen.
NHL Players I Played With Or Against
I was asked recently how many NHL players I played with or against.
The number that I played with is pretty easy to come up with, there were two: Barry Ashbee and Billy MacMillan; but I have no idea how many I played against.
Because I played at the top level of bantam and juvenile hockey in the Toronto Hockey League for three years, and then Ontario Junior B for a couple of more, it’s highly likely that I played against a number of guys who made it to the NHL but whose names I didn’t know at the time.
However, I distinctly remember playing against Gerry Cheevers, Dennis DeJordy, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich, Bobby Nevin, Carl Brewer, Len Broderick, Bruce Draper, Fleming Mackell, Jean-Guy Morisette, Simon Nolet, and Alain (Boom Boom) Caron.
Surprise!
Hang on folks, I’m going to praise Gary Bettman.
Commenting on coaches’ challenges, Bettman suggested that reviewers approach them with the simple objective of looking for egregious errors rather than painstakingly looking for an obscure reason to overturn calls. A good move by the Commissioner.