Ponderables
Why have I never seen a male harpist?
Could the Green Party, currently leading some polls, actually win the next PEI election?
Why do people say “I could care less” when they mean the exact opposite?
But It’s A good One
The only reason I’m happy to be getting old is the alternative.
Two Things The NHL Needs To Fix
As my regular readers know, I’ve never been a fan of the NHL rule allowing an offside challenge after a goal has been scored. I’ve already written about the absurdity of the “skate on the ice” interpretation rather than whether the player’s skate had broken the inside plane of the blue line, even if in the air. But the change I’d really like to see is that the defensive team cannot make an offside challenge if the goal was scored more than fifteen seconds after the alleged infraction. Enough other plays will have taken place in fifteen seconds to render completely irrelevant an offside that wasn’t even detectable by the naked eye.
Then there’s the illogical playoff structure. In each conference, the first place team should play the eighth place team, the second place team the seventh place team, and so on. The current setup, whereby two high-finishing teams have to play each other in the first round, such as, say, Boston and Toronto if the season ended right now, robs one of the teams of an advantage it earned over the regular schedule and deprives fans of more interesting games in later rounds.
But then what can we expect when the league is run by a former basketball guy and the players association by a former baseball guy.
Last Week Wasn’t Too Bad
Every time I criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau I lose followers. This happens quite regularly, because for those of us who think Trudeau is hopelessly out of his depth he’s the gift that just keeps right on giving. But last week I lost only two Facebook friends and no Twitter followers at all, which really isn’t too bad.
Trudeau’s Cabinet Shuffle
Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle on Monday held a couple of surprises for me. The first was that Environment Minister Catherine McKenna wasn’t bounced from her portfolio. As I mentioned last week, her main skill seems to be annoying people. The other surprise was Seamus O’Regan being given the indigenous services portfolio, one that requires a high level of empathy and a deft sensitive touch, neither of which were in evidence during O’Regan’s tenure as minister of veterans affairs.
No matter how hard Trudeau and the PMO try to spin it differently, Jody Wilson-Raybould being moved from justice to veterans affairs is obviously a punitive demotion. It’s said that she had some difficulty dealing with her to-do list and is rumoured to be difficult to get along with, charges which she vigorously refutes.
Jane Philpott being named as Scott Brison’s replacement at treasury board is well-deserved. Philpott has proven herself to be a first-rate cabinet minister, on the same level as Chrystia Freeland, both of whom are deputy prime minister material.
There are two fresh faces. Newly-minted justice minister David Lametti appears to be a solid appointment. But the creation of a new portfolio, rural economic development, and the appointment of rookie Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan as its minister, look like cures for which there are no known diseases, unless Trudeau’s necessity for a Nova Scotia replacement for Scott Brison and his overweening obsession with his version of gender equality count.
And Speaking Of Brison
If anyone believes the real reason Scott Brison resigned his treasury board ministerial post and announced that he will not run again is to spend more time with his family, then I have some potential gold-mining properties in PEI they might want to buy. It will be interesting to see how tarnished Brison emerges after being cross-examined by Marie Henein in the Vice-admiral Norman trial. It will also be interesting to see how long the Trudeau government can continue to stall these proceedings before getting their knuckles rapped by the courts. The Liberals clearly don’t want the trial to commence before the upcoming federal election.