Ponderables
How long is CTV News going to tolerate Joyce Napier’s flagrant Liberal bias? And why doesn’t she just go work for the PMO, or at least go back to the CBC?
Aren’t the seasons too long in all professional sports?
Why do hockey play-by-play callers credit goalies with a “great save” when the shot was straight at them?
And speaking of hockey, has there ever been a better hockey player’s name than former Detroit Red Wing and L.A. King defenceman Bart Crashley?
Things I Firmly Believe
When it comes to refereeing, the concept of “let them play” (which is just a euphemism for “don’t call a penalty even though one is deserved”) has no place in the game. An outcome can just as easily be determined by a non-call as it can by a call; especially in the playoffs where the seasons are four to seven games long.
For the simple reason that he was, at the same time, both the best offensive and defensive player in the league, Bobby Orr has to be the greatest player ever.
Two More Droll Country Song Titles
From Barrooms To Bedrooms
You’re So Good When You’re Bad
Bob Cole’s Farewell Broadcast
Last Saturday’s nationally-televised game between The Leafs and Canadiens turned out to be the perfect farewell for Bob Cole, who was calling his last game after fifty years behind radio and TV microphones doing NHL play-by-play.
Bob’s forte has always been the ability to adapt his voice and pace to what was happening on the ice. Even though it was a meaningless game there were lots of opportunities for Bob to shine. Including the shootout, there were fourteen goals. And 20-year-old Ryan Poehling, playing in his first NHL game, scored a hat trick in regulation time and the game-winner in the shootout. Bob did justice to it all.
Want A New Fridge?
Then you might want to drop in to your nearest Liberal constituency office. It appears as if that’s what someone representing the Weston family did because Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has given $12 million of taxpayer’s money to the Weston-controlled Loblaws grocery chain to help them make their refrigerators more “environmentally friendly.”
Loblaws is one of the more profitable companies in Canada (net earnings of over $700 million last year) and the Westons are one of the richest families in Canada (estimated worth of over $11 billion).
I wonder how far $12 million dollars would go to help solve the environmental problem of mercury in the water at Grassy Narrows? You may remember that Prime Minister Trudeau recently gratuitously insulted an Indigenous woman as she was being escorted from a Liberal fundraiser in Toronto for daring to raise the mercury issue.
While discussing McKenna’s very expensive photo-op with some friends I was asked whether there are any parallels with the Liberals’ affinity for SNC-Lavelin. I’m not aware of the Westons being overtly supportive of the Liberals. But Loblaws did admit a couple of years ago to having colluded with other companies to fix bread prices, a practice that apparently went on for over a decade, and for which their financial punishment could be covered out of petty cash.
Although the bread pricing collusion was relatively minor compared to SNC-Lavelin’s level of corruption, it’s existence does add credence to the notion that respect for the law is not a box that has to be checked on the Trudeau cabinet’s checklist when it comes to doling out corporate favours (especially now that Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Reybould are no longer there).