A STAGGERING DISPLAY OF ARROGANCE
Despite pleadings from an army of public health officials, the federal government, and even his own boss, Premier Doug Ford, for everyone to stay home during the holidays, Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips and his wife trundled off to trendy St. Barts for an extended vacation. Phillips’ office posted a video on Christmas Eve which portrayed him cozily snug beside his fireplace at home, sipping an eggnog, when in fact he was basking in the Caribbean sun, more likely sipping a Pina colada. It’s rumoured that he did a Zoom call from St. Barts with a computer-generated image of the Ontario parliament buildings in the background. And during his absence his office continued to post tweets and pictures suggesting he was still making public appearances in his constituency. The definition of a lie doesn’t have to be stretched much for the video and tweets to qualify, and Phillips actually told a bald-faced one by saying he had left the province immediately after the legislature shut down on December 8th when he hadn’t left until December 13th. Five days is a strange definition of immediately.
As hard as he’s trying to, Phillips can’t possibly rationalize his behaviour. He didn’t, as he claims, make a “mistake.” What he made was an incredibly selfish choice. To make matters worse, it was also discovered that he had taken a pleasure trip to Switzerland in August. Phillips’ reputation is tattered beyond repair and his lack of character has been laid bare. Having been reduced from a highly-respected cabinet minister to a wounded politician with little or no credibility left, his resignation as finance minister was inevitable, and his political future is murky at best. That Phillips even thought about doing this, let alone thinking he could get away with it, was a display of arrogance of, as the saying goes, biblical proportions.
THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Two other high-profile politicians have suffered collateral damage in this tawdry affair, the most seriously being to Premier Doug Ford. Although Phillips hadn’t informed him that he planned to leave the country, Ford found out shortly after Phillips left and should have immediately ordered his finance minister to return home; but he didn’t. Ford’s inaction opens him to charges of indecision at best and an attempted cover-up at worst.
The other is Toronto Mayor John Tory, who although being adamantly critical of people who ignore stay-at-home orders, hypocritically defended Phillips, his long-time friend; a rare misstep for the enormously popular mayor.
MORE TRUDEAU DUPLICITY
In a year-end interview Justin Trudeau said Canadians should be giving thanks “for what unites us.” That’s a pretty rich statement from the second-most divisive prime minister in Canadian history; the most divisive was his father.
CLASS
During Team Canada’s 16-2 rout of Germany on Boxing Day, the Canadians showed a lot of class by not celebrating goals after they’d built a comfortable lead, just skating to centre ice for the ensuing face-offs. I couldn’t help but think that the spirit of Jean Beliveau (for my money the classiest NHL player ever) had descended to Team Canada’s bench. I also thought commentators Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro handled the situation appropriately, simply reporting without hyperbole or embellishment.
DANNY GALLIVAN
While musing about hockey commentators I recalled my favourite Danny Gallivan story. After he first used the term “cannonading drive” during a game, he got either a telephone call or a letter (I’ve heard both versions from people close to the Canadiens) from an English professor at McGill University informing him “there is no such word as cannonading.” Danny calmly provided a three-word reply, “There is now.”
Although he achieved his success in Montreal, Gallivan’s roots were Maritimes through and through. He was born in Sydney, began his broadcasting career on local radio station CJFX while attending St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, and his wife, the former Eileen MacPhee, was from Rustico, PEI.
Like Beliveau, Gallivan was a class act.
SIZE COUNTS
Although it’s been a number of years since size became a major criterion in scouting and signing goalies, it was still surprising to read that Team Canada’s sensational young goalie, Devon Levi, is considered “undersized.” Levi is six feet tall and weighs 190 lbs. I wonder how the late Gump Worsley and Charlie Hodge would feel about this.
In the interest of full disclosure: As a 5’4” 125 lb. goalie I played against many future and former NHL players in Junior B and Senior A hockey. To-day, I wouldn’t even get a tryout. I’ve also been in the company of both Worsley and Hodge who were both listed at 5’8” but I think 5’6” would be more accurate.