PONDERABLES
Because he’s only 24-years-old and has played only 382 games, but is already 10th on the list of Toronto Maple Leafs career goal scorers, 18th among Leaf career point leaders, and 6th on the NHL’s all-time goals-per-game list, is Auston Matthews already the most prolific Maple Leaf scorer ever?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
The only thing that will stop Putin is the Russian people turning against him, and the best way to accomplish that is to seize all of the Russian oligarchs’ assets and forbid their international travel.
IT WAS PAINFUL
Twisting in the wind, turning into a pretzel, disappearing up their own armpits, are all slangy descriptions of how Justin Trudeau and the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, Marco Mendicino, looked on TV last Wednesday. They were trying to explain why on Monday the approval of the Emergencies Act was a vote of confidence in the government, but then less than forty-eight hours later it was no longer needed. They were utterly unconvincing. Mendicino looked liked he’d rather be having a root canal without freezing, and Trudeau looked like a man who had completely lost it. Of course, there are a lot of us who have always believed he never had it.
WHO WILL BE THE HEALERS?
There is no question our country is in desperate need of healing, but who will be the healers? It will certainly not be Justin Trudeau nor Pierre Poilievre. Justin is proving to be even more divisive than his father; a feat that any of us who lived through the Pierre years thought was impossible. Poilievre loves his attack-dog role too much and seems to not even know the meaning of the word “compromise.” And it’s in a spirit of compromise that healing must begin.
KUDOS TO SOLOMON AND RICHARDSON
Covering the liberation of Parliament Hill last weekend while in the midst of the action, CTV’s main political commentator, Evan Solomon, faced every type of interference imaginable, including physical threats and being spit on, all the time calmly providing balanced and professional commentary. In the studio, CTV Ottawa’s evening news anchor, Graham Richardson, provided flawless analysis. Solomon’s courage and aplomb were outstanding, and Richardson seemed to instinctively sense what viewers wanted to know.
Both performances were award-worthy.
ANARCHISTIC RINGLEADERS
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an anarchist is a person who “rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power.” This exactly describes Tamara Lich and Patrick King, the ringleaders of the “truckers” outrageously obnoxious assault on Ottawa. Add their obstinate and deplorable behaviour during their bail hearings, and jail time is clearly warranted. The inescapable fact is these two miscreants are unrepentant authors of their own misfortune.
VOTE-GETTING, BUT BAD ECONOMICS
Ontario premier Doug Ford’s decision to abolish the annual automobile registration fee and to refund those paid after March 2020 is bound to be a vote-getter in the Ontario election in June; but it’s bad economics. It’s going to cost the government about $1 billion in revenue intended to offset the cost of building and maintaining highways. Vehicle registration levies are perfectly justifiable user fees.
COMPARING LEMIEUX AND GRETZKY
Wayne Gretzky played 1,487 games, scored 894 goals, and had 1,963 assists for 2,857 points. Mario Lemieux played 915 games, scored 690 goals, and had 1,033 assists for 1,723 total points. Gretzky scored 1.921 points per game and Lemieux 1.883, a paper-thin difference of .038 per game. Due to injuries and cancer, Lemieux missed the equivalent of almost five full seasons. Because it was in the prime of his career, it’s safe to assume he would have maintained his scoring pace. His projected career figures would have been 1,121 goals and 1,679 assists for 2,800 points.
Considering that during the years they played, the Edmonton Oilers had teams far superior to the Pittsburg Penguins, and Gretzky always had a couple of goons whose only job was to protect him, a case can be made that Lemieux was every bit as good as Gretzky, and perhaps even a tad better. At the very least they should always be mentioned in the same breath.