PONDERABLES
Has anyone actually ever seen a bag of hammers?
Why doesn’t the NHL realize the outcome of a game can just as easily be influenced by not calling a penalty as it can by calling one?
Recent NHL supplementary punishment decisions cause me to again ponder how can Gary Bettman possibly think former goon George Parros, the current head of the NHL’s so-called player safety department, whose record in 474 NHL games was a paltry 36 points while amassing 1,092 penalty minutes, is qualified to fill that job?
When play-by-play callers bellow “Are you kidding me?” after a great play, exactly whom are they asking?
Is there a better example of broadcast idiocy than Sportsnet and TSN devoting so much time and resources to their incredibly boring NHL trade deadline broadcasts?
Is Blue Jays owner, Rogers Communications, too cheap to put the players’ names on their jerseys for spring training games, or is it just another example of its utter disdain for their fans?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
The uniforms the Toronto Maple Leafs wore last Wednesday night against the New Jersey Devils were the ugliest in NHL history.
Justin Trudeau wearing gaudily colourful socks at deadly serious international meetings is selfishly disrespectful and an embarrassment to Canada.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAF GOALTENDING
Leaf GM Kyle Dubas chose to stand pat wth goalies Jack Campbell, Petr Mrazek, and Erik Kallgren rather than acquire the proven (and available) Marc-Andre Fleury, so coach Sheldon Keefe now has to decide which of the three goalies to use game-to-game. His dilemma reminds me of a line in Kris Kristofferson’s hit song Sunday Morning Coming Down: “I fumbled through my closet …. and found my cleanest dirty shirt”
THE LIBERAL/NDP CONUNDRUM
No one seems to know what to call whatever it is the Liberals and NDP agreed to this week. Because there are no NDP cabinet ministers (nor is it likely there ever will be) it’s not a coalition. And even though the hapless Jagmeet Singh thinks he’s been to the altar, it has none of the characteristics of a marriage. The official title agreed to by the parties is a “supply and confidence” arrangement; an inanely meaningless term. The most accurate description was provided by Conservative interim leader, Candice Bergen, who characterized it as “a Justin Trudeau power grab, guaranteeing he will be in power until 2025.”
Both the people who are toasting the deal with champagne and those who are losing sleep over it would do well to remember it was highly unlikely there would be an election before 2024 in any event. Also, for the following reasons, this arrangement, whatever it is, is destined to crumble under its own weight.
1. The many disgruntled NDP MPs who have instantly become completely irrelevant may well not fall in line and will be a lasting burr under Jagmeet Singh’s saddle.
2. Liberal MPs who have become lower in the decision-making pecking order to make room for the few NDP MPs who now will have to be listened to will probably be even more disgruntled, and will be unhappy Liberal caucus campers.
3. Centrist Liberal MPs and party power brokers who fear this is obviously a step too far to the left that will result in voters defecting to the Conservatives will also be bending Trudeau’s ear.
4. Much of what Jagmeet Singh is insisting the Liberals do is dependent on provincial agreement, which is far from assured.
5. As Jagmeet Singh was already nothing more than a Trudeau lap dog, not a real party leader, the arrangement is a cure for which there’s no known disease.
6. There are no enforcement provisions.
7. The cost of what Singh wants may itself be weighty enough to itself cause the deal to crumble.
8. Most important of all, Justin Trudeau has shown time and again he can’t be trusted to keep his word.