The Written Word
for October 8, 2000

A couple of thoughts today.

They’re saying that the McSorley decision wasn’t about the NHL and their policy … that it was just an aberration. Moreover there is moaning that this will make the enforcer’s job more difficult and will "hurt the game" because the fast, smaller players like Bure and Kariya will be given a hard time. Well the late and great New York sportswriter Dan Parker had it about right when he said "hockey is the greatest game in the world – it has to be to survive the people who run it."

There is another way to make sure that the entertaining players like Bure and Kariya can delight the fans – that’s to call the rules. If the rules were called there would be no need for enforcers. And another thing – the rules should be called the same in the last few minutes of the game and in overtime as they are in the rest of the game. It is this illogical rule enforcement that has hockey only marginally a real game. You don’t see officials in football games not calling penalties because the game is nearly over … or umpires in baseball saying "oh, what the hell, it’s the ninth inning so let’s say he was safe at first."

On another matter, Ujjal Dosanjh must be desperate. He’s jumped on the Trudeau bandwagon and wants us to help him find a suitable honour to bestow on our fallen former leader. This is the man who gave B.C. the finger and generally showed no interest in this part of the country. Here is the great civil libertarian who, for a murder and a kidnapping in Quebec put British Columbia under martial law. This is the man who wiped out our oil and gas industry to keep cheap fuel flowing into central Canada. This is the man Mr Dosanjh’s party opposed throughout his entire career.

This is cynicism and hypocrisy as can only be practiced by a desperate politician.

Finally, Jean Chretien is determined to run on Pierre Trudeau’s shroud but might find it backfires. For what the Canadian people liked about Trudeau were his charisma, his eternal youthfulness and his flair. If you outline the policies of Trudeau over his reign you’ll find they mostly bring back bad memories. Certainly Jean Chretien won’t want to be talking about huge deficits ands debt, the National Energy Policy or Trudeau’s disdain for Western Canada. He will be conjuring up memories of the Trudeau style.

The problem is that the man who best personifies the characteristics of Trudeau’s that people found attractive is none other than Stockwell Day. It might not look that way at the outset but I’m willing to wager a dime or more that this is the way it’ll turn out.

Though he’s not much for thinking in the first instance, Jean Chretien might want to re-think the notion that he will carry the Trudeau nostalgia through to victory.