That certainly was a great international junior hockey game between Canada and Russia the other evening. The teams were highly charged and competitive as they went for the gold medal and the hockey was fast and furious. It had you enthralled from beginning to end. It was no time for politics.
But the Hair had to be there. He took off his tie and put on a Team Canada jersey. It was his time to be with Canada’s common people. There is an election in the air.
His day started well. He removed the embarrassing Minister Julian Fantino from his position in Veterans’ Affairs. Fantino went to the boneyard of failed politicians as an associate minister of defence. If the ex-policeman never makes a public statement again, the Hair will be happy.
His next trouble spot was Toronto. He had to beard the lioness of Ontario in her den. If his New Years’ resolution was to try to win some votes, he had to start with Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne. He had to ignore her gaff a year ago in telling the media that he smirked at her. We know that they had to talk about Ontario’s infrastructure support needs from the federal government. We hear that their meeting this time was productive but each will reveal the results in due time.
He also had to prove on the trip that he is a man of the people. Yet he had nobody to take to the hockey game but his RCM Police protection detail. And one of them had to sit on the concrete steps. Tickets were that hard to come by. And that cop looked like he really did not like hockey. Or maybe he did not like that aspect of his job.
Not that the Hair was not bothered. Bell Canada’s TSN was televising the game and we had the highlight of a sports reporter getting a quick interview with the Prime Minister. They were strictly soft-ball questions and the Prime Minister easily lobbed them back.
But nobody wanted to watch the Hair. This was hockey at its best. Those young players could literally fall and bounce back up from the ice. They skated hard, they played hard. They did us proud.
It is too bad that the Hair does not learn things from these young Canadians.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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