[Jack Layton's] spouse Olivia Chow plans to run federally. This is of no surprise to anyone who lives in Toronto or to anyone who reads this blog. Anywhere Jack goes Olivia is sure to follow. Both ran unsucessfully for federal seats in 1996. If she wins look for her to take a key role in the federal NDP which will cause friction and division among party stalwarts.
Remember during last year's provincial election in Ontario the only issue that the media could come up with was the so-called "American style" attack ads that Earnie Eves and his party were running against Premier Promisekeeper.
Fast forward a year later and the Liberal party is also being criticized for so called attack ads they are running against Stephen Harper. The difference? Scan any news article on the Liberal ads and you will not find the words "American style" anywhere.
Remember though: there is no Liberal bias in the Canadian media.
I am often critical of local radio station the Fan 590 but I laughed out loud today while shaving when morning host (and Wal-Mart hater) Don Landry called those Iraqi prisoner of war photos:
"the weirdest Mapplethorpe pictures I've seen in some time"
Honest to God that cracked me up. At the same time I was also angry that I didn't think of that.
Do as I say and then I will tell you how stupid you are.
Scientists who study amnesia and are looking for ready subjects who display classic symptoms should come to Toronto. The entire cadre of sports journalists seems to be absolutely stricken with the disease.
Cox, who also hosts the evening drive show on the Fan 590 with fellow Leaf hater Bob McCowan penned a column yesterday on the morning after the Leafs departure from the playoffs in which he opined that the Leafs are too old and that the remaining final four teams in the playoffs point to a direction that the franchise should be taking.
Namely drafting and holding young players and building a core around them so that the team can be a cup contender 5-7 years from now.
But Cox doesn?t think that the team will do that because?
"That, however, may create two problems. One, the team may have to take several steps backwards to develop a young core and win in the future, and the corporate suits overseeing this operation may not welcome fewer playoff gates in the short-term"
When you are working for the Star and you want your editors not to scrutinize your logic too closely it helps if you blame things on ?corporate suits?. It also helps if you have amnesia. Two years ago the Leafs management was excoriated in the press ? with Mr. Cox leading the charge - for being to concerned with the bottom line.
What did they do?
Well they didn?t go out and sign some of the big free agent names like Bobby Holik (who was paid an outlandish 9 million by New York) or other similar overpriced talent.
The sports media here went into a frenzy claiming unanimously that the Leafs management was sitting on a cash pile so huge that it would fill the Air Canada Center itself but wouldn?t release the money because their nefarious shareholders wanted to get their greedy mitts on it.
This has led to the insta story that gets dredged up on slow sports news days whereby scribes like Cox get mileage out of suggesting that the Leafs have a multimillion dollar war chest to spend on players. Richard Petty who is the President of MLE gets grilled regularly when he appears on any public sports program about said ?war chest? and if he mentions any type of number at all the busy bodies like Cox immediately begin calculating how much ?profit? has been siphoned off and not spent on aging over the hill free agents who if signed will be then criticized by the same busy bodies who will lament that the team is wasting money on old washed up veterans and should be going with a youth movement (as Cox is suggesting now).
Of course no Cox column is ever complete without a mention of his favorite target: Leafs Coach Pat Quinn.
"Second, the team employs a head coach who may be ill-suited to move away from the win-now philosophy"
OK earth to Damian all coaches have a win now philosophy. They may not have the talent on their teams to win some or all of the games they play but they go into every game with the intent of winning. Is he suggesting we hire a coach who will come out and say ? I only intend to win half the number of games that we did last year? would someone like Cox applaud that move?
No he would gnash his teeth and moan over the fact that the ?corporate suits? at MLE are raking in pots of money while the team is under performing and made up of low priced rookies.
So who would Damian install over the dreaded Pat Quinn?
"This Leaf team would be better off next season if it retained a handful of quality vets and installed a new, hungry approach with ? to name one possibility ? ex-Blues coach Joel Quenneville as head man".
If you don?t follow hockey closely Quenneville was fired this year from the St. Louis Blues. This is a team that has never shied from spending money (like the Leafs) has always looked to make a deadline deal (like the Leafs) has performed very well in regular season play (like the Leafs) made the playoffs consistently (like the Leafs) and then bowed out early.
The only difference between these two teams is that the Leafs have won more games over the past 5 years and gone deeper into the playoffs.
So how does Quenneville rate as a better solution when the team is basically Toronto Lite and the coach is basically Pat Qunn Lite?
Well don?t worry Toronto fans Damian will have forgotten what he wrote by next week and if the Leafs hire Quenneville or go into rebuilding mode he will be criticizing both moves as merely profiteering by the ?corporate suits?.
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed
I had a chat with the Toronto Sun on Sunday night re my campaign to nominate Don Cherry as our Greatest Canadian.
The article appeared yesterday but didn't mention the website which is ok I guess because I didn't want my real name used and they said if they mentioned my site they would have to use my name.
I hope that it encourages some of the Sun readers to go and vote for Don. Let's face it most of the people on CBC's suggested list are unknown to the average Canadian or just flat out boring.
Don Cherry is a Great Canadian. Whether he is the greatest or not could be debated by many I am sure. But I'll tell you one thing he has never damaged our country economically like some of those on the list who might garner a lot of votes (no I don't mean Bryan Mulroney).
We have till May 16th to get our votes in for Don Cherry as The Greatest Canadian if you haven't voted yet go to this site: CBC.ca - The Greatest Canadian and cast your vote for Don now!!.
BTW CBC has a list of some "great" Canadians (ok some of them are pretty damn impressive) including:
Rene Levesque, honestly do you think of Canada when you think of him? I would call him a great Quebec Nationalist but I wouldn't call him a great Canadian.
They also have on the list Wayne Gretsky, Paul Henderson (good one), Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, and Mario Lemieux.
Strangely enough Don is not on the list but neither is Don's favorite hockey player Bobby Orr - widely considered by many to be the greatest hockey player who ever played.
