We love and worship our sports stars. They are paid gazillions of dollars to entertain us. We call them heroes.
Heroes in my books are doctors and nurses and teachers, the people who keep us safe, the soldiers who give their lives.
When an NFL quarterback cures cancer, I will call him a hero.
So when a federal minister comes up with a harebrained idea to honour a hockey player over one of the most significant figures in Canadian history, you have to wonder what he put in his corn flakes.
Maurice Richard was a great hockey player, and to a certain generation he represented something else, and perhaps he did help spark the beginning of Quebec's quiet revolution.
But at the end of the day, he was a hockey player who didn't want anything to do with politics.
Samuel de Champlain didn't score 50 goals in 50 games. All he did was found New France.
Minister Denis Lebel was so convinced that naming the bridge for the Rocket was a good idea that he planned to announce it on December 9th (for non-hockey fans, 9 was the Rocket’s number). How cute was that?
The Tories may be pandering for votes in Quebec but this shows they still don't get it.
Lebel is right to back down on this one, and I'm pretty sure it was more than a “suggestion” from the corner office.
The new bridge should have the same name as the old bridge, pont finale (pun intended).
By Like watching a train wreck
The circus that is the PQ leadership race is so fun to watch.
The most hilarious item to emerge this week was from Jean-Francois Lisée.
He is brilliant, well-spoken, but sometimes he acts like Don Quixote.
Lisée wants Anglos to join his crusade for an independent Quebec.
He is sounding the trumpet for Bold Anglos for Independence.
It sounds like a great idea for a TV show: The Bold Anglos of Quebec.
I can't see it ever succeeding.
Even at his announcement, how many Anglos do you think he had surrounding him for his big moment?
None. Not a bold one, not even a semi-bold one, or a reasonably cautious one or a mildly interested one.
Now Pierre Karl Peladeau, the MNA for Quebecor, and the undeclared front runner whose race it is to lose (unless some troublesome media concentration concerns get in the way) announced he is getting married this week to long-time girlfriend Julie Synder, a powerhouse in the Quebec star system.
They broke up earlier this year only to reunite after Peladeau was seriously injured in a bicycling accident.
Peledeau must have had a bit of a spring in his step as he walked into the caucus meeting at the National Assembly.
Unfortunately it was the Liberal caucus. Oops.
Honest mistake but with the way this guy changes his mind, it wouldn't surprise me if it becomes his permanent home.
I wonder if somehow this TVA wedding of the year will be tied to PKP's run for the leadership? Nah… Not a chance.
Lest We Forget
Remembrance Day may become a national holiday.
On one hand it would be a fitting tribute to those who gave so very much to us. On the other hand, I worry for too many it would be just another day off to sleep in or do some cross-border shopping.
There is something to be said about having our kids in school to learn about Remembrance Day.
One thing is sure, on this November 11th, we have much to think about because we owe so much and they are debts we can only repay in currencies of honour, respect and gratitude.
