Shane Doan's supposed crime? Belligerent Liberal MP Denis Coderre says Doan once called a hockey linesman a frog. Doan denies the incident ever happened. Doan has even gone so far as to take Coderre to court to get him to retract his accusation, and be compensated for the resulting impact on Doan's reputation.
So it was no surprise when this issue surfaced in Parliament with Coderre henchman, Liberal MP Marcel Proulx, carrying the torch for Coderre, who can't comment on the matter (conveniently) due to ongoing litigation.
So why does all this matter? Well first off, it's stupid.
Secondly, the Conservatives are currently getting grief from all the media focus on their embattled Defence Minister, Gordon O'Connor. So what do you do when you are catching flak from one controversy? You change the channel by creating another controversy.
There will be plenty of Canadian media interest if Yzerman et al appear before the Committee. The Conservatives should be a loud voice of reason on this issue, and the defenders of Canadian hockey. Video clips of the proceeding would see petty Liberals picking on hockey greats, and Conservatives decrying the waste of taxpayer dollars such an exercise will surely be.
I'm sure the politicians might be startled to know this, but the NHL playoffs are on, so Canadians aren't very interested in what is happening on the Hill right now. What they would be interested in however, is a Liberal attempt to mess with Team Canada's ability to win the World Hockey Championship. And they would certainly take notice if the Conservatives raised the volume on this issue, and painted the Liberals as haters of everything hockey.
The Liberals have given the Conservatives a great opportunity here to draw attention to the Liberal anti-hockey hysterics, Coderre's petty vendetta against Shane Doan, and in the process lock-up the hockey vote and move attention away from the Defence Minister.
That all this is happening while there are still two Canadian teams in the playoffs, and the Shane Doan led Team Canada is likely to bring home the gold...is too good an opportunity to miss.
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7 comments:
All good points, which I'm sure Harper can play for maximum advantage. The Libs seem so fixated on regaining ground in Quebec, that they are overlooking the negative side-effects of this dumb move.
But the Libs might have another reason for changing the channel again (Native apology being the last diversion)--they are scared shitless of being asked about why they aren't forcing a non-confidence vote over Bill C30.
The olnly slight problem with Harper playing politics is that his Party voted FOR the BLOC Motion...pots shouldn't call kettles black.
"Video clips of the proceeding would see petty Liberals picking on hockey greats, and Conservatives decrying the waste of taxpayer dollars such an exercise will surely be"
... all fine except it was a Bloc motion and the Conservatives voted IN FAVOUR of wasting taxpayer dollars for this farce of an issue.
No one in Ottawa is looking good on this. Just degrees of bad.
While we're at it let's resurface Denis Coderre'a march of solidarity with Hezbollah during last summer's war with Israel. Scumbag.
I agree all the parties look bad, that's why I am suggesting the Cons should NOT play along any further, and should instead turn the tables.
Always safer to be on the side of Hockey in Canada.
Go Sens Go!
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Doan called the referee a "FUCKN FRENCHMEN", not a frog. The Captain of Team Canada is a racist. He shouldn't represent Canada abroad and certainly not funded by the canadian government.
Hockey Canada made a big mistake. BTW, Doan's case against Coderre was dismissed and Coderre is suing Doan for 45 000$.
Ah..no he didn't, no he isn't, yes he should, no they didn't, and no it wasn't.
Obviously you've attended the Coderre school of fact checking.
I'll take special exception with your statement, "Doan's case against Coderre was dismissed".
Here is one of, oh, only 40 articles that prove you wrong. You'll find the last sentence of the article of particular interest.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/30/doan-captain.html
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