World Juniors honour the Riders

Hockey Canada announced Saturday that the Canadian junior team will wear green jerseys during next year’s IIHF world junior hockey championship in Regina and Saskatoon.

The jerseys are designed to honour the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, and were unveiled Saturday during the Saskatchewan-B.C. Lions game in Regina.

This didn’t happen when the World Juniors were in Vancouver.

Nor should it have.

Go Riders.

It was a game that had it all, from big catches to big hits and even a little controversy. It was, in a word, a “classic.” Due to Grey Cup preparations, McMahon was beyond capacity. There were over 38,000 fans on the edge of their seats on a perfect October afternoon for football – and yet the game was blacked out.

I live 64.2 km away from the cement and dirty white roof of BC Place and when the Roughriders are in town, I am unable to watch the game because of blackout. Now, I could buy a ticket and travel the distance to watch the game in one of the worst places to watch a game in Canada. I love the crowd noise (even though it is piped in) but the game hosts yelling into their microphone to try and get the normally dry crowd going is really annoying.

With gas, parking and the two hours of time to get there it just isn’t worth it. Not to mention that my wife works Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and I have to watch the kids, making babysitting another cost I’d have to budget in for the night.

Blackouts are a thing of the past. The Canucks have no problem filling their seats for 40+ games a year and almost all of their games are televised.

The CFL product is not the problem and it isn’t even the stadium. The problem is that the CFL does not market its players or its game properly. Suitor nails it in his blog post.

Then, there are those who can’t afford to buy season tickets or can’t physically get to a game. And don’t even get me started on the possible marketing opportunities when you show hundreds of thousands of potential new customers your product on what, when it is right, can become the best three and half hour commercial you will ever get. Some owners will argue that it costs them thousands of dollars to lift a blackout, but I wonder how much it would cost to run a three and a half hour advertisement promoting your product on national TV.

Has anyone actually decided to go to a game because it may have been blacked out at home?

John, a simple Google search would tell you who I am. Maybe get one of your pupils to show you how to use a search engine. I’d email you but I guess you’re still trying to get sympatico to come to your house to hook up your email for you.

Kate had a few comments of her own. Thanks for pointing it out Kate, I never would have seen that the doctor wrote about me. For some reason, I never look at his site. Am I allowed to call him a doctor if he isn’t actually a doctor?

Reporting from inside _________ Airport where thousands of angry and frustrated travelers are stranded, this is __________ with ______ news. They aren’t getting the answers they need from Air Canada. _______ is trying to get from Montreal to Newfoundland. He gets put on a flight… it is cancelled, repeat.

Every year, the same old news broadcasters send out the same old reporters to cover the same old story. Let me help with some advice.

1. Don’t fly Air Canada. If another airline is too expensive, take the bus instead. You will probably arrive around the same time at your destination as the Air Canada flight will.
2. Winter doesn’t start in December in Canada. If you aren’t from around here, assume that it will start in September and will end some time in June. Ignore the season listings on your Calendar.
3. If you are wanting to travel during the Christmas season, give yourself an extra week to get there and an extra two weeks to get back.
4. You are flying at one of the busiest times of the season, expect long lines. Bring a friend and a deck of cards. The house of cards you build together will be as stable as the weather.
5. If you are interviewed by a news reporter, have fun with them. Pretend you are in the NHL and use some quality clichés about giving 110%. Repeat clichés regardless of the question asked.
6. Wear a “Global Warming, Please Start Here!” shirt. You’ll find out who you can’t trust really quickly. They’ll be the ones arguing with you, telling you that the awful weather is actually climate change and not winter.
7. If you are near the front of a line, invite someone near the back to go ahead of you. The thanks you get will be worth the whining from the other thousand people.

If you are in Canada, it isn’t unexpected to be stranded in an airport during a blizzard in December. It is also very normal for Air Canada to suck. Why in the world is that news?

Canada is on the whole a gentler, softer and more liberal nation — but there is also less freedom, opportunity, prosperity, competition and dynamism. Canada is well-loved by other nations — but the country has little diplomatic or military clout.

From the WaPo Oops… Wash Times. [via]

Personally, I would rather have Obama than Jack! but only if he comes in third place like Jack! I like Obama because he brings out the Hope and Change in the left rather than the regular despair and complaining. Sorta.

Wendy
OMG.

The only way Dion can show backbone is to step down as head of the Liberal Party and let Ignatieff step up. How the Liberal Party could even have decided that Mr. Dion is the man is beyond me.

Yes, I voted Liberal but only because any other vote could have given the Conservatives a majority. Pretty sad isn’t it.

Umm… didn’t the delegates choose Dion because any other vote would have given Ignatieff the win? The left is so busy voting against the boogeyman that they elect the default.

British and French ministries aren’t commenting on a British newspaper’s report that France will send an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre told CTV’s Newsnet that he believes the French troops will go to eastern Afghanistan to help the Americans.

I went through the whole Liberal Press Release and they didn’t mention even trying to contact MacKay. I guess in their view, putting “Critic:” in front of headlines means they don’t need to provide any balance.

I tried to put away my conservative bias, turn off logic and common sense and I still can’t figure it out. Even if I did feel that drug dealers, murderers and terrorists deserved the same rights as their victims, I wouldn’t be voting for Dion, Rae or Justin. I’d be voting for Jack! and the NDP.

Why? It’s quite simple. Even though their policies would flush the country down the toilet, at least they have policies. The Liberals change their votes (if they even show up) based on the latest polls.

If it wasn’t for the constant free pro-Liberal party advertising in the newspaper and on the television, I can’t see how anyone on the left would vote Liberal over the NDP.

The Liberals are the party of the brainwashed voter.

“We can navel gaze about what this bill will cost today,” Mr. McTeague said in an interview. “The lost revenue would be gained down the road when kids get higher paying jobs.”

I agree. Which is why I also propose dropping the GST to five percent. Oh wait, already done. What did Dion say about that again?

“We are the party of compassion, the party of Kelowna for aboriginals, the party that wants to put the fight against poverty at the core of agenda. We want to invest in Canadians and families, seniors, in regions, and there is no good balance in this declaration of the minister of finance about investing in Canadians and tax cuts.”

Wait a second, won’t more money being saved by families to invest in RESPs for their children… Never mind.

Chop the gun registry or the HRC funding and keep this tax break.