Hot Takes – Feb 11, 2021
Every Thursday I join Round One on NEWSTALK 1010's Moore in the Morning to take on the issues of the day with a panel of pundits. Here's my take on today's topics.
1. Is Kyle Lowry looking for an escape? Maybe. Or, maybe he just wants to cash in on the appreciation of this mega-mansion he can’t live in until the end of the pandemic. Maybe his kids don’t go to the same school they did when he bought it. Maybe it’s too drafty. Maybe, he’d rather have a penthouse condo downtown. Maybe he’s got marital issues. Maybe there’s bad feng shui. Who knows why people sell things?
2. Drunk Tom Brady tosses trophy in drink. Who cares? I mean, honestly. Brady is a phenomenal athlete and talented football player. If he decides to imbibe to the point of drunkenness in a safe environment, where there are people around him to keep him safe and stop him doing something stupid, I don’t care. If the Lombardi Trophy ends up in a lake, I don’t care. It’s not the Stanley Cup. It’s not the Grep Cup. It’s not 100+ years old. It’s a new statue every year. There’s a Raiders of the Lost Ark style warehouse full of them somewhere. If they happen to lose this copy of the trophy underwater, they can get a new one by same-day Amazon delivery if they have Prime. The only thing about the trophy that’s old and historic is the centenarian billionaire they award it to after the SuperBowl. They give the tropy to the owner of the team – not the players. After the owner slobbers all over it and passes it around to his sons and grandchildren, it gets tossed off the platform to the crowd on field – with luck, some of the players who earned it might actually get to touch it. I respect those players. I don’t care what they do with the statue.
3. Larry Flint dead at 78. The big news is, Larry Flynt was still alive. It gives hope to fat, diabetic, sedentary slobs like me. He was a standard bearer for free-speech – but he didn’t set out to be. He was a savvy, irascible businessman who liked sex and who recognized that everyone else does too. He built a profitable empire on that primordial urge. When powerful puritans tried to get in the way of his profits, he fought back. His defence of free speech – his own first, then others – emerged as a by-product of defending his smut business. And, he would call it smut, I’m sure.
4. Bruce Springsteen charged with DUI. Who cares? Shame on Jeep, though, for shooting a commercial with Springsteen after he was charged with drunk driving – and either not knowing about it, or not caring. TV commercials are expensive. What a shame to waste millions of dollars on scenes you can’t use. The good news for Jeep is that I am a dead-ringer for Springsteen and I have time on my schedule to re-shoot a few closeups to save the ad!
5. Senate votes to expand access to Medically-Assisted Death. Every once in a while, the Senate does something worthwhile. This is one of those times. We already have living wills that legally prescribe what you want done in the event you are incapacitated – i.e. when you want your plug pulled. The Senate is just building on that precedent in a way that will inevitably save years of life. We’ve already had a number of cases in Canada where people killed themselves or requested a medically-assisted death years before they might have, because they needed to act while they were able to. This amendment will allow people to live longer and still die with dignity on their own terms. If the government is smart, they will accept the amendment and not strip it out when the Bill comes back. Let the unelected senators carry the water on this, essential but politically touchy improvement.
6. Traveller tried to enter Canada with fake COVID test. Fraud is fraud. This guy is alleged to have falsified an official document in order to board an aircraft and enter Canada. Believe it or not, there is a specific section of the Criminal Code of Canada that prohibits this. Section 393(3) states: “Every one who, by any false pretence or fraud, unlawfully obtains transportation by land, water or air is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.” Even worse, this guy had the virus and boarded an aircraft knowing he had the virus – that’s why he forged a negative test. He seemed intent on entering the Canadian population, putting Canadians at risk of infection. That’s criminal negligence. Charge him. Jail him. Let the courts decide on an appropriate punishment.
7. Is Trudeau angling for a Spring election? Yes. He has to. Early in the pandemic, Trudeau enjoyed the same leadership bump all leaders get in a crisis. We were all in this together, remember? Until, we weren’t – and the wheels started falling off the wagon. He’s faced with an inevitable downhill slide towards the ultimate reckoning that will come with the next real budget – which will have to include measures to repay the half-trillion dollars we’ve borrowed to weather this storm. But, this slide will be punctuated with occasional opportunities. His next – and, I think, last – opportunity will be when the vaccines start flowing in quantity and people are feeling hopeful about getting the jab. According to Trudeau’s plan, that’s going to be June. Maybe, it could be earlier, but the weather will not be good enough for an election. Will the Trudeau government purposely delay the arrival of vaccines until good campaigning weather? I don’t want to believe they’d be that maliciously Machiavellian. But, will June be too late? Many Canadians will be utterly fed-up with Justin by then. The big question is: how many?
8. Durham Region confused about Black history. First, I’ve got to say the exercises listed in the “game” are not about history – they’re at best about culture. It seems, we need some basic language education in addition to greater knowledge of Black history. Second, this is almost certainly the result of politicians and chief executives deciding they want to signal their virtue by ordering municipal staff to “do something” about Black History month. At that point, they no doubt issued a public statement of their heartfelt commitment to wokeness and washed their hands of the matter. But, if you’re not going to invest some serious consideration into “how” to do something for Black History month, you’re going to end up with… well… this.