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Letters"What's your reaction to the government's on-again/off-again bailout of Canadian NHL teams?" Dear Rex, Today I caught the show as I was driving home to Golden, BC from my sons hockey game in Creston, BC. The NHL bailout issue even had the attention of two of the least academic Canadians I know, my sixteen year old son and his pal Matt. Their participation in the debate proves the passion Canadians have for THE GAME. The NHL and all major league sports have a fundamental problem with providing an entertaining product in small markets. The population base or more accurately the larger tax revenues in the US perhaps allows governments to subsidize the industry but, in Canada I feel it would be irresponsible. Major-sports administrators must find ways to create parity and an entertaining product using the resources they create as all other businesses attempt to do. The argument that the revenues the NHL teams generate regionally and federally will be lost if the teams are forced to leave is valid. Serious arguments could and have been raised to support government involvement on this basis, but consider this scenario. Considering the Canadian love for the game, would professional hockey be long away. Couldn't Canadian entrepreneurs form a national League that would recover some of these tax revenues. Hockey is a proven draw in all the current NHL cities and in many other major centers in Canada. I was in Saskatoon when they were vying for the Blues. The response there was electric. Other cities might soon jump in eg. St. John's, Saint John, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quebec City, etc. The experts may argue that the quality of hockey wouldn't entertain but to this I say NAY! Canada has produced Gretzky, Mario, Orr, The Rocket, and many more of the most skilled athletes to strap on the blades, but Canada's stock in trade are the Paul Hendersons. By this I mean fellows who have big hearts and strong wills. Players who love to speed down their wing and hate to be beaten. Players who in the heat of the moment will drop their gloves with an opponent, then buy the guy a cold one later. Even Don Cherry (a strong advocate of government involvement) would agree that these players could entertain. In summary, if the NHL cannot provide support and the teams move, Canada and our game will persevere.
Duncan Bedford
Dear Mr Murphy: Listening to today's program on hockey, I decided I want to play poker with you and your producers. Not that I'm any good at it, but you folks have shown yourselves to be the biggest suckers of the new century. Now, to be fair about the matter, every other major media outlet in the country has been caught in the same net. Everyone. Couldn't find a single exception. Knowing they were going to have to make an announcement about the grossest form of mismanagement in the Department of Human Resources, the Liberals decided to use the sandwich technique to mitigate any possible political damage. First the announcement of action on a minor but highly emotionally charged issue: grants to NHL teams. A predictable furor of protest across the country. The next day, an announcement that Human Resources has mismanaged over a billion, and possibly billions, of dollars of public funds. Just to add a bit of spice to the issue, Jane Stewart tells us that she'll pay the public servants who caused the mess a performance bonus to clean it up. Maybe. And we all find out the minister really responsible has been promoted in cabinet and the Deputy Minister, who's responsibility it was to supervise the daily workings of the department, has been promoted to Clerk of the Privy Council. A tempest in the media for a few hours, moderated by a lot of ink and airtime still dedicated to hockey. Two days later, the government's master stroke. They're not going to give the NHL a few million. Near-criminal mismanagement of our tax dollars is wiped from the public consciousness when you and your ilk stampede to cover Minister Manley's courageous move to listen to vox populi. Nary a mention of Jane's billions in the last 36 hours. Not only do the Liberals get to successfully cover up the greatest mismanagement scandal since the Trans Canada Pipeline, they get a number of benefits:
All sarcasm aside, you folks in the media have really been taken for a ride on this issue. Your loyal listeners (me included) deserve an explanation of how this came about. A little openness on your part (after all, you're always calling on governments to be more open and accountable) might help prevent such a misstep in the future. Hey- why not that as a topic for next week's show? Your producer, a newspaper editor and perhaps other media personalities could serve as guests. It would make for an interesting discussion. Could you take the heat from your listeners? Cheers Borys Gengalo Your listeners covered most of the ground but your questions, why the outpouring of rage, why did this issue prove to be the catalyst, seem teasingly elusive. My own take on this is that most Canadians are tired of seeing the rich get richer in a context of health, home and education needs that go unmet. They are cynical that the wealthy can use culture arguments to get a tax handout. They are tired of the reign of economists and free market slogans that have not improved, rather eroded the quality of basic services. And they were outraged that the government had put itself to sleep assuming that their wealthy cronies and free market economists were all right. The failure in communication is not by Manley and Bryden. It is the people who have been unable to convey their frustration or get it focused and sent to government and this issue provided a beautiful opportunity to pull it all together. So you witnessed their rage about fraudulent manipulation of the truth, rule by free market economists, government indifference except for book keeping and anger at the loss of the real social fabric of this country -- a measure of equity, health care and education.
Joseph Gold
Rex: I'm disappointed!! The hockey bail-out is yesterday's news, it's overworked, overdone, been on every 2nd rate call-in show across Canada all week. Enough is enough. You said all that needs saying last Thursday on late night news. Rex, you can do better than this. You don't need to pander to the lowest common denominator of media hype. The Government sent out their trial balloon, they felt the pinprick of public condemnation, the balloon went bang. End of story.
Don
Hi, I was perfectly happy to let this one go by without responding, or even thinking much about it anymore, after the events of the week. However, when I heard the program advertised and the announcer ended with saying something like: "...but this is different. This is a game that defines us as Canadians..." Well, I mean... really. Maybe it is about time Canadians stopped defining themselves - ourselves - by something as crassly commercial and profit-oriented as NHL hockey. If it is so easy for a team to "go south," as some have already done, then they AIN'T CANADIAN, EH? And all this extortion about "give us money or we'll have to go to the US," is just that: extortion. I listened a few days ago to Vancouver CBC Radio One program (Almanac with Mark Forsythe) that had someone from the Vancouver Canucks on and he was saying something like the prices for tickets had to be high in order to compete with US teams and cities where there are subsidies in the form of arenas that are built and then handed over to the hockey teams... whatever... can't remember it all. But how this relates to us here in Canada and this situation of government offering millions of taxpayers' dollars to the owners and teams is if we have to set the ticket prices so high that the average working class person hasn't a hope of buying a ticket, then why the hell should we subsidize these guys to stay here? Give me junior hockey any day, thank you very much! I'd just as soon subsidize young people and community-based teams, if my tax dollars have to be wrenched out of the hands of hungry children and homeless people. If those millionaire hockey players and team owners are so in love with Canada, why not ask them to cough up a puny percentage of their salaries to ensure they get to stay here? If it isn't worth it to them to do that, then...hasta la vista, fellas.
Maggie Paquet
I find it incredulous the brutal backhanded slashing by these all-knowing critics of a comparatively modest scheme for $30M over 4 years to be split amongst all Canadian NHL teams by Industry Minister Manley in attempts to defray some of the onerous tax burden they face against an uneven playing field of the greatly lower overheads enjoyed by American teams. My how B.C.'ers short term memories get overloaded then purged blank blotto! Maybe everyone has had too many blind-sided body checks because the hypocrisy rings hollow like a puck deflecting off the end boards plexiglas. Have we forgotten that our emissaries in Victoria have pushed our provincial debt load to nearly $35- billion, most of it unaccounted for. That during that during their same turn at duty behind the bench this past decade, after inflation, disposable income have fallen by $2200 per person having a direct down-spiral on discretionary spending for the arts, recreation, travel, sports and other entertainment. Have we lost track of the tax dollars frittered away on the super premium surcharged expansion of the Island Highway, copious monies gone astray at FRBC, the phony budget forecasts, the nearly $300M in cash, grants and concessions given to the Skeena Cellulose pulp mill, the half billion down-a-toilet anomaly known as the CFI fast ferries, the $700M plus Glen Clark was going to slo-pitch to a trade convention center, the billions Skytrain II will cost all taxpayers when an LRT could have cross-gridded the whole Lower Mainland by now at half the outlay. Or how about the hundreds of millions in civil and criminal litigation, hearings and commissions this misdeedful NDP government has and will continue to cost us. What outcries have there been in B.C. when we've given mega-mogul Hollywood studios and multi-millions salaried actors huge subsidies for movie and TV production here, or for the hi-tech sector, or the blue-chip Weststar Trucks of manufacturing. Then we've just learned from Federal Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart that over a billion dollars doled-out in HRDC funds to you name it, are totally a mystery. With a stick and skates, having barely learned to walk, I was roaring up and down a frozen pond for long winters in Moose Jaw and a Saskatchewan player, a Detroit Red Wings dynamo of star, Gordie Howe was my hero and still is. NHL players salaries are red-lining Canadian teams into a very precarious state, that I'll grant you. Rightfully our priorities must see scarce funds go into social programs foremost but we continue to interest service vast federal and provincial debts. As rich and bountiful in resources and human talents as Canada is, no matter how many gazillions is tossed towards health care, education, helping the desperate needy, the environment and infrastructure up-grades, unless we start performance monitoring and accurately tracking the dispensers flow of funds being delivered to the targeted recipients, its all sadly a much wasteful exercise. Our top professional athletes no matter the sport, embody the aspirations of every sports-minded child, young adult and anyone that's gone for the peak challenge to push the envelope of their personal talents. Its nothing more than pious simplistic righteousness to single out our own NHL hockey teams and prodigies as somehow the whipping goal posts for all our perceived woes and injustices. Lets start by getting rid of the rink rats that have really stunk-out the arenas of our province , the NDP (Nerdy Delinquent Players & Co.).
Gerry J. Bloomer Handouts for Hockey has been settled. The people have spoken and surprisingly enough the government listened. Why can't we get the government to listen on things that matter like health care? Why are you flogging a dead horse? I liked the CBC better when it was a bit highbrow, now it is a bit like the Sun Papers mostly reporting on the sensational or asking stupid people stupid questions. I am usually surprised at the general high perspicacity of the Cross Country Checkup audience. Why don't you ask some intelligent questions. Gary LeDrew Dear Rex, I don't for a moment believe the public response to the NHL funding scheme had anything to do with our desire to help the poor and save our national health-care system. What Canadians were really cheesed about was their tax dollars going to an industry full of millionaires. If it were about help for the poor then we would have heard the same weeping and gnashing of teeth when our federal and provincial governments started socking-it to the poor in the form of welfare and social safety net cutbacks back in the Days of Brian. No, what Canadians are saying is they don't want their tax dollars going anywhere. What they want is tax cuts, period. What happened in this instance is: The poor happen to agree that tax dollars should not go to NHL teams, also period. To cloak this thing as some sort of outreach to the poor is a serious misnomer. The proof will be in the pudding. Watch what will happen if welfare rates are increased and there is no tax break to the middle class. Further, I do not believe the federal government was caught by surprise in the least by the public reaction. It was simple poker. The government, who are constantly polling and gauging public opinion, even if they claim otherwise, knew what the reaction would be in light of current events. It was a way out. We'll offer. The public will revolt. We'll cancel in the name of the people and these guys will have to get off our backs, out of our driveways and off our switchboards. The solution is in the lotteries. If the government were to go to the people, and ask them if they minded a share of lottery funds raised by betting on NHL games went to the NHL teams, they might find some considerable support. No one really wants the NHL to leave Canada (what the hell would the women do with the men and boys on Saturday night?). The lottery makes sense for a couple reasons. One, the NHL may have a legitimate beef when it comes to their copyright names and logos being used by lotteries. Two, it would allow the people who want to support the NHL do so by choosing to purchase lottery tickets offering prizes on the outcome of NHL games. As for the poor, we get by but, if the government continues to ignore our needs, we will soon outnumber them and that could present a serious problem if we ever get mad enough to vote.
Respectfully,
Will Webster I live in Ottawa but have only attended one NHL game. Although I played hockey I do not enjoy being a fan. I think that hockey on TV is boring. But that does not stop me from looking at the whole picture and the effect of any NHL tax relief the country. I am bewildered, at the least, at the way the situation is being handled by the press and the politicians. We live in a time when we can get the head of major high tech firms calling for tax cuts with no mention of what service will be cut as a result. We get endless people who join the chorus with a similar lack of thought. The only assumption is it that the tax cut will affect the services of their neighbor or other industries, but not themselves. The newspapers proclaim that "Joe Air-Head" calls for a tax cut. The headlines greatly influence many other people and causes those people to put their brains into hibernation and to echo the call. Any school child can tell you that you pay money for a service and you must balance what you pay with what you get. Many adults in Canada have lost their capability to reason at that level. Yet newspapers take great glee in polling for the opinion from the public. And what is worse, the politicians react to negative opinions they receive from these "adults". The same thinking is being applied to the situation with the NHL teams. No one looks at the bottom line for the country, first, if taxation relief was given to the teams, and second, if no tax relief for the teams. Some of the figures suggest that there will be more money to spend on health care if we keep the teams and give them tax relief than if we let them migrate to the USA. The hysterical people who are so vocal assume that every dollar that goes to the tax relief comes from health care. We have heard some questionable comments from a university professor saying that the people will spend their money on something else if not on hockey tickets, etc., and that there is no loss to the economy from shutting down an NHL franchise. The professor concludes that it makes no sense to give tax relief. The professor assumed that the money now spent on tickets would be spent in Canada and not, in large part, in Disney Land or on a Caribbean Island, or even at some US Internet store. Let's get someone to do a proper (intelligent) economic balance and then tell us what the bottom line is. Then inform the people of the facts, let them digest the facts, and then let the newspapers do the opinion polls. Doing the opinion poll based on biased newspaper headlines is at best idiotic. When fans attend a game they meet their neighbors, they travel outdoors. They get united in a common cause. They learn that sometimes you lose and sometimes you win no matter how talented you are. They learn that you can disagree and simply punch someone or even occasionally hit them with a stick rather than riddling them with bullet holes, as seem on TV. The game even teaches people not to be cowards. It is far healthier to watch a game than to browse the Web. Contrast attending a hockey game with sitting and watching some mindless TV sitcom where the actors portray adults with a 5th grade mentality and a similar level sense of humor. The people watching those shows sit in their houses behind double bolted doors. They have no contact with their neighbors. They get nothing tangible out of their "activity" except another spare tire on their waist. They gradually start acting and thinking like the TV characters. Perhaps we should consider that attending NHL games is preventive medicine and is an alternative to sending people to a psychologist or psychiatrist. Should the money that would be spent for tax relief for the NHL teams really be considered part of the health care system. These arguments, although somewhat tongue in cheek, make more sense than most statements made by the politicians and press. Again, I am not a hockey fan, even during play-offs. But I see the NHL as much more valuable to Canada than the WWF.
Good luck with the show.
Barney
Hello Rex; Much as I love Canada, love hockey and dislike the United States of America; I consider this dilemma just one more reason to start seriously discussing the uniting of our two countries. Joining the US does not imply that we adopt their gun laws, dismantle the CBC, or ending Medicare. The possibilities are boundless, it could be bold step to a new future which we are heading into, whether we like it or not. The Twentieth Century may have been Canada's according to Laurier; the Twenty-First Century belongs to everybody!
Patrick R. AuCoin To say hockey is our national sport is true virtually every Canadian can play hockey any time to say all couch potatoes need entertainment is almost obscene. All canadians need food shelter medical care. Where have our values gone The best result of this little mess is the politicians listened and fled from the silent majority. P Narraway Knowing I do not have the patience for busy signals, I thought I would try e-mail. I have two points to make: 1) Has the government looked at NAFTA and/or GATT as a solution to the current funding crisis? I have to wonder if there isn't a good argument to be made that the tax breaks that the USA apparently gives their teams isn't against trade rules. I could go on and on here, there are many examples (mostly in agriculture) where our tax breaks were seen as unfair trading practices, how is what they are currently doing any different? 2) assuming that 1) is not viable, I would say that we give up on the NHL all together, sell the teams off to the USA and get as much cash as we can (not that Canadians will see a penny of it) and we should start a CHL. If HOCKEY is truly important to Canadians (and I am not sure that it is really) then a CHL should work. Frankly I think the whole issue is much ado about nothing, but then I was never much of a hockey fan to begin with. Sure glad the Government saw the light though! My hats off to Manley.
Dave Kinchlea Hello Rex: Thanks for the opportunity ...Cross Country Checkup is one of my favorites. I felt that e-mail is the best medium to present my views ...at least you and 3 million listeners won't hear my nervous voice. I have worked in the education system in Lindsay, Ont. for many years and am a self confessed sports addict. I guess when I sit down in front of the "Grand Scale of Things" and begin to weigh out pros and cons it really is a no brainer. If you place on the scales on one side -- Education, Social and Health Care networks, and our responsibility to the our Farm community and on the other side Players, Owners, and an intense pressure to do business "American style" ...I will make the easy decision ...spend our money where we need it ...at home to feed our needs. I listened to Steven Brunt (a sports reporter) suggest that if the Feds had introduced this subsidy through the budget in February then we might not have raised such a fuss. It might have been buried in other dollar announcements and we would have swallowed it no problem... Hmmmm. It makes me think that he is either pro political $ or thinking of running for Parliament. Should we let politics and professional sports mix? No I do not think so. I would really not like to see more NHL teams leave US cities. It would sadden me but I really think that rather than a hand-out, Gary Bettman should recognize that hockey in Canada is intrinsic to the survival of the NHL and work within to promote revenue sharing -- the only answer. Thank you for your time James Deitch I could not get through at all for this broadcast! I did have a suggestion that might be passed on- I would like to see a Government subsidy for the NHL teams if it was based on a per Canadian citizen basis, this might encourage teams to draft more Canadian players.
Lisa Clements
Well, what do you know. The Chretien government has finally shrugged off the last remnants of Trudeauistic disdain for the taxpayer and done the honourable thing and pulled out of offering financial assistance to Canadian NHL teams. How democratic. You could hear the political scamblings for re-election hopefuls all the way out here in Winnipeg. I won't go on about the possible loss of a Canadian NHL hockey team in Canada. My comments would be lost in the flood of public opinion anyway and those in the media are much more knowledgeable of these things than I. However for all the sports freaks who think that our national(?) pass-time would be lost forever in the great American wasteland of excess, without government help, let me offer you some hope. The NHL today is NOT, repeat NOT the same league it was 20 years ago when most of us still held the players of Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver in high regard. The total Americanization of the sport (read Hollywood) with all of it's avarice and self-indulgence is now complete. So what!. I have found hockey again, and it's not in the multi-million dollar arenas and sports-domes. It's at my local community club. If you want to watch real hockey, where the players are honestly trying their best, where they play the game for the game's sake and where they don't expect a lot in return just for showing up, visit your local outdoor rink. Watch these kids playing, getting fresh air and having fun, without any adult supervision to screw it up and you'll soon realize that the brand of hockey offered on TSN, CBC and all the other networks is as close to hockey as a tractor pull is to a night at the opera. To those teams planning to quit Canada, I say, " See ya. Don't let the door knob hit you too hard on the way out". Hockey, and I mean real hockey, will never leave Canada. It's always been a part of us and always will be, long after the American money machine has slaughtered any and all interest in the sport. Then we'll go back to basics and start having a good time again. Keep your stick on the ice!
David Jenkinson
Rex, I can't get through by phone, so I try by e-mail. The NHL does not bring new money into the economy, but recycles the already existing, and quite inefficiently at that. If Canadians won't spent their entertainment dollars on the NHL they will spend on something else, the same way the most of us who do not go to the NHL games, does: in Canadian restaurants, pubs, theatres, galleries, sport complexes, watching minor league hockey teams or heck, perhaps even playing themselves in recreational leagues? This will create new jobs and spin-offs. In fact, it will create MORE jobs and more tax revenue than the NHL ever could, since the disproportionately large portion of the NHL budgets creates the jobs of the few - the millionaire players. The AVERAGE NHL salary is 2 million dollars, Canadian. So we can spent 2 million of our entertainment dollars either on one average hockey player, or on $40,000 a year salaries for 50 normal Canadians. And those normal Canadians will spent most of this money of necessities in Canada. The hockey players, who will take a large part of their money abroad - either by buying the Porsches and Mercedes, by retiring outside of Canada, or investing their pensions overseas. Subsidizing the NHL makes only sense at the municipal level - because you may take away some of the entertainment money from your neighbours - other Canadian municipalities. At the provincial and national level - it's counterproductive - because at these levels the NHL creates a net loss of money and jobs from the Canadian economy.
Piotr Trela Hi, I think the timing of the hockey subsidy announcement by the government is immaculate. It came at a time when the government had lost track of over $1-billion of our money. The strategy succeeded brilliantly as evidence by your program today i.e. talking about hockey, a mere $25-million, instead of talking about the colossal mismanagement of our monies at the highest level. I am ticked off that the media once again are so easily manipulated by the govt. If this incredible bungling of our money had happened to Brian Mulroney's government, everyone, especially the media, would have demanded the resignation of the PM. Yet today, Jean Chretien's name has not pass the lips of any media all week.
Pooi-Leng Wong Hello Rex! You can still be Canadian and never attend a single hockey game. I love this country, I can name all my provincial capitals but I don't watch hockey. Yours,
Jane & Fraser
Hello, and thank you for letting me express myself. My name is Jeremiah Long and I am from Belleville, Ont. I have not heard the whole show but surely someone has pointed out that asking people who make less than fifty, or forty, or thirty thousand dollars a year to support people that are making millions is wrong. There are children going to breakfast programs all over this country because they are hungry and their parents are the working poor you hear about and never see. I would like to see hockey remain in Canada but I do not want my taxes to help support it. The average family of four cannot take themselves to a game anymore because it has gotten so expensive. If the government wants to subsidize something, let it be children. Thank You. Jeremiah C. Long We are a household of 4 voters and upon the announcement, 3 were against the concept no matter what the details. When I read that Ken Dryden of the Maple Leafs also wanted money to promote a champion team, well that was too much. I hope that Mr Mills has recorded the views of Maria early in the show because she expressed the views of the majority of little people so the Government better listen. Make sure that the Boss hears the comments. Great show and timely subject. Marcel Guerin Hello Rex: Take all the time to debate the issue but in the end the facts remain the same. A subsidy is a subsidy and history and economics prove that it is a losing "game" to play. If individual US cities want to give their citizens cash or for that matter Canadian cities want to do the same that fine. However, giving Canadian tax dollars is just poor management of resources. That being said, the federal government does not manage our money very well, as this week's reports verify. Hopefully the real point of this will be recognized, that our money is better spent by ourselves than by a government. !!!!!!!!!!!!REDUCE TAXES!!!!!!!!! Then maybe we can pay the prices to keep the teams. Unfortunately, the lesson will be lost, as usual.
Peter Clark Hello Rex, I'm not surprised that Minister Manley reversed his decision on the NHL financial assistance package. I'm sure Minister Manley saw you on CBC TV magazine early this week. What else could he do? Great work Rex !! Now give us a few words on Minister Stewart and her mismanagement of HRD funds.
Terry A. Mercer Dear Rex, I have listened to the speakers from all across the country and am amazed that very few have picked up on the very simple fact that this issue along with every other issue in the country relating to business is the unproductive level of taxation that is crippling every industry in Canada. Hockey is just the latest to feel the pinch. The sooner the current government realizes that radical change is needed to prevent losses in virtually every industry in this country the better we will all be. Canada is stuck in a time warp where we want the very least for all citizens. It is time to grow up and want the very best for citizens. Michael Mountford Hi Rex: Gore Vidal once accused the Reagan Administration as being "Socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor". During the past few years, this quote could be used to describe the Chretien government, except instead "Socialism for the Politicians and their friends, free enterprise for everyone else". The point is that everyone seems to be getting handouts EXCEPT the average Canadian. Meanwhile, the gulf between rich and poor widens. Attending an NHL hockey game is now beyond the reach of many Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet. Thus it was all about a sense of fairness and hockey is only the tip of the ice berg. For example, Jane Stewart wastes $3-billion to companies who could invariably be constituency friends of the Liberal Party, but she only gets a slap on the wrist. As I said, "Socialism for the politicians and their friends (Rod Bryden), and free enterprise for the rest". It will be interesting if the common outrage of Canadians will trickle down to other issues in 2000-01.
Michael Bennett Dear Rex: Today's topic generated calls of mostly predictable content. I wish you had not "given away the store" in your introduction by mentioning the health and social housing concerns that most callers had. During the time I was listening I did not hear the one idea that is the real fix for this situation. (My dog insisted we had to go for a walk "right now" and I missed a chunk of the middle of the show.) Nobody talked about the subsidies from the point of view of NAFTA negotiations. The Americans are always picking on us for real and imagined subsidies in various areas of our economy. Most of the time they are "The Pot Calling The Kettle Black", as they have more and bigger subsidies than we do. They just use different definitions. The NHL is an area in which the federal government should be challenging the Americans on their unfair business practices due to subsidies given to these very wealthy businesses to lure them out of Canada. Ice can never be anything other than a Level Playing Field. Water flows downhill! So let's make the hockey business toe the line and tell the Yanks to get rid of their subsidies to the teams. Hockey should be run as a business like any other. The subsidy system has allowed them to insulate themselves from general market forces. In an era when everyone else has downsized and cut salaries and middle management and become Lean and Mean, the hockey world still looks very fat and glossy. I think this is the real reason for the public backlash against the bailout proposal. Let the NHL teams learn to be competitive and not price themselves out of the marketplace. If they don't, then we should not give them any handouts. We don't need the NHL. Canadians could form new leagues and get teams that are real community teams, in which the players really come from the local population and we can actually care about and cheer for players who care about us.
Mary-Sue
Mr Murphy, Not being a hockey fan I still was in favour of the government plan for helping them out. I was concerned at the tax dollars we will loss when they do go south, as I think is inevitable. My point however is, I hope the Canadian people can learn from this whole experience. The large amount of people who did object to it stood up to be counted, made a lot of noise and for once the government listened. We as Canadians tend to sit back and make noise only after the fact. Really enjoy the show, but have never been able to get on (didn't even win a T-shirt!!) Thanks for all the enjoyment you bring on Sunday afternoon.
Carol Pernarowski
Hello Rex and Cross Country Checkup staff. Thanks for the opportunity to respond to this week's question. As a regular listener I am hesitant to call, in the event that I may miss interesting comments from other callers. So I would like to answer your question by e-mail. I think this whole issue was contrived by the Liberal government to do as much damage control as possible, in a "not-so-good" week for the Liberals. What should have been the top issue in the minds of Canadians was the mishandling of billions of taxpayer dollars by the federal Department of Human Resources. But instead we are talking hockey, a subject that every Canadian can discuss with knowledge and passion. The Liberals needed a diversion issue, and one that they could manage. The timing was important, with Minister Manley making his announcement on Tuesday, followed by predictable public outrage. HRDC Minister Jane Stewart self-confessed her troubles on Wednesday, and before the public could grasp the full concept of a billion dollars being so carelessly tossed about, Manley stepped back into the picture. His reversal allowed the public to feel confident that the Liberals do indeed listen to the common people. Your MP, interview quest today is the final component of this "public-opinion" exercise. His explanations, place Manley in a positive, patriotic light, overly agree that the hockey subsidy should be "buried in cement below the Parliament buildings", and twist in the importance of sport and health care and the well-being of children. None of these points were put forward by Minister Manley in his Tuesday announcement. Instead, the policy announcement was vague and tied to the co-operation of other levels of government, which without prior inter-governmental consultation, the federal Minister knew would not garner the slightest chance of support. Therefore, I find it difficult to believe that this was a major policy blunder on the part of the federal government. Rather, this week will be remembered as the week we discussed supporting "Canada's game", and not the week we all discovered we had a billion dollars lifted from our wallets. Regards,
Matt Treger
What to make of governmental support of NHL teams: (1) Does hockey deserve national funding for being a part of Canadian national identity? That seems to be to be a loaded question: a majority of "voters" nationwide will always say no, for at least two reasons:
There is a precedent in the National Football League, where one team is owned not by an individual or a corporation but by its home city, namely the Green Bay Packers. That example offers a political solution: if any team, such as the Ottawa Senators, has sufficient guaranteed gate receipts and other revenue such as the Packers do, then it might be profitable for the locality to buy the team lock, stock and barrel. If it takes a provincial and/or federal government loan, so be it: the returns will make it a worthwhile investment. (3) What's the alternative? If not socialized professional sports, then the leagues themselves must equalize their franchises economically to some extent. The National Football League has gone much farther in this respect than professional baseball, and the results seem to be favourable. I don't know what the NHL has done. As for cultural identity, hockey fans might consider the fate of baseball in the U.S.: baseball used to be the "national pastime." It is now in name only. For decades, the most-attended sport has been basketball. I enjoy your show and listen every Sunday.
Don Webb Denis Mills, sports writers, and other commentators on the question of government subventions for NHL teams who think that there is anything but a miniscule return on this kind of expenditure are engaging in a form of voodoo economics which would make even Ronald Reagan blush. Don Thom Maybe the reason Canadians are so outraged at the idea of the government bailing out NHL hockey is that we realize that this is a business and if the guys who are running this can't do it with their own money, why should we expect that they can or will do it with ours. Further to my attempt to express my thoughts on air ... how dare the federal government think that hockey is more of a priority to Canadians than Health Care? Canada lost a child to asthma in Toronto last week because the health care system wasn't there for him and his family. ...and CBC spent the afternoon worrying about the NHL. Shame on all of us !!!!!
Carol Murphy Dear Rex, I have nothing against sports in general but, I have long believed that professional sports function to distract many people from vitally important civic and community issues. Over the course of my life I have worked in a number of factories and on many construction sites. Usually discussion that wasn't work related centred around hockey scores, players' stats, past games, trades, etc. My co-workers almost never were interested in discussing politics, community issues, or other topics that were related to issues of real import to the health and vibrancy of their own communities. I think that one could refer to professional sports as the modern 'opiate of the masses.' Following Marx even further, he asserted 'Religion' to be 'the soul of a soulless world.' I think that professional sports is the camaraderie and personal connection of local communities that have been mostly stripped of their power and identity. I stress that I am referring to PROFESSIONAL sports and not sports in general. Professional sports and its star system is akin to Disney and Hollywood's star system, which tend to erode local communities' confidence in the value of their own creative potential. All of these systems serve the interests of multinational corporations by keeping us all dumb and blind to the rape of communities the world over. Sports is a very important part of individual and community life, however, and I vigorously agree with the caller who suggested that we should develop a smaller scale Canadian league, where players are truly representative of their own communities and are paid very well, but reasonably. Perhaps Canadians' rejection of the federal government's aid package to professional sports signifies some level of recognition of the destructive role of NHL hockey to our communities. Ottawa having an NHL team may aid a businessman to some degree in his quest for international contracts, but in the bigger picture, is it a net contribution to the community as a whole, or does it contribute, again, mostly to corporations? Thank God we are beginning to value the lives of our neighbours over the profits of large corporations.
Tavis du Preez Dear Rex, With all the money the federalists take from the smokers in the form of tobacco taxes it should be more than enough to help those poor Canadian NHL teams. Never mind shoving the burden onto the provinces and communities. The same goes for the Lung & Cancer Societies who spend millions of canvassed and donated dollars on graphic TV and newspaper ads to show the smoker how his lungs and aortas look. Instead that money should be going to cancer research and it also should go to the NHL. After all, those NHL teams employ a lot of local people who pay income taxes, pay into the UIC fund and besides the pension plan most smokers will never get paid from. I can see the day coming when NASCA will ask the federalists for money to keep car races in Canada because of lack of tobacco companies sponsor money. I can see the day when farmers get smart and stop growing food. However that is not possible, because somebody years in advance made certain those farmers got easy loans and are so deep in debt that they cannot stop planting. Manfred Bader
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