A Plea to Habs Season Ticket Holders

Twenty-five years ago I convinced a Montreal senior citizen who was retiring to Florida to pass on his Montreal Canadiens season tickets to my company. He was a bit reluctant to do so but my powers of persuasion prevailed.($$$)
The tickets are something special, just a couple of rows back from the glass and a couple of seats over from the Canadiens bench. For the majority of fans, getting this close to the action is a lifetime dream unlikely to be realized and that's unfortunate.
Every true fan should needs to see the game up close, at least once, to truly appreciate it's magnificence.

Is the view that good?...You better believe it!
As good as HD TV is, the colours are more brilliant and vibrant.
From up close, the game takes on a dimension that's hard to describe. The experience is so intense that when the game is close, you actually leave the building at the end of the game feeling drained.

Being so near the ice makes it harder to follow the overall play, but that's fine.
Your eyes flit around involuntarily, attracted to one thing or another, there's just so much to take in. When the play heats up in front of you, it's not unusual to actually hold your breath!

Unlike television, you make up your own experience. You follow individual players, study their faces and watch their mannerisms. You are, in essence, your very own isolated camera - up close and personal.

I once spent a whole period watching a referee and came away with a real appreciation of the effort they put in. I also realized that concentrate as they do, it's inevitable that they miss things.

You also notice unimportant things, idiosyncrasies like Alexander Ovechkin's yellow skate laces or the ragged and well worn hockey gloves or skates worn by a variety of players, especially the goalies.
You appreciate first hand, the skill, desperation, effort, confidence and sometimes fear and panic displayed on the faces of the players. Down there, everything is more real, desperate and less confident.
No television camera can afford such an experience.

Because I attend a lot of games, I've been horribly spoiled, it's a bit of a shame and I've deliberately cut back my attendance to keep the experience fresh.

Over the years many people have enjoyed my tickets, which are mostly given away as business perks, although I reserve some for myself, family and friends.
The reactions of those who I've given these tickets to is always fabulous, especially among first-timers.

A while back, my wife made a rare request for tickets for someone she hardly knew. She runs an accounting department and speaks by phone on a daily basis with counterparts in other companies.

She'd gotten to know some of these people fairly well and although she's never actually met many in person, she's formed some important connections and spends some time exchanging personal stories and gossip, all on the phone.

She asked me for a set of Habs tickets for one such acquaintance, a Mr. X. who works for a large supplier.

A couple of months previous, he confessed to her that his twenty-something son was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Over the months, she acted as a confident and talked him through some rough patches. After Mr.X had taken his family to Europe for a 'last' family vacation, things got progressively worse.

Trying to cheer up Mr. X, she asked him if his son enjoyed hockey (duh!) and if he'd like to take him to see the Canadiens play, up close and personal.

"Yes, absolutely, thank you!"

They went to the game and it must have been quite an experience, she received a very nice note from the boy.

A couple of weeks later Mr. X phoned and sheepishly asked if he could purchase a set of tickets from her, as he wanted to repeat the experience. He described the trip to the Bell Centre as a magical, one in which he and his son left their problems behind for a couple of hours.
It was our pleasure to send another set of complimentary tickets and again we were happy to hear that the evening went well, considering the son's deteriorating condition.

Not long after, later my wife got another call from Mr. X, sadly announcing the death of his beloved son.
He told her that he was phoning her from his son's bedroom and was thinking of her because he was looking at the ticket stubs that his son had tacked up on his bulletin board as a reminder of the wonderful trips to the Bell Centre.

At the funeral home, my wife and I met Mr. X for the first time. Although they had talked for months, they didn't recognize each other.

It was quite moving. They embraced and he told her how much the hockey games meant to his family and how he'd never forget those happy hours that he'd spent with his son at the Bell Centre.

I can tell you that that in all my years of giving out tickets, nothing approached the level of satisfaction of having brought a measure happiness to a father and son facing the ultimate sad separation.

It got me thinking....

The average hockey season provides for about forty-five home games.
What if every season ticket holder committed to give just one set away to some worthy soul?

One set out of 45, it's not that big a deal.

It would mean that every year, 25 to 30 thousand people would get to enjoy, what we season ticket holders take for granted, a very special evening.

I know that the Montreal Canadiens organization does a lot for the community and donates tickets on their own. In fact, players across the league (like Alex Kovalev) pay for private loges and invite underprivileged children to attend games as a personal treat.

What if the Habs were to start a service where season ticket holders could contribute back one or two sets of their tickets and the team accepts responsibility for distributing them to worthy candidates, perhaps through their foundation.

It would be magical!

I'd definitely be the first in line to contribute.

Honeymoon Already Over for Habs Coach Jacques Martin

It took just four games into the season for reality to set in for Montreal Canadiens fans. The humiliating 7-1 loss in Vancouver on Wednesday burst the bubble of anticipatory hope for a successful season. I fear it won't be long before we'll be hearing calls for the sacking of Habs coach Jacques Martin and I understand that just a soon as the new ownership takes over the ship, they will be running these ads on Craigslist.

NHL Head Coach Position Available

• Must be Francophone.
• Must have previous experience as a NHL coach (but not with Montreal Canadiens)
• Must have some English skills.
• Reading and writing skills not necessary.
• Term of Employment - Up to Two years.

NHL General Manager Position Available

• May be Francophone or Anglophone. No Europeans.
  
• Must be prepared to hire Francophone players only.
  
• Must be prepared to withstand hostile work environment.
  
• Term of Employment - Up to Five Two years.

Me thinks it's going to be a long season.

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Sportswriter Yvon Pedneault quoted new Canadiens defenceman Hal Gill; "You know you're in a real hockey town when the homeless street people greet you by name!"

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I watched last week's opening game from the Air Canada Arena in Toronto on CBC and noticed that when the second and third period started, the expensive seats (the first eight rows) were relatively empty. It happened again this week when I watched a bit of the Leafs/Senators snooze-fest. It took up to ten minutes of playing time for most of these rich folks to return to their seats and some never came back at all.
I guess its understandable. One period of Leafs hockey is enough for anyone, but its an awful large amount of money to spend on tickets if your going to spend the time in the bar.

Check out the empty seat phenomenon next time the Leafs are on TV at the ACC.

Hold on, I think I know another reason why nobody wants to come back for the third period. Look a the ACC's alcohol policy

Ouuch!!!

Shutdown time? No beer after the third period starts ?????

It got me thinking about what would it would be like to attend a double overtime playoff game, without beer?

....and then I remembered.. - Leafs/playoffs. Ha Ha!!!

Montreal Hospital Reaches a New Low in Productivity

Montreal's Le Journal de Montreal, published a story yesterday sensationalizing the fact that senior executives of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (destined to become Quebec's largest and most important 'Super' hospital) shared over a million dollars in bonus money.

The story complained that these executives were getting bonus' of up to forty thousand dollars over and above their salaries which ranged up to $170,000, with the inference that they didn't deserve the money.

The story was full of contradictions and was meant to feed upon the public's perception that senior employees of government agencies are living high off the hog at public expense.
Recent revelations about golden parachutes for incompetent managers (Henri-Paul Rouseau, Jean-Guy Chaput) has the public sensitive to these type of allegations.

The story was quite overblown, but contained a stunning revelation that was treated as an aside by the reporter.

A spokesman for the hospital, Lucie Dufresne, defended the payments by saying that senior management were forced into working long hours because of staff shortages and deserved the bonus' for the overtime that they put in.
She went on to say that some of these senior members of management worked up to 59 hours a week despite a contract that called for a 35 hour work week.

WHAAAT!!!!!

A 35 hour work week for the boss of Quebec's most important hospital!
Are they insane!
Who wrote the contract???

If this is par for the course in government (and it is), it's no wonder productivity in Quebec is so low.

I can assure you, that there aren't many private companies that offer a 35 hour work week to their CEO or senior employees.

Now I understand why our hospitals don't work- the employees don't have to!

When my son, a newly minted doctor went to work as a resident in a Montreal area hospital, I was shocked to hear that as a rookie, he was able to take off up to seven weeks a year in personal time. He told me that if he availed himself of all the time off that he was entitled to, he wouldn't be eligible to work in the U.S., as his credentials wouldn't be accepted. Imagine that!

Comparing productivity with the other provinces and US states, Quebec ranks 47th out of 60. Alberta rates 1st out of 60.
Small and medium-sized firms based in Quebec are 23 per cent less productive than those based in Ontario, 35 per cent less productive than comparable American firms.) Arghhh!!

Here's an excellent article about the problem entitled Work vs. Joie de Vivre, the Painful truth in Quebec.

Choosing the good life over hard work is a lifestyle choice that can be justified if one accepts the trade-off of a reduced standard of living.

Less work=Less money.

It's something that the Quebec government has imposed on us all.
I wonder if there was ever a legitimate debate about it?

Xenophobia Creeping Into Montreal Language Debate

Last week Pierre Curzi, the PQ member of the National Assembly and language critic wrote a piece in the Le Devoir, a Montreal daily newspaper, complaining that immigrants are taking over the island of Montreal.

Entitled "Protect French, move back to the island"("Protégez le français, revenez sur votre île!"), he frets that ethnics are taking over the island and blames white francophones 'de souche' (native Quebeckers) for moving to the suburbs.

He concludes that the immigrants will ultimately turn into Anglophones and thus contribute to anglicization of Montreal, which will ultimately threaten the very existence of the French language in the Province of Quebec. It's a bit of a stretch, to say the least. Despite all the immigration over the last 30 years, the proportion of Anglos has remained remarkably steady.

It's fair to ask if the issue is actually about language or rather about his fear that immigrants (whether they speak French or English) will outnumber pure-bred Quebeckers on the island of Montreal and so affect it's very essence and complexion.

In an even more disturbing article written in La Presse entitled "Francophones not answering the bell"("Les francophones manquent à l'appel"), writer Marie Allard takes the question of the quality of the 'Frenchness' of Montrealers to a disturbing new level.

She complains that the number of allophone students entering school in Montreal outnumber the Francophones 'de souche' and complains about their mother tongue or the mother tongue of the parents of those students.

Less than 40% were born in Québec, as were both their parents. The others were born in Québec of parents born outside the province (23,1%, this rate is rising since 2005), or born of one parent born elsewhere (9,9%) or born in Canada of two Canadian parents(2,4%).

("Moins de 40% des élèves étaient nés au Québec, comme leurs deux parents. Les autres étaient nés au Québec de deux parents nés à l'étranger (23,1%, ce taux plafonne depuis 2005), nés au Québec dont un parent est né à l'étranger (9,9%) ou nés ailleurs au Canada ou dont les deux parents sont nés ailleurs au Canada (2,4%)")

Eccchh!
Sounds disturbingly like a quote worthy of a participant of the Wansee Conference whereby the Nazis discussed how to define Jews.

The fact that these students are all attending French school seems to be completely beside the point. Where the students come from and what language their parents speak at home, seems to be the major issue.

The question is why? If they are attending French school, what's the difference?
René Levesque must be rolling in his grave!

Anyone who says the French language debate has nothing to do with ethnocentrism is deluding themselves.

The debate highlights a much larger issue, the absolute dread that francophone Quebeckers have that Montreal will turn into a ethnically diverse 'zoo', one that resembles Toronto or Vancouver, instead of looking like Quebec City, the pristine, picture perfect example of what Quebec nationalists perceive as ideal.
The only problem for those who dream of an ethnically pure Quebec, is that it is not sustainable.

Between 1987 and 2007, Québec welcomed about 750,000 immigrants, over 600,000 who settled in the greater Montreal region (83%).
Quebec City averages just 2,000 immigrants per year and the numbers for the other regions of Quebec are even more pitiful. It's no wonder that these regions are suffering a declining population. The Gaspé region attracted just 20 immigrants in 2007!
You can see other statistics at Demographymatters.blogspot.com.

As Montreal becomes more and more ethnically diverse, a battle looms on the horizon and it isn't going to be between the English and French, it'll be between immigrants and nativists.

"No Klingon in Quebec"

Imagine that scientists discover a 'wormhole' in space, one that allows humans unlimited access to the universe. The United Nations sends an exploratory team through this portal that finds thousands upon thousands of inhabited planets, most of them teeming with intelligent and sophisticated life.

As one would expect, each of these societies use their own unique and particular manner of communication. Some use telepathy, some speak orally and others use touch. All have their own unique language.
It's also discovered, that when planetary societies interact with each other across the universe, one common second language is employed.
That language is determined to be 'KLINGON.'

The explorers return to Earth and report their findings. Contact with the Universe promises unparallelled advancement. The world is moved to action.

If Earth is to communicate with the universe, Klingon needs to be adopted as the secondary common language of Earth.
The nations of the world react. Comprehensive programs in Klingon language instruction are initiated in all the nations of the world.

Everybody is excited to embrace the new language, nobody wants to be left behind..... well almost nobody....

In the obscure and sparsely populated province of Quebec, in Canada, the common consensus amongst intellectuals, educators and political leaders is that speaking Klingon is unnecessary. In fact, they hold that learning Klingon represents a threat to the preservation of the indigenous French language.

"While it's nice to speak other languages, it's certainly not necessary" they say.

'A Quebecker doesn't need to speak Klingon to work in Tim Hortons or to be mayor of Montreal, or even Premier of Quebec for that matter! We can live quite nicely in French alone!"

But there's a minority who object, they remind the French language zealots that the whole world has embraced Klingon.

The naysayers are dumbfounded."Doesn't it make sense to do the same?"

"Non! Non!" answer the zealots" Those who want to interact with us, can learn French as easily as we can learn Klingon."

"But that makes no sense! What if we want to travel around the universe? What if we want to sell our products to other planets? How will we communicate?" French is a small language and Klingon is universal, do you really believe that the onus is on them to learn French, rather than on us learning Klingon?"

"MAIS OUI, BEN SUR!!!"

Argghhh.........
Louis Prefontaine is a Quebec blogger who typifies Quebec French language radicalism, those who share a common and dangerous philosophy- "Better to be mediocre in French, than successful bilingually."

Mr. Prefontaine complains in his blog about the students of a French language university in Montreal, the Université du Québec à Montréal(UQAM), who created a video sensation on YouTube.
The students produced a humorous and catchy one-take tribute video that has recently gone viral. The video is a takeoff of the Black-Eyed Peas song "I Got a Feeling

I first became aware of the video when I saw it touted on CNN, where commentators raved. To date close to a million people have viewed it on YouTube. Not bad.

You'd think that Mr. Prefontaine would be happy for the Quebec students' international success, but if you thought that, you'd be wrong.

Here's what Mr. Prefontaine had to say about the video;

"Even our university bred elite of the future are infatuated with English, as proven by this video created by students of UQAM with it's bilingual presentation, English song and text in English. We need to restore a French complexion to the city."

"Même notre future élite universitaire s’entiche de l’anglais; à preuve cette vidéo de l’UQAM, avec présentation bilingue, chanson anglophone, textes anglophones… Il faut redonner un visage francophone à la ville."

Grrrrrr.!!!!......The students of UQAM appear to be more realistic and worldly than Mr. Prefontaine. They wanted to make an successful video and chose a catchy tune by a popular music group for maximum impact. Judging by the results, it seems that their decision was right, notwithstanding the annoying braying of French language militants.

The students understood intuitively what Mr Prefontaine and other French language militants fail to understand or accept, that artistic success on a word-wide level, means singing, dancing or writing in English.
That's the way it is. Tough luck.
Ask Celine Dion.

I imagine that Mr. Prefontaine would have preferred that the students sang 'Allouette, gentile Alloutte' I'm not sure that it would have gone over quite as big......

Should the mayor of Montreal speak English? Perhaps not, but Klingon, ah, that would be nice....