Maybe the Canadiens should Hire this 9-year-old

Nine year old Oliver Wahlstrom busts a move that is better than any seen at last year's the All-star game in Montreal!

Protectionism- Quebec Style

To our politicians, protectionism occurs when others (particularly America), shut us out of their markets in order to protect their local industry. However, according to them, it's not protectionism when we shut others out of our market to protect our own local economy.

Our newspapers, who parrot this concept, have been filled with stories of righteous indignation in regards to the "Buy American" provisions of the US stimulus package, rarely mentioning that we are in fact, bigger offenders in relation to free trade.

Quebec has always protected it's industry through an unpublished, but strict policy of buying locally. That coupled with a rigged bidding process for government contracts insures that Quebeckers pay more for just about anything that the government buys.

Quebec, however, is not the only culprit in Canada.

Robert Presser sums it up succinctly in The Metropolitain;

"According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Canada is a major hypocrite among OECD nations when it comes to protectionism. We ask for free trade with our US neighbor and cry about the Buy American provisions of the US stimulus package, but we protect our own provincial and municipal procurement system from US suppliers. The federal government is trying to work out a deal with the provinces on this issue, but progress is slow. There are over 100 trades and 50 professions that are covered by provincial regulation in Canada, which means that Canada does not have a mobile labour market and this creates financial and employment distortions across the country. Jean Charest is working to create a common labour market with France, and if he is successful a plumber from Lyon will have an easier time getting accredited in Quebec than one from Belleville, Ontario.

The OECD points out that Canada has significant restrictions on foreign direct investment in the telecommunications, transportation and broadcasting sectors and this hampers modernization, international competitiveness and creates higher structural costs for consumers – there is a price we are all paying for protecting the “Canadian” players in these industries"

In the midst of all the complaints of American protectionism, Quebec has launched a publicity campaign, encouraging people to shop locally for Quebec agricultural products. The campaign called "Acheter et manger québécois" is being run by the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture.
Claude Béchard, the Minister of Agriculture is quoted in a speech as saying;

"If each of us would replace $30 of foreign bought food with products bought in Quebec, it would mean that within five years, local sales would increase by a billion dollars."

The Government web site says it unabashedly;

"Whenever you choose a local food product in the grocery store, restaurant or market, you help to save jobs and grow the economy of Quebec, while supporting the people here. This growth is beneficial for all of us."

These types of ads, once popular have become verboten in a free-trade world.

Lucky for us, the Americans don't read French.

Reminders that identify local products are now appearing in our grocery stores.

I wonder if our Agriculture Minister would appreciate an American advertising campaign calling for the replacement of Quebec maple syrup with syrup produced in Vermont.

I wonder if members of the Quebec government would appreciate a snazzy commercial like the one above, created by the government of Washington State, imploring American airlines to buy Boeing airplanes instead of Bombardier, because it's good for the local economy.

It's a double-edged sword.

Arrrgghhhhhhh..................

Does the Mayor of Montreal Need to Speak English?

For those of you unfamiliar with the mayor of Quebec City, you should know that Régis Labeaume is quite the firecracker. He is perhaps, the second best mayor in all of Canada, bested only by the iconic "Hurricane" Hazel McCallion of Mississauga.

Régis Labeaume runs a tight ship and ever since taking over the mayor's office in 2007 has performed rather brilliantly, with solid management and dogged determination. He's unafraid to speak his mind and is sometimes politically incorrect. He infuriates his opponents by taking strong positions and defends them ferociously, as was the case in the Red Bull Crashed Ice event that was the target of the wrath of locals who were annoyed by the inconvenience it's staging would cause.
When the "Moulin à paroles" event planned for the Plains of Abraham, turned into a separatist love-fest, he pulled his support and cancelled his participation, much to the chagrin of organisers.

Quebeckers seem to enjoy his brashness. There's no doubt that Lebeaume is more popular than ever and even his enemies admit that he's effective. Polls predict that he'll garner over 80% of the vote in the coming election.

Lebeaume was born in the town of Roberval, located on the western shore of Lac St. Jean, in the heart of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region. Of the city's 10,000 inhabitants it's likely that 9,900 are white, Catholic Francophones and the city remains a place where the only English spoken, comes from the mouths of tourists who stop for gas or food on their way up the road to the excellent zoo in St. Felicien. (I saw my first polar bear there.)
After graduating from Quebec City's Laval University, he embarked on a successful career in the mining industry. In 2003 Lebeaume became the director of an organization that promoted entrepreneurship in Quebec City and soon became interested in politics.

I'm recounting all this because everything in his past would indicate that he'd very likely be a unilingual Francophone.

But he's not. Regis Lebeaume found the time and made the effort to learn English.

Here's a video of Lebeaume hamming it up with Chicago Mayor Richard Daily. It seems that Mr. Lebeaume is quite comfortable conversing in English and seems to enjoy some pretty good connections south of the border. LINK

Last week he made his way down to New York to meet with the president of the NHL to lobby for a return of the Nordiques to Quebec. He, along with Marcel Aubut, the ex-owner of the team (who also speaks perfect English) made an impassioned plea and presented a cogent plan to bring back the NHL to Quebec. Mr. Bettman was impressed.

Does the mayor of Quebec, a city that is 95% Francophone need to speak English. I think so.
So does he.

When Louise Harel tells Montrealers that English isn't necessary for the job, perhaps someone should show her the above video and give her a copy of the news article detailing Mr. Lebeaume's exploits in New York.

It seems that the real tragedy is not that Louise Harel doesn't speak English, it's that Lebeaume is not running for the Mayor of Montreal.

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.