Time to Blow up the PQ !

Out with the old....

Now don't get excited, the headline isn't any sort of a terrorist threat, sports fans understand what the term 'blowing up' a team indicates in relation to a disastrous and bitterly disappointing season.

It means to completely destroy and rebuild the team, in an effort to start over from scratch, with the Vancouver Canucks being the latest prime example, where right after the regular season, one where the Canucks missed the playoffs, the coach and general manager were unceremoniously dumped, with the new management team given the mandate to clean house, that is, to trade players, even the stars, in order to reset the dynamic and build for the future.

"The Vancouver Canucks are a mess right now. An absolute mess. .... .....If you’re going to blow up a team, then blow up a team. Don’t just partially tear it down and call it good. Link

I actually can't think of a better metaphor to describe the Parti Quebecois, which is pretty much the political version of the Canucks, once high and mighty, now a mere shadow of things past, an embarrassment to loyal fans.

While the mainstream press concentrates over the possible replacement for Pauline Marois, the defunct PQ leader, the media fails to understand that the desperate situation in the PQ goes far beyond a leader, and just like changing the coach in Vancouver alone, it won't change the fortunes of the PQ team, which is rotten to the core.

Pauline has left the party in shambles, there's no other way to put it. She put her personal ambition to remain Premier above  the public good and would it be possible, I've no doubt she'd have sold her soul to the devil , à la Dorian Grey, to remain in power.
As leader she led the way to the most divisive and harmful government this province has ever endured.
In my lifetime I cannot remember a government so thoroughly reviled by opponents and this all on the PQ for promoting the politics of hate in a nakedly partisan attempt to win power by dividing citizens into us/them camps.

I can go back to the first René Levesque government and trace all the subsequent leaders of PQ leaders up to Lucien Bouchard and say that I never as an anglo felt so disrespected by my own government.
René Lévesque, Pierre-Marc Johnson,  Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard and even Bernard Landry all had a certain gravitas and while all promoted sovereignty, none went out of the way to purposely antagonize Anglos and Ethnics or make us feel unwelcome.
Yes, I know that many of you are thinking of Parizeau's  remarks on the night of the referendum loss, but clearly he was frustrated and disappointed and probably in the cups when he made the unfortunate utterance that has now become famous.
But Parizeau was humiliated by his own actions and did the honourable thing in resigning over the incident, I still maintain that it was never representative of the man, who was actually quite urbane, open and actually inclusive.

But what Pauline Marois and the PQ did was despicable, rolling the dice on a wedge issue that was sure to rip Quebec apart, something that was actually the underlining intention,  a strategy to make Quebecers choose sides based on language and religion.

Over and over again,  François Legault and the CAQ told the PQ during the last Parliamentary session that a compromise was available, if only the PQ removed the most contentious parts of the Charter of Values.
 In fact both Parizeau and Landry publicly implored Marois to back down on the Charter, all to no avail. They tried to convince Marois that to slam minorities so hard was a recipe for disaster, a course that in the end proved to be exactly that. But the PQ team believed that forcing francophones to choose sides would ultimately bring electoral success, which was all that mattered at the time and governing for themselves and not the people became the PQ's raison d'etre.

I shall never forget the supremely arrogant Bernard Drainville telling reporters that a compromise was indeed available, but if only the opposition compromised its position and embraced the Charter as presented. What unmitigated chutzpah.
After the election debacle Drainville completely reversed himself, telling reporters that a compromise was indeed in the works, but that the election got in the way.
It is that type of lie that sent the fortunes of the PQ plummeting after the election, when the truth came out about the other big PQ lie, that of the non-existent legal opinions over the Charter.
 
And so if the PQ thought the election rout was its low point, it was a rude awakening for the party to find that just a few short weeks after the election, it has sunk in popularity, losing about 25% of its election support, down below the 20% level, a historical low if I am not mistaken.

Now electors are not swift, but somehow get to the truth in the long run, bringing to mind the old Abraham Lincoln adage that tells us that;

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin110340.html#MF7r6f3mySUk3rMB.99

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin110340.html#MF7r6f3mySUk3rMB.99

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin110340.html#MF7r6f3mySUk3rMB.99

What conclusions did Quebec voters come to before the election?

Firstly, on the question of integrity, the public rightly concluded that the PQ had nothing to teach the Liberals over honesty and that the only reason the Liberals had a worse record was because they were in power much longer.
Pauline's hubby, the oily Claude Blanchet may have been the most unpopular person in the election and although not running for office and actually hiding from public view, his disreputable shadow cast a heavy pall over the PQ campaign.
While the integrity issue should have been a slam/dunk for the PQ, the public rightly concluded that when it came to honesty, all Quebec politicians and political parties are as guilty as the next.
And so the issue, while of paramount importance, was deemed to be a wash, something the PQ never counted on..

As for the Charter, the PQ outright miscalculated its impact.
While many non-traditional PQ voters embraced its precepts, it wasn't enough to move them to vote for the PQ with other issues far more important.

But the real issue that haunts the PQ election campaign is sovereignty, for which the PQ has Pierre-Karl Pelédeau to thank.
Quebecers voters took one sniff at his separatistagenda and ran for the hills, there's no other way to put it politely. This is the shocking lesson of the election.

For the PQ it was a shock as profound as that of a child who finds out there really isn't any Santa Claus. The rejection of the PQ's holiest of tenets, turning the sovereigntist world upside down.
 
With the rejection of sovereignty, the rejection of the politics of division, coupled with the revelation of duplicitous manipulation and lying, as well as the dubious ethics of Marois and her husband, it is no wonder that the PQ now is engulfed by the proverbial Perfect Storm.

Changing the leader won't alter the fact that the PQ is in the voter doghouse. Only time can possibly heal the rift between the party and the voters and even that remains to be seen.
Like Moses who sinned while wandering the desert and was refused entrance to the promised land, so too will the PQ leadership be sacrificed, it is the only thing that can save the party, if it is at all savable.
Shortly after the election, Sylvain Tanguay was removed as PQ party boss and Marois supporters, both Harold Lebel and Nicole Léger were removed from the PQ executive in a caucus vote, signalling that the old guard was no longer trusted. 
It seems that those on the bottom are convinced that they've got to remove those on top.

So don't look to Drainville, Lisée or PKP to win the leadership, an outsider is needed to re-generate the party, somebody who had nothing to do with the planning and staging of the last election.

For those who think that PKP may be the answer it doesn't look good. The young turks in the party always resented the interloper and held their nose in the interest of winning.
But PKP is a liability, who brings nothing to the table except a reputation as a union buster and rich kid, two characterisitcs that hardly are enduring to Quebecers.

His less than average magnetism and poor speaking skills don't auger well for a potential leader. Also the fact that he has no constituency within the party make him a prime political target, and the baby wildebeest that is lagging dangerously behind the herd, he is ripe for the picking by th more experienced and deadly PQ carnivores. Even with that, I'm not sure he has what it takes to battle in the dirty, dirty cesspool of politics, where backstabbing and double-crossing are par for the course and this within one's own party! The political pitch on which PKP will battle the Liberals is slanted decided in the other guys favour and all of PKP's money can't help.

And does PKP really have what it takes to carry on over four long years on the cold hard benches of opposition, where one must passively watch the guys in power on the other side of the house, doing what you are denied.
Somehow I don't see it, PKP will become bored, his aristocratic style under supreme duress. I can't see him doing the rubber chicken circuit rubbing shoulders with the ho-polloi after a lifetime of privilege, where his word was regally obeyed, working in a committee, is just not his style.

At any rate, I see him as a Rodney Dangerfield character, the one in the movie 'Back to School' where a wealthy, but uneducated hard-nosed businessman returns to college and imposes his lifestyle on all around with hilarious results.
He cannot resist using his money and the hilarous moral is that he is able to change the school, instead of the school changing him. Somehow I don't see PKP having that type of impact.
 
So for PKP, it is only a matter of time before he gives up , he is either too smart, too dumb, or just to arrogant for the job.
As for Drainville and Lisée they are just plane burned, their reputation in tatters, deemed responsible for the election drubbing.
The new leader will come from deep within the caucus, likely somebody untainted by the past, with a decent shot at putting the dirty linen behind, somewhat like Couillard did.

But it remains to be seen if that even blowing up the PQ will even work, because it all comes down to sovereignty and for the PQ it is a Catch-22 situation, where giving up sovereignty is unthinkable and keeping it around, toxic for its health.

In Quebec, Wind Turbines Bleed Off Money...$2.38 per Spin!

Driving home from New York, just after the border entering Quebec, I saw a  couple of wind turbines turning lazily off in the distance, which of course got me thinking just how much these darn things are costing taxpayers.

I was a bit surprised at the low speed at which they turned, I never saw one in real life before and imagined that they whipped around furiously, like a fan attached to a childhood bicycle

Now we all know that wind energy projects aren't economic, especially in Quebec where electricity generated by hydro-power is about 70% cheaper than that produced by these wind turbines but for political reasons this province has actually mothballed fully functioning hydro-electric power plants, while increasing the number of wind farms.

One only has to look at the map of where these projects are built to understand that the whole thing is a wasteful attempt to bring jobs to economically depressed regions, where more than half of the wind farms are located in Quebec's economic basket case of the Gaspé, a region that contains less than 1% of Quebec's population. Yup...less than 1%.

It's a case of politicians just not caring or understanding reality about the waste of money that this so-called green industry actually costs the rest of Quebec taxpayers.

The blindness afflicts both the PQ and the Liberals equally, the latter which could have taken the decision to shut down the boondoggle completely in the face of stark economic reality.

While the Couillard government is talking about cuts everywhere, wind generation seems to be a sacred cow, probably because it is not the government which subsidizes the wasteful projects directly, but rather ratepayers through inflated electricity bills.

Given the new realities of the electricity markets, where demand is down as well as the price, all due to conservation and to America's exploitation of shale gas, Quebec hasn't re-evaluated it's energy policy, living in a fantasy world  conceived in the eighties where demand and prices were going up.

At any rate it's hard to wrap our heads around huge numbers like billions, for most of us, anything past the cost of an expensive home is too hard to contemplate.

A 100 million dollars has about as much impact to our understanding as a billion dollars or even a trillion dollars, it just doesn't register.
So let me deconstruct Quebec's wasteful wind energy policy to something we can understand.

There are about 1,000 wind turbines already operating in Quebec. More are scheduled to be built, but let's restrict our discussion to the present.

After a bit of research I found out that each one of those turbines, (without down time) spins approximately 12 times per minute which multiplied by hours and days comes out to about   630,000  times per year.

Multiply 1,000 turbines spinning at 630,000 spins per years = 630,000,000 .
That's a big number, 630 million spins per year, but let's break it down.

The total Quebec taxpayer subsidy for wind power is estimated at $1,500,000,000 (1.5 billion,) although it is probably much higher.

Now $1.5 billion divided by 630 million spins = $2.38 per spin.

That's right, every single time a Quebec wind turbine spins once, it cost taxpayers $2.38

Shame on the CBC Ron Maclean and Don Cherry

I've never been much of a fan of Don Cherry and his aw shucks country slicker attitude that seems so endearing to the Anglo lunch bucket hockey brigade.
I know how valuable he is to the network, he is an absolute rating bombshell having witnessed his popularity on a Air Nova flight out to Moncton from Montreal where the idiot was actually dressed in a slightly toned down version of his signature  floppy dress.
So many passengers on the small BAe146 wanted to come up to first class for an autograph that I was sure the small jet would become dangerously unbalanced. Cherry is quite the showman and with every autograph he'd talk about the home town of the person receiving his signature with a comment about the people he knew from area. Apparently Cherry knows a lot of people.

Cherry wears his Bruins and Toronto loyalty on his sleeve without reservation and that is a problem for a network proclaiming to be the premiere hockey broadcaster in the world.

There's an unwritten rule in quality national broadcasts that forbid commentators from using the dreaded 'WE' or "THEM' in describing the play by play action or in between period analysis. I remember that I would actually cringe listening to the ancient and insufferable Howie Meeker, the original Gee Whiz yahoo, speaking of the Leafs with such comments as, "We need to press" or "They look shaky now"

The hallmark of quality broadcasters like TSN or NBCSports, is a professional and neutral demeanor, where Habs booster Pierre McGuire wouldn't dare  wear a Montreal Canadiens cap during a broadcast as wouldn't Mike Milbury dare wear Bruins regalia during his appearances.
The same goes for their comment and observations, made professionally and untainted by their own personal loyalty which is left at the broadcast booth door.

Then there is the CBC with idiots like Ron Maclean and Don Cherry cheering for the Leafs even if they aren't playing, or for the Bruins, even if the opponent is a Canadian team.
It goes over big in Ontario and perhaps out West, but it is unprofessional to the nth degree and goes against the grain of what the CBC is supposed to represent.


The current run by the Montreal Canadiens has been tainted by the disgusting and biased treatment of the Canadian team by the CBC which is utterly bewildering.

From Ron Maclean's proclamation that French Canadian referees should be excluded from certain games because of the appearance of bias, to Don Cherry actually showing up to the Game Seven broadcast bedecked in a Boston Bruins jacket and using his segment to accuse referees of bias in favour of the Canadiens, something he did over his entire career as an excuse to losing to the the Habs on a consistent basis. Watch him whine about refereeing, proof positive that he's part of Bruin's nation, because you can't cheer for the Bruins without whinging over refereeing!

As for the rest of the crew, they spent the beginning of game six discussing what the Bruins must do to beat the Canadiens, not what the Canadiens need to do to beat the Bruins.

The CBC has lost the hockey rights and I couldn't be happier. I hope Rogers snaps up all the excellent commentators over at TSN and takes a pass at every single person connected with the CBC, except for Bob (There's something going on here!) Cole, who they can hire as  comedy relief to describe games of no importance.

The worst in all this is that we are forced to endure the amateur bumpkins at the CBC because of blackouts of the very professional NBC Sports alternate coverage.

While the Canadiens have made it to the conference round, the big news today at Hockey night in Canada is whether Dion Phaneuf will be stripped of his 'C'.

It's a little frustrating to see our national  broadcaster rooting against the only Canadian team left in the playoffs.
I can't wait for the demise of Hockey Night in Canada, an organization so dumb as to let the most famous theme song in sports get sold from under them to a rival.

So to HNIC I say, pack it in...go...vamoose  and good riiddence.....WE SHALL NOT MISS YOU!

We Montreal Canadiens fans will be happy to sing you out of the building,

♩ ♪ ♫     

Na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye!
Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye!

♫ ♬ ♭

As luck would have it I'll be out of town for the first two games of the Rangers finals, but will at least have the opportunity to watch the games on NBC Sports.

Where will I be?...Ironically in NYC.

Enjoy some moments of that great game seven victory! Go Hab Go!

Knives come Out in Time-Honoured PQ Bloodletting Ritual

I'm not telling you anything that you probably don't already know, even amateur students of Quebec politics know that true to form, an orgy of patricide is in order among the PQ ranks, where members are prone to cast blame for the election debacle, a tradition that goes back to the back-stabbing days of René Lévesque, way back when.

There remains an absolute fury within the PQ caucus over the failed campaign that was supposed to take them to the promised land of majority government with a fall-back Plan B of remaining a minority government, in other words...no harm no foul.

For those in the PQ who lost their seat, the defeat was maddening enough but for those who were re-elected but will be riding the pine of the opposition benches, instead of the comfortable back seat of their government issued ministerial limousine, the political equivalent of twiddling thumbs it is a fall in position particularly difficult to accept, like a disgraced police captain busted down and forced to walk a beat, for a four long year ordeal, an unsavoury dish of humble pie, made only worse by the unhappy aspect of having your salary cut in half.

And so it is human nature to seek blame in the face of unfortuitousness events, where pointing the finger at others, more convenient and satisfying than an honest look in the mirror.

Actually what President Kennedy probably said according to those who know, was;
"Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is a bastard."

 It is a pointed statement that underlines the idea that when a collective effort goes south, some individual or small group of individuals are going to take the blame for the entire group.

For Kennedy, it was the infamous secret attack on the Bay of Pigs in Cuba orchestrated by the CIA, a complete and utter cockup that exposed America as blatantly attacking and interfering with an independent country, breaking just about every international statute in relation to non-interference, to boot, While the entire US government was involved, the blame fell to Kennedy, while the rest of those involved ducked and covered like cold war children hiding under their desks.

Such is the history of the PQ, a saga of repeated bloodletting after each and every manner of defeat, where leaders are unceremoniously shown the door with either a golden handshake or boot in the rear end. There is hardly a leader of the PQ that exited in a dignified and orderly manner, most of them furious at the back-stabbing and forever marked by the naked betrayal of those they trusted.

It's hard to look at the latest PQ election campaign and point a finger at exactly who or what caused the election meltdown, because there were so many negative factors impacting the final result that to pick one would be a disservice to the others.

Perhaps running the most incompetent and worst conceived campaign in modern Quebec political history, it is interesting to deconstruct each mistake in and of itself.

Hubris

'Hubris' means extreme pride or self-confidence. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, ...

Calling an election over a few favourable polls was an amateur mistake that only the supremely overconfident and the out-of-touch  would make. It seems that the PQ decision-makers made an emotional decision in haste ignoring any semblance of good judgment.

I've told you before that a few positive polls mean nothing in Quebec where opinions can shift overnight. One only has to go back to the last federal election where the NDP, in a last minute surge, confounded all the experts and nearly swept Quebec.
Quebec voters are particularly susceptible to a phenomenon called 'group think' where an idea or concept embraces a group because everyone is exposed to the exact same media stimuli. While Canadians are exposed to a multitude of channels from across North America, Quebecers are limited to the few locally produced French television shows, proving Marshall McLuhan's, point, that 'the medium is indeed the massage.'
That is why an insipidly boring talk show like Tout le monde en Parle can have up to one third of Quebecers watching on any particular Sunday night, there's not much else to choose from.
Those type of ratings are unheard of elsewhere and contribute to the creation of a group mentality where like moose running in a huge herd, a sharp turn either left or right by the leaders, has the entire group turning on a dime, running at breakneck speed towards God knows what.
It's something that politicians and organizers in Quebec should understand but don't.

Thinking that the polls were relevant was the PQ's very first big mistake, and risking everything on the thinnest of margins made no sense since there was no pressing reason to call the election anyway, other than the pursuit of a majority government. Neither the CAQ or the Liberals were going to topple the government, all that was required was a little compromise in the coming budget and Charter of Values legislation.
Now Pauline made noises about needing a majority to pass her sacred agenda, but the reality is that political parties don't exist to pass legislation, they exist to exist, like humans who are bred to survive, to flourish and to reproduce...period.
But the PQ though they had the elements of a successful campaign, with the Charter of Values the ace in the hole (How did that work out?) That was the second crucial miscalculation. And like a gambler who believes he is betting on an absolutely sure thing, when things went sour, it is a bewildering and shocking comeuppance.

What the PQ didn't figure on was that the Charter debate had run its course. The passion on the supporting side had waned over time, as the issue dragged on interminably. In a world of short attention spans, the never-ending discussion and acrimonious debate were well past its 'use-by' date and for lovers of the Charter, the passion was clearly out of the relationship, the flirtation a thing of the past.
And so the PQ went to battle under the very worst of assumptions of the political ground on which they trod, shamefully delusional of their own invincibility and armed with a game plan that would have made General Custard proud, Pauline launched an attack on her enemies from which she would never survive. 

Over-estimating Pauline's Appeal 

One of the most puzzling miscalculations of the campaign was to put Pauline front and center, the poster girl of the campaign as if she was a highly beloved and venerated leader à la René Levesque.
Incredibly naive organizers conceived of a campaign based on Pauline's attraction to voters, an attraction that hardly existed.

Look at the PQ's campaign poster at the top of the page, it features a picture of Pauline Marois alone
with the word 'determined' as the campaign catchphrase. Now the French word 'determined' is spelled with a double EE at the end, indicating that it is a female who is determined, a not so subtle hint to voters that Pauline is carrying the can for the PQ.

In what planet did organizers belive that Pauline had that type of gravitas?
In fact she remains one of the most unpopular Premiers ever to take the office, reviled by anglophones and ethnics and barely tolerated by supporters.
Her husband's slimy reputation had bubbled to the surface in recent weeks, with allegations of influence peddling, coupled with rumours of using his position close to the PQ to enrich himself and Madame Marois.
While nothing has been proven definitively, for voters, the stink coming off the couple was hard to avoid and to a skeptical public, numbed by revelations at the Crime Commission, its was a case of assuming the worst, having been burned so badly before by the parade of corrupt public officials sashaying across our television screens.

The focus on Pauline as the heart and sole of the PQ campaign did not sit well with the upper echelons of the party, especially cabinet ministers who felt that a team effort should have been emphasized.
While they were forced to grin and bear it during the campaign, their collective rage bubbled over in light of the electoral debacle, with many blaming Pauline and her inner circle directly for the loss of their seat and the loss of the government.
When Pauline resigned on the night of the election, it wasn't a moment too soon, she would have been massacred had she faced the diminished caucus as leader.

The definition of a political train wreck is a poorly conceived and executed campaign, coupled with bad luck and unforseen setbacks, some beyond the control of the party itself, some wounds self-inflicted, but all devastating just the same.

The entry of Pierre-Karl Péledeau should have given the PQ the spark to put them over the top, even Liberal strategists and media pundits conceded that his entry into the race dimmed the prospects of the Liberals considerably.

But happenstance and unforeseen consequences reared its head and PKP's entry into the race exposed the PQ's Achilles Heel, a fatal flaw so serious that when exposed, represented the kiss of death.

Nowhere in the most innermost thoughts of PQ organizers and leaders was there an inkling as to the depths to which desire for the independence debate had plummeted

When that box of worms was opened, and the independence critters slithered out, there was no putting back the contents in the box.

Ever since the last referendum, the PQ has steadfastly refused to realistically discuss sovereignty with the public, always referring to it as some haughty goal, a Shangrila of sorts, without ever describing the actual landscape.

In one fell swoop, Marois took care of that, making some outrageous claims about a post independent Quebec that forced the public to face that unforeseen and never discussed reality. Borders, dollars, passports etc.etc., it was one discussion too far.

That one conversation about a future independent Quebec and what it would look like had the effect of a marriage proposal to a confirmed bachelor. RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!

The PQ caucus can blame Marois and they can blame organizers for the election meltdown but the truth is that they must blame themselves for supporting an outdated and rejected policy born in the sixties, which died in 1995, that referendum night when the YES side came oh, so close.

This is the reality that the PQ must face and knifing Marois, Drainville, Lisée or even PKP won't solve the fundamental problem.

Sovereignty and Quebec independence has run it's course.

A month after the election, with the revelations of dishonesty over the legal advices in relation to the Charter Of Values, the PQ can pretend that they did no wrong and Drainville can huff and puff all he wants about how he never fooled anyone. In the end the public makes its choice and the verdict clearly is that he and the PQ are deemed to be liars and that the campaign was predicated on a lie.
Support for the PQ has plummeted to a historically low 19% and clearly a house cleaning is in order.

But getting rid of Marois and the party executive is clearly not enough, Drainville, Lisée and even PKP are toxic and if the party is to renew itself, it means throwing out most of the big shots and starting over with untainted characters.

But even as the PQ cleans house, which they will, what will remain is still a collection of failed ideologues, perhaps younger and untainted, but still clinging to an outdated concept and like today's modern Communist parties which still linger in many Eastern bloc countries, a sad reminder of the failed past, as relevant today as pagers,  film cameras and mullets.

Coming to grips with that reality is what the next four years will be about for the PQ.
Does the party give up the dream and evolve into to a socially progressive party that works to protect and promote French and Quebec within Canada, or does it go down the road of ignominy, like aging hippies talking about the good old days of peace love and  independence, until they fade to black?

Canadiens Playoff Run Already a Winner

Its always a treat when the local team makes it past the first round of the playoffs, and who can deny that being among the top eight teams in the league is anything but a successful season. I certainly hope the Canadiens beat the Bruins and go on to the Conference final and perhaps farther, but whatever happens, I am satisfied, especially the fact that they are competing so robustly against the Bruins who perhaps thought they'd have a cakewalk through the Habs.

Whenever the Montreal Canadiens make the playoffs, I like to read the sports columns in the pages of the opposing team for a fresh point of view.

It's a special treat when that opposition is the Boston Bruins  because the writers and fans have an obsessive belief that the Canadiens are divers and the beneficiaries of advantaged refereeing, a theme that has been the hallmark of Bruins lack of success over the Habs for decades. I think it goes back to the very best game that I ever rattended, way back in 1979, when the Canadiens faced off with the Bruins in a tense game seven, the series semi-final that would see the winner go on to challenge for the Stanley Cup.

You may not be familiar with that game, many of you weren't even born back then, but you can see the video evidence during Don Cherry's Coach's Corner opening highlight montage where he is standing on the bench shouting at the referee with arms spread out, mocking the referee over another Canadiens homer penalty call.

The Canadiens trailed the Bruins by 2 going into the third and after making the score 4-3, time was winding down when the Bruins were assessed a too-many men penalty, which led to a Guy Lafleur slap shot goal after which, the Bruins goalie, flopped to the ice in total exasperation, like a child making a snow angel. From there destiny was set with Yvan Lambert scoring half way through the first overtime to eliminate the Bruins and send the Canadiens on to meet the Rangers in the final.

I had a good view of the play and swear until today that Lambert kicked the puck into the net. Back then, there wasn't any video replay and but one referee on the ice, so mistakes like that were common. When I mentioned it to Lambert at a social occasion a couple of years later, that I thought he kicked the puck in, he flew into a rage and swore it was a good goal. Twenty years later, I kid you not,  I met Lambert again in the Habs alumni lounge in the Bell Centre and he marched up to me to remind me that it was most certainly a good goal. Ha! Ha!

 

By the way, Lambert is a fantastic guy who used to work for the Habs until let go during a lockout, years ago. He is as entertaining a hockey character as you'd ever be lucky to meet and I can only wonder why he isn't making the rounds of French sports media.

At any rate, ever since then Don Cherry has been moaning that the Canadiens get away with murder, getting favourable treatment from the referees, especially in Montreal where according to him, referees are intimidated. And so Bruins fans take it as a given that in order to beat the Canadiens, you have to beat the refs as well.
That feeling is shared across the league and manifested itself quite recently with the asinine comment by Cherry's straight man, Don MacLean  that the league shouldn't allow a French referee to work a playoff game in Montreal. 

I know I've been talking about schadenfreude a lot lately, but what can I say, I'm that type of a guy.

As soon as the Bruins lost the game on Tuesday I headed over to the Bruins fan forum over at HF Boards to enjoy a little of their pain and recharge my batteries with a huge dose of the Bruins fans pissing and moaning.
Here's some of my favourite comments;


PREGAME COMMENTS

Bruins fans accuse Canadiens of whining...really???

-I am fully prepared for the real Embellishment City to rear their ugly heads. The Habs are going to be diving all over the place and the refs are going to be taking the cheese every time. We need to keep the legit penalties to a minimum, because you know the faux ones will be there for sure. The only semblance of a chance the Habs have to win this series, is by getting on the powerplay. 5 on 5 we absolutely eviscerate them.

-you have 21000 people yelling, i mean we are all human, that MUST rattle the best REFS once in a while!

-Good. I hope he sneezes in the room and the Norovirus runs through that crew of asshats like green corn through a goose. 

-Home of that most disgusting of creatures...Le Hab. Unlike other beasts he has no way of camouflaging himself- you can see, hear & smell him from a great distance. But you must constantly be on your guard against him, because he will slash, cross check & trip you without the slightest provocation on your part. And then hide behind a ref when you decide retribution is in order while the crowd screams "Ole". Think of Le Hab as a weasel on skates because truly that is what he is.

-I just pray for unbiased reffing. Unless we get screwed in penalties there's no possible way to lose to the diving clowns. The Habs game plan is just trying to hold on for dear life, score two during power plays, and hope that Price does the rest.

-Make them cry. Make their fans cry. Make that smug POS Therrien cry.

-Can we find a ref in the league born and raised in Montreal to act this way when games are in Boston

-No, he has a track record and proven history of making calls against Boston that aren't there, not making calls for Boston that are there and waiving off good goals. Additionally, his stats show he is 63% more likely to make a call in favor of the home team, except when it comes to officiating games at the Garden.

-Damned Montreal series is destined to kill me.
-Death,taxes and the first penalty in Montreal.
-Please, please, please, shut these self-important Habs fans u

OPENING CEREMONIES COMMENTS 

-Janet Reno is singing the Canadian National Anthem?
-Looking like John Candy cross dressing in Armed and Dangerous.
-Now all I can picture is Paula Dean in a Habs uniform shouting "beurre, y'all."

-If this pre game ceremony takes any longer any Montreal fan or player lucky enough to have seen them win a Stanley Cup will be dead of old age.

FIRST PERIOD
-And now Chara injured by a slash the refs ignored. Pretty clear these refs are either going to let a lot to or let a lot to for the Canadiens.-game already sucks
-Can you point me to the throw up emoji???
 -Waiting for a habs pp to be called. You know its coming.
-Give me a break what a ****ing lucky re direct to Plekanec wide open...Had to be the turtleneck wearer.
-Well the b's will just have to come from behind ...as usual
-We dominate they score. Typical. I hate these games. Shut those idiots up boys. Turn it on!

-Habs playing dirty = right into Boston's hands-I hate that disgusting piece of ****. (Subban) Rewarded for his dirty play.
-I wish someone would take PK out. But that ***** will just dive and whine not fight back, he has no spine.
-Down 2-0, in the 1st, IN MTL! Yes I'm scared right now!

SECOND PERIOD
-Why do the bruins always suck against montreal. I don't care that we dominated them at the beginning. All that matters is the scoreboard
-One bad period.Relax.This team is going to come back in this game .book it.
-Wow, shocking. When's the last time we got a gift goal like that against the Habs?
-And now the game is over
This is really frustrating. Are the habs really even that good?
-Dale frigging Weise Tuukka????
-Tuukka has just got to make a ****ing. Save. Dale Weisse. Jesus Christ.

-one more goal and the Habs are going to be as tight as their chain smoking coaches butt cheeks  

 THIRD PERIOD
-what bull **** with the no calls. net off on purpose, boarding, interfereance....bull **** we should have had at least one PP in the 3rd.

-BIG UPS TO THE REFS FOR SWALLOWING THAT WHISTLE.

-Lets face it. Bruins piss in their pants at the site of the Canadiens. Its not flat, its choke.

-Rask sucked, refs were typical montreal officials in the final minute. 

-What happens when 40 goal score Pacioretty decides to show up or the Bruins killer Vanek wakes up

-Boston should call up Malcom Subban for game 4. It would not only throw PK off but I'm not sure Dale Weise would have enough time to figure him out

-Habs are a bunch of scrubs, hurts to lose to them.

-I gotta step away from the screen. too shook

- Let's not make calls that should be made, because the home crowd might get mad.

-This game gonna bother me for a while.

Ha Ha!!! Quite enjoyed that....
At any rate, reading a couple of online stories in the Boston press I was totally surprised at the elevated  level of writing, considering it's just sports.

The two writers below can write rings around any of the palookas in the sports press corps in Montreal.

The ill-advised roughing debunked Harry Sinden’s oft-repeated claim that the only things certain in life are death, taxes, and the Canadiens getting the benefit of the first penalty at the Forum. Subban was banished for two minutes and the Bruins went to work on a power play that yielded nothing." 
Amalie Benjamin-Boston Globe

 Extensive personal research has determined that Montreal is a coffee town. Before Game 4, it would serve the Bruins well to take advantage of this resource.
On Tuesday night, for the second straight game, the Bruins staggered on full decaf. This time, unlike in their 5-3 Game 2 rally, the Bruins couldn’t overcome a drowsy start in their 4-2 loss. Fluto Shinzawa-Boston Globe

Thinking back to that 1979 playoff run, I'm reminded that I invited my uncle, my mother's brother who was in Montreal visiting us from the old country, to his first hockey game ever. Really his first game ever.
That night the Canadiens won the Stanley cup against the Rangers. Amazing...

By the way, I attended the Habs 4-2 Tuesday night victory over the Bruins with my wife who could not stand the tense situation in the final minutes and buried her eyes in her purse until it was over.

She warned me that if the game went into overtime, we were going home.
Readers, do you think I'da gone home?

We're married 40 years, I'da gone home.....