I watched the first US Presidential debate on Monday night and it was, pretty much, void of fireworks. I felt that Hillary Clinton did a good job and stood her ground, but did not do enough to win over any voters that weren’t already in her corner. I could say the same for Donald Trump.
While he popped a couple of one liners that he’s become famous for, he did not do enough to sway someone on the fence.
As our own municipal election date draws closer, I would encourage you to get out to the all candidates forum next month and listen to what the abundance of hopefuls have to say. I know the one thing I’ll be interested in is how accountable can the elected officials hold city workers who are not elected? Furthermore, are some of the issues that Yorkton residents are feeling uneasy about the responsibility of our elected officials, directly, or do we think that maybe they put a bit too much blind faith into those who aren’t elected? I know I have been asked to run and I just can’t. I don’t have answers to matters I’m still learning what the questions are.
The Prince and Kate Middleton are in Canada this week and I have to admit I’m not a big follower of their every move. I don’t understand why the Royal Family is still significant in 2016; but nevertheless I couldn’t help but notice their small child (Prince George, I think his name is) stiffed our Prime Minister, who tried to relate to the lad by offering up his hand for a high five. Clearly, the nannies who teach the Trudeau children are doing a better job than the nannies who look after the Prince’s kids. What’s his name? William? What’s his last name? I’m not at all well versed in royalty.
I don’t want to come off insensitive and not acknowledge the awful tragedy this past weekend where two young men were killed and another suffered extremely critical injuries as a result of a two vehicle head on crash.
However, I don’t want to draw any unneeded attention to it either. I just want to say that as a small city, we all offer our greatest sympathies to the families involved and hope for the best (whatever that may be) going forward. I can’t imagine the void felt by those directly touched by this. I was sick to my stomach Saturday evening as word started to get out. For those of us not as close to the situation, it’s a reminder that we don’t always get to call our own shots. I recall a quote from a television show that I, often, think about during times like this. ‘Don’t wait around for your life to to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy and do it. Because everything else is just background noise.’ The reality is, none of us know how much time we have here.
Tragedy struck the professional baseball world on Sunday morning as we learned Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, and two others, were killed in a boating accident. Fernandez, at the age of 24, was one of the five best starting pitchers in baseball and, likely, would have been the best in another couple of years. Hopefully in the coming days, the media uses this as an opportunity to educate people on boat safety. There can be no good reason to take your boat out for a cruise at 3 am.
Don’t look now, but the Saskatchewan Roughriders have won two games in a row and have, actually, appeared to resemble a normal CFL team for much of the last month. True, the head coach doesn’t have any more friends today than he did 30 days ago, but the team appears to have the nose pointed in the right direction.
We are seeing political correctness and societal issues creep into professional sports more and more. Seattle Mariners suspended its backup catcher for the rest of the season for tweets he made regarding the rioting and looting in Charlotte. Originally, I was opposed to the suspension. I feel making a commentary on riots, even if unpopular, isn’t grounds for an employer to send you home; however I did see his actual tweets and he, specifically, identified race before calling them animals. Had he not identified the skin color, I think it’s fair game. After all, I have long felt the G20 protesters in Toronto were animals, as were the Stanley Cup fans in Vancouver, who went crazy after their team lost.
The media really does a poor job covering the National Hockey League. Winnipeg Defenseman Jacob Trouba has demanded a trade, saying he’s happy with his contract offer as far as money is concerned; but he’s not happy playing on the left side. He wants to be on the right and is blocked by Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers. Here’s why that argument is a crock of dandelions: the Jets don’t overpay their free agents. If the money is suitable, I’m going to suggest the Jets intend to play Trouba a great deal, maybe even on his precious right side. I think there is more at play.
Nice person mentions: Ryan Duthie, Scott Fitzsimmons, Kristin Karcha, Clint Mylymok, and Darcy McLean.
