Game 6 on Mother's Day: Let's hope Edmonton Oil King fans celebrate both

If you watched Game 5 of the Western Hockey League championship series Friday night, chances are you just might be unwinding right now.

Wow: what a hockey game, packed with skill, excitement, action … and, if you are an Edmonton Oil King fan, great celebration. Forward Michael St. Croix scored in the first overtime period to give Edmonton a 3-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks, giving the Oil Kings another day. Portland still leads the best-of-seven series 3-2, but St. Croix helped force Game 6 which faces off Sunday at Rexall Place when the clock reaches 4 p.m.

And, if you wattched Friday’s game from Portland on SHAW TV or on whl.ca, you may have heard a comment from broadcaster Peter Loubardias.

I sure did. He made sense, absolutely, when he challenged Edmonton hockey fans to get out and enjoy Game 6.

Because it seems Edmonton fans have not embraced the Oil Kings defending their WHL championship series this spring. Let’s have a look:

•10,947 fans in Portland at the Rose Garden for Game 5 Friday

• 8,400 fans were at Rexall Place for Game 4 Wednesday in Edmonton

•8,513 were at Game 3 Tuesday at Rexall Place

(Source: whl.ca)

Questioning why Edmonton hasn’t fully supported the Oil Kings defending their WHL crown is, certainly, worth debate.

They are providing entertaining hockey. And, one would think, putting an entertaining product on the ice does more than billboards, bus ads, radio and television spots.

Yet, it hasn’t.

Although the Edmonton Oilers did not make the playoffs, there was a lot of hockey played since January. Funny how that happens when a labor dispute holds a season hostage.

Are we hockeyed out in Edmonton? Are we disappointed the Oilers, who had so much promise going into the season, fell by the wayside?

Or, sadly, are we starting to take the new success of major junior hockey in Edmonton for granted?

Surely, we’re not.

Friday’s game was a fabulous example of young men putting it all on the line: skill, determination, blood, sweat, tears — whatever it takes — to be champions.

Game 6 will have all of that and more.

We all should embrace and celebrate the journey the Edmonton Oil Kings are on — especially on such a meaningful Sunday as Mother’s Day.

Sharing the Mother's Day Experience

I am a very last-minute guy.

So, for many years I would call my mother on the Friday before Mother’s Day and asked what she would like — or, where she would like to go for brunch.

I got the same answer every year until 2008 when she passed away.

“Just be nice to me for the entire day,” she said. (I thought I was always nice to her.)
“I don’t need anything. And come to our place for brunch. What would you like me to make you?”

MY MOM

That was my Mom: always thinking of others, even on a day that was hers.

So there’s no doubt Mom would be thrilled with the idea from Changing Together — a Centre for Immigrant Women. The  Edmonton-based agency that helps new immigrant women get settled in Alberta’s capital city.

“By giving to our organization they can share the experience with another Mother and help someone in need,” says vice-chair Changing Together’s vice-chair Karen Sigurdson.

Here’s the drill: choose something your mom might think would really help someone and give it to Changing Together in you're her name.

Need some suggestions? Thought you would never ask.

A press release sent out earlier this week include:

$25          = A cab ride to safety for a woman and her children from an abusive family situation

$50          = A workshop on first aid or cooking nutritious family meals in Edmonton

$100          = English and computer training to increase confidence and employability

$250         = Crisis intervention, counselling, advocacy and court assistance

$500+ = Comprehensive education and family services programs for Edmonton immigrant women.

The most popular gift has been $100 from people. That will pay for computer, language or settlement training for someone.

Karen says the idea for the campaign came from a friend of hers who works at the Youth Emergency Shelter. The original idea was “Adopt A Mom” which was a perfect fit for Mother’s Day.

Visit the Changing Together website and look for the Click To Donate button and follow the instructions. Or, you can call Karen at 780-242-8559.

Sunday is all about remembering Mom. Karen remembers the proudest gift she gave her mother on Mother’s Day: ticket’s to see Little Women at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

“My sister and I took my Mom. It felt great to share a common experience,” she says in an e-mail.

Just like the Mother’s Day idea for Changing Together.

A downtown arena hero could be lurking. Who will it be?

It really should feel like Christmas Eve in Edmonton. But of course it doesn’t because the mercury got up to 31 degrees Monday.

But I don’t sense any excitement as we hang up our shorts and T-shirts this evening. Because May 8, 2013 could go down as one of the biggest days in Edmonton’s history when city council gives the final green light for the new downtown arena.

The operative word here is could.

I think the arena deal is far from over. And although we have been told to uncork certain adult beverages on May 8 as the day Edmonton finally tumbles over the monumental hump, I’ll just stick to coffee, thank you.

I am afraid the entire project is still very much at risk. I also think it could be turned into an election hot potato when Edmontionians go to the polls in the fall.
Oh, sure: if the missing $55 million for the project somehow appeared the vote would be a no-brainer. But without it how can we expect city councilors to move forward?

We can’t. If they did they wouldn’t be acting responsibility.

Over the several years we he seen the two parties involved, city council and Edmonton Oiler owner Daryl Katz, jostle for positioning. Both parties have shown leadership and vision for the city.

On the other hand, both parties have remained steadfast in their position and do not want to move anymore.

It’s all part of negotiations.

But at this crucial point, when the future of Edmonton’s image could very be reflected in a negative light if the project is lost forever, someone has a golden opportunity to be the savior here.

Both the city and the Katz Group could make a last-second concession. And who knows if that isn’t being discussed now, or perhaps later Tuesday evening? Maybe a deal maker is …

Or could that be the provincial government, who has repeatedly said there will not be any provincial funding?

Someone has to make a significant step forward to move the downtown arena deal ahead.

If not, I fear we’re going to continue the process of wheels spinning and, sadly, loose the opportunity of Edmonton being on even ground as a great Canadian city.

Yet, heroes manifest themselves every day.

Only time will tell if Edmonton will have one walking down an Edmonton street in May — rather than a chimney in December.

A green folder with a chart? In my bathroom at home? You're kidding? Right?

Green doesn’t go very will with the color schemes in my bathroom.

But now I have a green folder in my washroom. And what’s worse is what in it — causing one to seriously ask if Alberta Health Services is running scared?

Perhaps more to the point: the provincial government’s health arm, apparently, believes all Albertans with people with disabilities do not have — and should not have — much control in their own care.

And we’re supposedly living in 2013 with progressive thinking?

I have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair. I need assistance with my morning shower, getting onto a bath chair and adjusting the temperature of the water.

Here’s where the green folder enters the equation … and the bathroom. Alberta Health Services has implemented a new program: the person helping me with my shower must check the water temperature three times.

There’s a chart in the green folder and now must be initialed by the staff member after checking the shower temperature.

I seem to have lost the ability to do so myself, despite my 50 plus years of experience, and despite AHS officials not having the class to ask me if I can do so.

But hark! Something like that would take too much time, wouldn’t it? So AHS has decided to deem all people with disabilities in the same boat — tubs, you see, would be too small — and declare all of us mentally unfit to judge our own bath or shower water.

What if I come home next winter after being outside on a cold, stormy night and I am cold — and want a nice hot shower to warm up? Nobody can determine but me the warmth of the water that will warm me up except ... me.

I am insulted thinking that individual right now seems to be running down my shower drain.

I resent my own home, the very place I own with money I have worked for over 30 years, being turned into a mini-institution. Not even a single millimeter.

Over the decades, people with disabilities have fought blood, sweat and tears to live in the community and take risks, rather than co-habituating in the stoic walls of nursing homes and extended care centres.

I am fearful this new initiative — and I’m being kind, here — might be just the beginning of AHS taking more control. What’s next? Signs in our condo’s lobby stating visiting hours are over at 9 p.m.?

We have to ask ourselves why? Why is this happening now?

A good friend made an interesting point Sunday: something probably happened with community care that was handed over to a lawyer who let legal jargon over rule common sense and first-hand experience. AHS had to act, do something — and their new charting system fit the knee jerk reaction perfectly.

I am not, by any means, dismissing the seriousness of the scalding water.   Jeannie Wilson died in 2004 when she suffered burns in a bath tub as a resident living in the Jubilee Nursing Home in Edmonton.
Words cannot describe such a loss. 
I strongly suggest testing water temperatures for people who cannot do it for themselves is mandatory. Absolutely.
But it is fundamentally wrong for Alberta Health Services to march into private homes of mentally alert people and arbitrarily make such intrusive changes. 
It begs the question: how much is Alberta Health Services is, and why are they spraying innocent people with cold water? 

In the Nic of Time: Chapter One — Tears in the stands

OUR GRANDSON, NICHOLAS

There would come a time, I kept telling myself, when I would write the incredible story I saw unfold on the morning of March 3. I just didn’t when that time would surface.When I looked at the calendar and realized this marks the two-month mark of since it happened, I knew it was time.Winter had a solid bite on Edmonton March 3 — a Sunday. Our family gathered for an early morning hockey game at Kenilworth Arena to watch our grandson Nicholas play. 
Number  seven. Centre. Goal scorer. On the way to Kenilworth Arena — an old community barn, oozing with character nestled in southeast Edmonton — Nicholas told his father Darren he was going to score a goal that day for his mom. We had some concerns if Nic would even play that morning. But when he went to bed the night before and tucked his hockey stick and puck under his blanket, we knew he would be in the line-up.

It could have been easy for Nic not to play. Understandable, too: on March 2 his mother passed  away after a six-year cancer battle. Nic, 10, was at her hospital side when she died.

NICHOLAS AND HIS MOM ANNA MAI IN DECEMBER

He said he wanted to play the very next day.

Nic had many family vmembers in the Kennilworth stands cheering him on.      

Midway through the second period he had the puck in front of the net and picked the right hand corner for his second goal of the game.

Many of us watching had tears in our eyes: it was bittersweet of sadness and jubilation. Nic was so excited when he threw both hockey gloves in the air before taking the following faceoff.

After the game, Nic’s coach Shaye Ganam closed the dressing room door to have a private meeting. Shaye told the team about Nic’s mom.

On his way out of the rink, Shaye stopped and we shook hands. I asked how Nic was.

“After our team meeting I asked Nic if he wanted to say anything,” said Shaye, who is a broadcaster for Global TV Edmonton.

Nic got up and said, ‘When you say goodnight to your Mom, give her an extra hug — because I don’t have on anymore.”

Two goals and a profound statement.

It may have been two months ago, but it will remain with me the rest of my days.

SIMPLY PUT, MY HERO

An open letter to Don Cherry

Dear Mr. Cherry:

You seem … unhappy.

You seem … impatient.

You seem … like you’ve had enough.

....DON CHERRY

So could this be your last playoffs, and even your last season being on Coach’s Corner?

I bring this to your attention following your show Wednesday night on Hockey Night In Canada, during the first intermission of the Boston Bruin-Toronto Maple Leaf game.

You poured more fuel on the controversy you evoked Saturday night when you said women reporters do not belong in the dressing room by re-affirming your position.

You seemed frustrated with your co-host Ron MacLean, and, at one point snapped: “Do your job here. Let’s go.”

Coach’s Corner was obviously tight for time at the end of the segment. You were hoping to talk about Minnesota Wild goaltender Josh Harding. When MacLean explained you were out of time, you had an exasperated look on your face.

And just before the camera switched off, you said:

“This is ridiculous. Watch what comes on after.”

Hmmm.

I am wondering, in all honesty, if you are getting tired: tired of the grind of every Saturday coming up with something new to say? Tired of … doing the same thing?

You’ve entertained millions of viewers since you first started with 1981 with CBC.
Some love your stuff.

Others … well, they disagree. And your latest controversy on female reporters has certainly awoke people, in and of the game, who aren’t your fans.

But there’s something else very apparent to me.

Especially after Wednesday’s show.

It seemed like work for you. I know, I know: part of the show is to create some friction between you and MacLean. It wouldn’t be as entertaining if the two of you smiled at each other for seven minutes and agreed with one another.

We expect controversy from you.

But I see a deeper level of something from you. I can’t put my finger on it but I really sense something.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of meeting you and sharing time with you.

The one thing I have always been struck with is what a proud man you are; someone who calls your own number, and creates your own destiny.

I know how much it would hurt you if the powers at be at CBC made the decision for you to go.

This is something you don’t already know.

We all come to a crossroad in life when it’s time to move on. Perhaps you are at that point.

If this is, indeed, your last season, you have earned the right to end things — not for network executives, producers, advertisers or viewers.

But for yourself.

Sincerely,

Cam 

CLICK HERE FOR WEDNESDAY'S SHOW

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