Sometimes winning isn’t winning, if you know what I mean.
This contradiction could hit Doug Ford over the head sooner than later.
While Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca limp off into the sunset (don’t be surprised if Horwath re-invents herself as a Hamilton mayoral candidate), and the New Dems and Liberals re-load, Ford will have to grapple with some major issues exacerbated by a turbulent post-pandemic economy. The long list includes health care, education, a bulging deficit, cost-of-living and housing.
It might be bite-the-bullet time coming right out of the gate.
As a Liberal finance minister once told her cabinet colleagues, “Folks, we are broke. It’s time to think.”
Horwath and Del Duca might be saying to themselves, “Better you than me, Doug.”
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Records, the saying goes, are made to be broken, but the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record for most wins by a goaltender stood the test of time until 1969 when a Cornell University puck blocker named Ken Dryden eclipsed the 65 win mark held by Cornwall native Bill Sloan, who established the milestone in the mid-1950s.
Sloan, who died May 24 at Canton Hospital at age 87, was named All-American in three of the four hockey seasons he played with the St. Lawrence University Saints.
He went to SLU on a hockey scholarship.He went on to become a professor (mathematics) and administrator at SUNY Potsdam.Larry Keen Jr. said kids of his era looked up to a number of local athletes who set the standard of excellence for fair play and good sportsmanship … and at top of the list was Bill Sloan.Gary MacDonald, who played both varsity hockey and golf at Clarkson, said Sloan was for many years the face of Potsdam State University where he taught and worked.Sloan was inducted into the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame in 1972._______Forty-one years after he joined the Standard-Freeholder sports department, fresh out of Carleton University, Steve Dryden will step down as The Sports Network (TSN) senior managing editor in September.It has been quite a ride.He spent two-and-a-half years at 44 Pitt St. before moving to the Woodstock Sentinel-Review as sports editor. It was a short stay. He was hired by TSN editor-in-chief Bob McKenzie. When McKenzie moved over to the Toronto Star in 1991, Dryden took the reins. In 2001 he joined McKenzie at TSN. This time the roles were changed, with McKenzie working for Dryden.
Dryden has a great rapport with TSN’s star-studded roster. The super-talented James Duthie gave him the nickname “Evil Quiz Master”. For Dryden, it is a voluntary retirement, rare these days in the cost-slashing news biz.
When he came to the S-F, Dryden worked for yours truly. It was quite the journey. But, somehow, despite going in different directions at times, we survived and have remained good friends over the years.
HERE AND THERE: Tom McNish who passed away last week at age 72 was a pillar of the Seaway Slow Pitch League which enjoyed large numbers and much success during the 1980s. McNish was the league president. Regrettable, his tireless work at keeping the league functioning didn’t get the recognition he deserved. … Things are not going well with PostMedia. Word has it the profit-challenged newspaper chain, which owns the Standard-Freeholder, will be making changes early in the third quarter (July-September) that will include axing several print editions and making them exclusively digital. The chain implemented a hiring freeze last month.
THIS AND THAT: The popular folk group Peter, Paul and Mary sang about where have all the flowers gone? These days, employers, big and small, are asking “Where have all the workers gone?” Local job market is begging for employees as positions go unfilled. There’s never been anything like it. One local business hired seven on Monday. They were all no shows the next day. In another case, three prospects didn’t show up for job interviews. … At the rate Russian generals are being killed off in Ukraine, gotta wonder who would want the promotion? … Second-hand cars are in such demand, some are being sold for more than the price paid two or three years earlier. … The way things are unravelling in gun-happy U.S., the only way to reduce mass shootings might be to increase the number of victims needed to qualify as a mass shooting. It is currently four.
THIS MONTH IN 1965 – Stormont MPP Fern Guindon said he was told by the minister of education that Cornwall was on the list of communities to receive a community college (St. Lawrence College) campus. Rev. Henri Legault, superior of Classical College, said an integration of Classical College and the new campus could lead to a university campus. … University of Ottawa graduate Ghislaine Menard, 19, was crowned queen of French Week. Runners-up were Lorraine Bissonnette and Elaine Ladouceur. … The CBC said conversion to colour television programming would begin in January. … The separate school board’s education committee recommended that non-Catholics be hired to fill vacancies created by a shortage of teachers. … CCVS math teacher Louise McArthur was honoured at a retirement dinner. She taught for 40 years, the last 22 at the collegiate. … On the local labour front, the 700 union workers at Domtar’s Cornwall plant had a new two-year contract that had annual increases of 11 cents and 10 cents per hour, bringing the base rate to $2.28 an hour. Over at Cornwall General Hospital, union service workers agreed to $2 a week increases in each year of a two-year contract. … Robert Pender and Mary Barker, both 10, were top competitors at the Optimist Bicycle Roadeo. Others winners were Michael Warden, Ken Cashion, Joan Ezard, Pierre Brault, Gordon Greffe and Cathy Tyo. There were 725 competitors, aged six to 16. … Mark McAlear of St. Andrew’s Ironmen led Seaway Junior Lacrosse League scoring with 18 goals and 19 assists.
TRIVIA This oil company used the slogan “Put a Tiger in Your Tank”.
TRIVIA ANSWER Cornwall lawyer Paul Rouleau, the unsuccessful Liberal candidate in the 1974 provincial election, won by George Samis, capped a successful defence attorney career as a judge to the federal court of Canada, trial division.
QUOTED – “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
– Comedian Milton Berle
