AS I SEE IT COLUMN: When heroes break your heart
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Sport is a funny thing. Because someone scores a lot of goals, hits a lot of home runs or catches a lot of touchdown passes, that person can take on the rarified air of a hero.
In Canada, one such hero is the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. The holder of 61 NHL offensive records, he is the most prolific player in hockey history.
He has been an ambassador not just for the sport of hockey, but for the country of Canada. He used to stand for decency, respect, integrity and all the great traits Canadians are known for.
The key phrase in the above sentence is “used to.”
To the astonishment of most sane Canadians, Gretzky was photographed wearing one of those hideous MAGA hats while hugging Trump on election night last November. (Wayne was also seen partying with Trump on Inauguration Day.)
With that, decades of Gretzky’s goodwill and ambassadorship evaporated into thin air.
To see the Great One sell his soul to a convicted criminal who ripped babies from their parent’s arms at the border, who tried to violently overthrow the results of an election and who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals, is nothing short of a gut punch to every decent Canadian who used to see Gretzky as someone to look up to.
Gretzky is free to associate with anyone he wants, but the point that hurts the most for us former Gretzky fans, is that he has chosen to associate with someone who stands for everything that Canadians aren’t. Trump is a racist bully, a sociopathic ignoramus, a fake Christian and a con man.
Canadians value respect, good manners, the Golden Rule and treating people fairly.
What Gretzky hopes to achieve by kissing Trump’s ring and bowing down in deference is anyone’s guess. The president is a man whose university was shut down for fraud, whose charitable foundation was shut down for fraud, who was convicted of sexual assault and accused by 27 other women of assault or rape, and someone who bragged about going backstage at the beauty pageants he owned so he could see teenage girls in various stages of undress.
He is a repulsive, abhorrent clown, someone you wouldn’t trust to babysit your kids, let alone run the most powerful nation on earth.
The Great One is not a stupid person. What he hopes to gain by permanently tarnishing his legacy by associating with someone who in every way is the polar opposite of the persona Gretzky has spent decades cultivating, remains a mystery.
There will certainly be some Canadians happy to see Gretzky grovel before Trump, the first convicted felon to be elected president in American history. Those who supported the convoys that shut down Ottawa and some border crossings, will likely be very happy that Gretzky has shed the nice guy Canadian image and chosen to be buddies with someone who shared top secret military information with his friends, stored classified documents in a bathroom and suggested ingesting bleach to fight COVID.
Thankfully, those folks are in the loud minority in our country. The vast majority of decent, law-abiding Canadians despise Trump and loathe everything he stands for.
Which is why it’s so painful to see what has become of the One who can no longer be called Great.
Before kissing the president’s ring, it’s safe to say millions of Gretzky fans were not happy that a Russian was going to surpass Gretzky’s goal scoring record. But now, after schmoozing with a bigoted president and especially after Gretzky stood by and said nothing as the convicted criminal joked about Canada becoming the 51st state in America, few Canadian hockey fans care about Gretzky anymore.
Gretzky made the conscious decision to forever tarnish his legacy by hanging out with a convicted felon. That is his right. But his legacy as an ambassador for our great country and all the virtues we stand for, is forever gone.
Obliterated beyond all recognition.
CORRECTION: Last week I misspelled the surname of the Jets anthem singer singing on behalf of inclusivity in Manitoba. Olivia’s last name is Steadman. My apologies.