Sports: Hockey: Mass outpouring by fans for a new franchise in Quebec City, intent on bringing back les Nordiques
Montreal Gazette, Montreal's leading English-language newspaper, yesterday published Marianne White's sportsnews article (Oct2,2k10) about popular support in la belle province for the return of les Nordiques, Quebec City's former heroes of the ice rink. Somehow the team was swept from the city's grasp and ended up derelict in Colorado. The people -- that is, the fans -- want the team back; but to get it after 15 years, they need a new coliseum, an uptodate hockey stadium, something qu+t pricey these days. Trouble is, the Fed gov is being dunned for the balance, after the province and the city do their bit. Trouble is, the Feds have no business using any part of the Fed budget to make payouts from the dominion's general revenues for stadia, certainly not in these financially difficult t+ms of meltdown. Sorry, mes chers Quebecois, but try raising the money yourselves. I'll kick in $10 out of my penury; but don't tax me.
The city of Quebec certainly should have its own new stadium. You're a northern city like Edmonton and you need a hockey team to compete on a continent-wide basis for raising the spirits of your wonderful fan base thru the long Winters. But it's not the job of the Fed gov to give $175 million to one city, as the Prime Minister said, because then he'd have to dole out similar amounts across the country. We can't afford it. Period. Of course, Quebec's political culture is bedevilled with fans of another sport -- political blackmail. Don't connect, please, hockey with taxing the have-nots across the land to meet your own needs, as real as they may be.
-- Sportikos
When I realized I had taken a handful of positions (Derrida has a book of that name / title) in my politically-economically charged comment introductory to this blog-entry (top), an entry which includes a political position on the question of the Fed govt's priorities in l+t of the economic situation, and priorities in state expenditures during this next financial period; when I realized all this, I sat down by Grand Central Station and Wept. I howled gigglishly at my own presumption, until I noticed the tears falling on hand, my pant-leg, the chair, the floor. Do foregive!
-- Politicarp
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