Junior A Crushers coach Doug Doull said something funny the other day about the $75,000 scandal.
Only it’s not a scandal, and in spite of what county councillor Peter Boyles might have heard from some guy, Doull doesn’t make anything near the $75,000 mark. Closer to half that, according to Weeks president Wade Sullivan.
Doull said he’s not concerned about the issue and even found a silver lining in the cloud:
“Anything that draws attention away from our (won-loss) record is good,” joked the coach of a hockey team that had lost five of six games heading into Thursday night.
Peter Boyles claims to have gotten the $75,000 dollar amount from a guy named Paul Taylor (if we had a Mary in all this, we could start a folk music trio. Except, it’d be more like a comedy act).
“I just said what I was told,” Boyles said on Thursday, after calling The News to discuss the matter.
Boyles also called out Randy Palmer, Ron Baillie, Andy Thompson and Debbie Wadden, four of the councillors who voted in favour of giving the Crushers $1,000 in taxpayer money, which ultimately didn’t happen.
“Are they giving out of their own pockets? I don’t think so.”
Boyles said he supports the Crushers and revealed that he continues to get phone calls from residents who agree with his stance, and none from those taking issue with him.
Fair enough, but while politicians should always listen to their constituents, it doesn’t mean they should be swayed by them.
You can’t leave every decision in the hands of we, the voters, or else you may get a result like the Pictou County amalgamation plebiscite of 2016: the wrong one.
While I have no reason to believe Boyles doesn’t have good intentions, the “I just said what I was told” comment reminded me of something my brother-in-law once said when speaking of his workplace – although he could have been talking about Pictou County in general: “Around here, if you don't hear a rumour by lunch time, you start one yourself.”
A political leader can’t just throw stuff like that out to the public – let alone vote on political matters – when they don’t have the facts. There’s enough Donald Trumps in the world and we don’t need any more of them. We could do with one less, actually, but that’s a topic for another day.
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On Nov. 11, we pause and remember the sacrifices made by our soldiers on the battlefield. We pay tribute to each and every one, but here are a few famous athletes who served their country in times of war:
• Stan Musial (baseball), a legendary hitter who played in more than 20 all star games. He was a WW2 veteran.
• Turk Broda (hockey), the Leafs goaltender who helped them win five Stanley Cups.
• Joe DiMaggio, one of the greatest players in baseball history, still to this day.
• Rocky Bleier served in Vietnam and later won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s.
• Pat Tillman was a former NFLer who quit football to join the U.S. army after 9/11. He died in Afghanistan in 2004.
Kevin Adshade is sportswriter with The News. His regular column appears each Saturday.
