Bruce Dowbiggin
The Buck Stops Nowhere: Biden / Trudeau & The Accountability Gap
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It’s unlikely Donald Trump will have time or energy for a post-presidential TV encore. But were he to do so at the age of 85 he might call it You’re Not Fired! In this take on his Apprentice franchise, Trump brings on governments officials and employees who’ve never been fired despair egregious mistakes, many costing lives.
They compete to see which one made the most gargantuan mistake without ever taking responsibility. Bonus points are awarded for players who can say things like “The buck stops here” with the most cloying insincerity as they keep their job. At the end of the episode Trump declares to the winner, “You get to keep your job forever. Better yet, we are giving you a raise.”
It’ll be a smash hit. Certainly he can talk from firsthand experience about government service being the gift that keeps on giving. To its employees and contractors. This past weekend, for instance, a complete cock-up by the Secret Service nearly cost Trump his life in front of a worldwide TV audience. As snipers tried desperately to put down a shooter, Secret Service folks heroically draped themselves over the president’s body. (At least those tall enough to shield Trump from incoming fire.)
The term heroically is key here. While the sunglasses/ walkie-talkie dudes risked their lives in service of the president, their superiors safely back in a DC office were cravenly insisting that they’d do better next time. In an NBC interview, Biden appointee Kim Cheatle claimed the mantle of “the buck stops here.” She promised transparency in finding out why her department had failed so many basic tasks of the raid to almost getting Trump’s head blown off.
What she didn’t do was resign in shame for almost getting the former and likely future POTUS killed. Nor was she asked to resign by her boss at Homeland Security, Antonio Mayorcas. Ditto the Big Boss, Joe Biden. Even when DEI appointee and Jill Biden chum Cheatle tried out a shameless meme about the sniper’s rooftop being unsafe (too severe a slope), no one asked for the keys to her office.
She held tight to her pension even when it was revealed her squad knew the shooter was around hours before the shots that wounded Trump and killed at least one other. That Trump was allowed to take the stage when the sniper’s parents were desperately calling police to find him. That her claim of local police screwing up was debunked. That the crew was undermanned while a more experienced crew worked a Jill Biden function.
Look, this is not to conduct a review of the protocols flubbed and the roofs abandoned. This is about accountability. To say that there is no glory without honour. And from Biden on down, honour has been MIA throughout the years of affirmative hiring and official bungling. They claim glory, but it’s a shattered chalice.
As just one example, DHS head Mayorcas still gets a seat at Joe’s cabinet table despite the total breakdown of border security. So does Kamala Harris, who was named “czar” for border security. Transport secretary Pete Buttiegieg has overseen fatal bridge collapses, train derailments and transit shutdowns without connecting it to his administration of the department.
The same absence of responsibility has ruled in the decade of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in Canada. While his father earned (and then wasted) some honour by facing down rock-throwing separatists in 1968, Justin has been Brave Sir Robin, high-tailing it to the rear at the first sign he might be asked to show some stones.
While his media toadies downplayed Ol’ Yellow Stain at the time of the Truckers Convoy, most now acknowledge that had he emerged from under his desk at the Rideau Cottage in the early days to confront the protesters the disaster might have been averted. Instead, Skippy sent in the Ottawa Police and the Mounties to do his job, thereby converting a temporary problem into a historic assault on civil rights and the dignity of his office.
Whenever the coast was clear, Trudeau has predictably acted like a schoolyard bully to give himself gravitas. In addition to the Convoy, there was his draconian vaccine assault on the unconvinced, the cemetery pantomime leading to calling his nation genocidal at the UN, the imposition of the Carbon Tax and the honouring of a former Nazi in Parliament to silence his Ukraine critics. To impress his UN, EU and WEF pals he’s dissed Donald Trump at a distance, something that will now haunt him after November.
His cabinet and party quickly learned that they’d never be canned if they polished the PM’s apple. Most recently came the news that a cabinet minister had ordered the military to prioritize his fellow Sikhs in the frantic retreat from Afghanistan. Using the armed forces to protect your kin? Trudeau gave Harjit Singh Sajjat a pass because Harjit thinks (publicly at least) that the Boss is swell.
The Chinese cutouts in his caucus are likewise exempt from accountability, because Justin wants to be loved in Beijing. Why not? When he’s been repeatedly nailed on ethics violations or self-dealing he’s just gone la-la-la-la-la-la and moved on to new catastrophes. Or had a former Governor General whitewash his devious dealings.
In fact, the only way to get in trouble with Trudeau is to DO your job properly. Justice minister Jodi Wilson Raybould, a signature appointee as a woman and native, was canned by Trudeau for insisting the RCMP get to the bottom of a scandal from Quebec-based SNC Lavalin. Bill Morneau was edged out, because his view of a functioning economy didn’t include the top-down imposition of fantasist climate and gender diktats.
Both Biden and Trudeau drone on about restoring people’s faith in government without ever asking whether there are the problem. When your heart is pure, they say, your mission is noble. Now shut up.
Except Biden and later Trudeau are about to find out that their public is in no mood to shut up anymore.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
Dear Vladdy: Now, A Few Helpful Words From Vladimir Putin
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If you feel you’re lost in the No-Fun House these days you’re not alone. We already noted the disquieting sequence of events this summer, “Since Joe Biden went full Sling Blade in his debate with Donald Trump to a near-fatal assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania to the Democratic Party staging a Covid-inspired coup against Biden. And now Ms. Montreal, Kamala Harris, being retro-fitted into the Dems’ nominee against Trump while her media pals hastily erase her past.”
If you believe the current polling (you shouldn’t) she’s moved from ugly Biden duckling to Obama swan in just weeks. F1 cars don’t move this fast. But when the combined weight of Hollywood and the media party are playing Wag The Dog, you shouldn’t be surprised when the Dems try to put Trump in Rikers Island jail later this month.
Here in Canada, prime minister Trudeau is busy employing Harris’ Marxist strategy. “What can be, unburdened by what has been“. Like an actor from some bad prequel, he’s harassing steel workers with the novel concept that “I’m not who you think I am”. His pollsters are hinting he’s set for a breakout from the abysmal numbers he now has versus Pierre Poilievre, aka Little Trump.
Again, the embedded forces of the Canadian media, fat with Trudeau handouts, are not to be underestimated when the federal election rolls around in late 2025. A fourth term is always possible in the Land of the Gullible. For now they await the lessons that will be learned from the 2024 presidential election stateside.
The most likely outcome in Trump v. Harris is neither side accepting defeat. (Which will play havoc with Tom Hanks’ fatuous promise to move to Canada should trump prevail.) A drawn-out debate in the U.S. Supreme Court seasoned with a garnish of Electoral College hanky-panky seems a promising scenario for Trudeau— even with Jagmeet Singh, the man long bitching from Justin’s sidecar, now severing their entente..
As we say, it’s all disturbing. What most people in the West can agree on, however, is that Vlad Putin is a bad dude. So bad that both sides of the divide insist their opponent is in the pocket of the man in the Kremlin. The Left is yet again saying Putin funnels money to Trump’s pocket while the Right insists that Putin is working the Obamites to end America’s energy hegemony.
So it comes as a surprise when Alex Ovechkin’s favourite setup man actually nails a few home truths about what is happening socially in the Excited States, Canada and there EU. As we noted in October of 2021, Mr. Baddy sat down at a conference to impart wisdom about censorship and free speech now unfolding in the West.
“Incidentally, the Bolsheviks were absolutely intolerant of other opinions, different from their own. I think this should remind you of something that is happening… (in) the 1920s, the Soviet couture Tagore came up with the so-called ‘Newspeak’, and they thought that thereby they were building a new consciousness and coming up with new values, and they went so far that we feel the consequences up until now.
“There are some monstrous things when from a very young age, you teach to children that the boy can easily become a girl and you impose on them this selection, this choice. You push the parents aside and make the child take this decisions that can destroy their lives… all of that under the banner of progress, while some people just want to do that.”
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“This is something we saw in Russia. It happened in our country before the 1917 revolution; the Bolsheviks followed the dogmas of Marx and Engels. And they also declared that they would go in to change the traditional lifestyle, the political, the economic lifestyle, as well as the very notion of morality, the basic principles for a healthy society.
They were trying to destroy age and century-long values, revisiting the relationship between the people. They were encouraging informing on one’s own beloved and families. It was hailed as the march of progress. And it was very popular across the world, and it was supported by many, as we see, it is happening right now.
It is with puzzlement that we see the practices Russia used to have and that we left behind in distant past. The fight for equality and against discrimination turns into an aggressive dogmatism on the brink of absurdity, when great authors of the past such as Shakespeare are no longer taught in schools and universities, because they announced as backward classics that did not understand the importance of gender or race.”
You go, Vlad. There is some recent grassroots pushback to uncontrolled Wokeism, but not enough. Despite the activities of Obama and others, the virtue seekers of the U.S. and Canada seem complacent in the face of such caution. As conservative critic Mark Steyn observes of the gradual U.S. decline— and that of Canada, too— “The good news is that we’re unlikely to get another decade of complacency, because, absent any serious pushback, we’re transitioning from the ‘gradually’ to the ‘suddenly’ phase.”
Which will make today’s discomfort seem like a walk in the park.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
From Deal With It: A Cruel, Senseless Fate Ends A Brilliant Career
![](https://www.todayville.com/calgary/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/09/tvrd-dowbiggin-nhl-star-johnny-gaudreau-image-2024-09-03.jpg)
The tragic death of NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew in a car/ bike accident last Thursday in New Jersey was sad beyond words. The pair, riding home from a rehearsal dinner for their sister’s wedding the next day, were killed by a drunk driver who’d passed on the right side of a vehicle ahead. Words fail.
The loss of the brothers reminded us that in our new book Deal With It we dealt with a key moment in Gaudreau’s NHL career when he abandoned Calgary, the only NHL team he’d known since 2014, for Columbus in a controversial decision. Here’s what we said:
“If 2017-18 had been a turning point, 2021-22 was the major breakthrough that saw Gaudreau as a HHoF legend in the making, one who could have his number someday in the rafters in Calgary… should he choose to remain there. As it was, Flames supporters who had seen the team win just one playoff series since 2004, were eager to see how high the new-look Flames could soar and if Gaudreau might finally find his playoff scoring touch. They also looked forward to a possible matchup against the Oilers who’d had to work to even make the postseason.
Against stingy Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger, the Flames had to work just to escape in seven games, with Gaudreau notching just two goals in the series. Both would be game winners as Calgary outlasted the Stars in a nailbiter. His brilliant Game 7 overtime snipe— going short-side top corner near Oetinger’s head— was his highwater mark in a flaming “C,” sending the club into their first postseason clash with the Oilers since 1991. Coach Sutter praised his little winger’s efforts, saying Gaudreau had “taken that step to perform as well in the playoffs” as in the regular season. Gaudreau’s play in the series against Dallas was not helped by indifferent play from Tkachuk, who seemed disinterested in going to the danger areas and only mixing it up physically with the underdog Stars when scrums or opportunities for face washes were provided.
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Unfortunately for the Flames, the struggles of their top line against Dallas caught up to them in a passionate showdown with McDavid and the Oilers. In Game 1, Calgary raced to a lopsided 5-1 lead before seeing McDavid bring the Oilers back to tie it at 6-6 in the third frame. Tkachuk got the last laugh on this occasion, burying the third of his three goals that ensured a ridiculous 9-6 series-opening win for Calgary. In Game 2, Calgary once again took an early lead only to watch Edmonton roar back again again. This time, the Oilers made their resurgence hold up and claimed a 5-3 win. After dropping Game 3 in concerningly easy fashion (4-1), then trailing for the bulk of Game 4, the Flames seemed to turn a corner when they came back to tie Game 5 3-3. Looking for a turning point on Edmonton ice, they instead sagged as the Oilers scored twice in the final seven minutes.
Facing elimination in Game 5, Gaudreau’s Flames toyed with fans’ emotions as they possessed the lead twice only to see Edmonton get the equalizer both times. Pushed to the brink, the gut punch of McDavid potting the winner in OT was the final touch on Calgary’s wasted chance at a deep championship run. As it turns out, it was also the early end of an era that once held so much promise. “Missed opportunities,” the Sutter lamented postgame. “It’s not being critical, that’s just true. They’re going to tell you that, too. Missed opportunities go the other way.” The subduing of Calgary’s top line (just six goals including Tkachuk’s Game 1 hatty) was a key to Edmonton’s shockingly decisive triumph, leading to the same old questions about Gaudreau. Those questions also applied to Tkachuk, with doubt cast upon building around them for playoff success. There would be little time for reflection in the offseason talent market.
Instead of Calgary entertaining trades, the options would be in Gaudreau’s hands. As the July 1 trade deadline approached, Gaudreau announced that, despite an enormous eight-year, $80M contract offer from the Flames, he would test free agency. The star winger claimed to many in private that he wanted to go home so his wife could have their baby in the USA. As such, it was believed his preferred venues were the Islanders, Devils or Flyers (closer to home and a childhood favourite team, given he grew up just across the Delaware River from Philly). Still wishing something could be worked out, Calgary management hoped against hope for a reversal of his decision to entertain other cities after the UFA market opened. But Flames fans quietly resigned themselves to losing him for nothing.
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To the shock and surprise of many, Gaudreau would go only as far as Columbus, Ohio, when it came to finding a new home. Accepting less than Calgary’s max offer to go play on a team with few real hopes of playoff contention– a ten-hour drive from the Jersey shore where he supposedly wanted to be– Gaudreau sent a missile into Flame country. The optics were terrible for the 29-year old superstar, after insisting he wanted to be near the family home on the Jersey shore. Eric Duhatschek, shortly after, summed up the stunned reaction in The Athletic, writing “The fact that it took Gaudreau so long to choose effectively sabotaged the Flames’ off-season, because it closed so many possible Plan B options to the organization. Closer to home, but not close — because if close to home was the absolute priority, then he could have picked the New Jersey Devils, who also tabled an offer. Columbus is more easily reached by private jet than Calgary, but it’s not as if he’ll be dropping into his mom’s house for dinner after a game or a practice — or getting emergency babysitting service if they need someone right this minute to help out on the home front.” Calgary’s abandonment was best summed up by CBC broadcaster Andrew Brown’s sign-off that day, “And that’s the news for now, I’ll be back here at 11, unless a news station in Columbus offers me way less money… and I’ll probably go do that.”
Gaudreau himself put a salty punctuation on dumping Calgary at his welcome presser in Columbus. “It didn’t matter where I was signing. Our decision was it was best for us not to go back to Calgary.” From America, the reaction was more sympathetic to Gaudreau. In the New York Post, Larry Brooks sneered, “The hysterical response to Johnny Gaudreau’s decision to leave millions on the table in Calgary and instead sign with Columbus was indeed just that. Players are routinely lambasted across the professional sports landscape for being greedy mercenaries. Now this one is being targeted for taking a road less traveled.”
On Barstool Sports, personality “The Rear Admiral” summed up a scathing putdown with “Hell hath no fury like Canadian media (allegedly) scorned… But when media members wail and stomp their feet because a fellow adult opts to work in a new location, well that’s a special kind of entertainment.” For Flames GM Treliving, whose contract wasn’t renewed at season’s end, there was some resignation over the hand he’d been dealt. “At the end of the day, the players make decisions,” Treliving said. “You always reflect back on how you go through a process. I feel very, very comfortable that the ownership of this organization, the management team here did everything possible to have [Tkachuk and Gaudreau] sign and stay. They chose, they didn’t want to. Not a lot you can do about that so you move forward.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/557e12a0e4b04d97ac0ab999/172abf39-1b40-49be-8423-28240d165fb2/IMG_1167.jpeg?resize=740%2C1063&ssl=1)
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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