Bruce Dowbiggin
From Deal With It: A Cruel, Senseless Fate Ends A Brilliant Career

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 sisterās wedding the next day, were killed by a drunk driver whoād 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 ItĀ we dealt with a key moment in Gaudreauās NHL career when he abandoned Calgary, the only NHL team heād known since 2014, for Columbus in a controversial decision. Hereās what we said:
āIf 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 Calgaryā¦ 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 whoād 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 snipeā going short-side top corner near Oetingerās headā was his highwater mark in a flaming āC,ā sending the club into their first postseason clash with the Oilers since 1991. Coach Sutter praised his little wingerās efforts, saying Gaudreau had “taken that step to perform as well in the playoffsā as in the regular season. Gaudreauās 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.

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 5Ā 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, Gaudreauās 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 Calgaryās 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.ā The subduing of Calgaryās top line (just six goals including Tkachukās Game 1 hatty) was a key to Edmontonās 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 Gaudreauās 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.

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 Calgaryās max offer to go play on a team with few real hopes of playoff contentionā 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 āThe fact that it took Gaudreau so long to choose effectively sabotaged the Flamesā off-season, because it closed so many possible Plan B options to the organization. Closer to home, but not close ā 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 itās not as if heāll be dropping into his momās house for dinner after a game or a practice ā or getting emergency babysitting service if they need someone right this minute to help out on the home front.ā Calgaryās abandonment was best summed up by CBC broadcaster Andrew Brownās sign-off that day, āAnd thatās the news for now, Iāll be back here at 11, unless a news station in Columbus offers me way less moneyā¦ and Iāll probably go do that.ā
Gaudreau himself put a salty punctuation on dumping Calgary at his welcome presser in Columbus. āIt didnāt matter where I was signing. Our decision was it was best for us not to go back to Calgary.ā From America, the reaction was more sympathetic to Gaudreau. In the New York Post, Larry Brooks sneered, āThe hysterical response to Johnny Gaudreauās 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.ā
On Barstool Sports, personality āThe Rear Admiralā summed up a scathing putdown with āHell hath no fury like Canadian media (allegedly) scornedā¦ 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.āĀ For Flames GM Treliving, whose contract wasnāt renewed at seasonās end, there was some resignation over the hand heād been dealt. āAt 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.ā

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, heās 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 Heel To Hero: George Foreman’s Uniquely American Story

“The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.āā George Foreman
For those who thought Donald Trumpās role progression (in WWE terms) from face to heel to face again was remarkable, George Foreman had already written the media book on going from the Baddest Man in the World to Gentle Giant.
Itās hard for those who saw him as the genial Grill Master or the smiling man withĀ seven sons all named George (he also had seven daughters, each named differently) to conjure up the Foreman of the 1970s. He emerged as a star at the 1968 Olympics, winning the gold medal in heavyweight boxing. His destruction of a veteran Soviet fighter made him a political hero. In an age that already boasted a remarkable heavyweights Foreman was something unique.
Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Ellis were still bankable household names for boxing fansā but on the downside of famous careers. They each had their niche. Foreman was something altogether different. Violent and pitiless in the ring. Unsmiling as he dismantled the boxers he met on his way to the top. He was the ultimate black hat.
With the inimitable Howard Cosell as his background track , he entered the ringĀ in 1973 against the favoured ex-champ Frazier, coming off his three epic fights with Ali. While everyone gave Foreman a chance it was thought that the indomitable Frazier, possessor of a lethal left hook, would tame the young bull.

Instead, in under two rounds of savagery , Foreman sent Frazier to the canvasĀ six times. Cosell yelled himself horse crying, āDown goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!ā This was a whole new level of brutality as the poker-faced Foreman returned to his corner as the most feared boxer on the planet. For good measure Foreman destroyed Norton in 1974.
Fans of Ali quaked when they heard that he would face Foremanās awesome power in Africa in the summer of 1974. They knew how much the trio of Frazier brawls had taken from him. The prospect of seeing the beloved heavyweight champ lifted off his feet by Foremanās power left them sick to their stomach. Foreman played up his bad-boy image, wearing black leather, snarling at the press and leading a German shepherd on a leash.
Everyone knows what happened next. We were travelling the time in the era before internet/ cell phones. Anticipating the worst we blinked hard at the headline showing the next day that it was a thoroughly exhausted Foreman who crumbled in the seventh round. The brilliant documentary When We Were Kings is the historical record of that night/ morning in Kinshasa. The cultural clash of Ali, the worldās most famous man, and the brute against the background of music and third-world politics made it an Oscar winner.
But itās largely about Ali. It doesnāt do justice to the enormity of Foremanās collapse. Of course the humiliation of that night sent Foreman on a spiritual quest to find himself, a quest that took the prime of his career from him. It wasnāt till 1987 that he re-emerged as a Baptist minister/ boxer. With peace in his soul he climbed the ranks again, defiantly trading blows in the centre of the ring with opponents who finally succumbed to his āold-manā power.
Instead of the dour character who was felled by Ali, this Foreman was transformed in the publicās eye when he captured the heavyweight title in 1994, beating Michael Moore, a man 20 years his junior. He smiled. He teased Cosell and other media types. He fought till he was 48, although he tried to comeback when he was 55 (his wife intervened)

And, yes, for anyone who stayed up late watching TV there was the George Foreman Grill, a pitchmanās delight that earned him more money than his boxing career. HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant commented that “There was a transformation from a young, hard character who felt a heavyweight champion should carry himself with menace to a very affectionate personality.ā
There was a short-lived TV show called George. There was The Masked Singer as “Venus Fly Trapā. And there were the cameos on Home Improvement, King Of The Hill andĀ Fast āN Loud, delighting audiences whoād once reviled him. He cracked up Johnny Carson.
Foremanās rebound story was uniquely American. Where Canadians are enthusiastically damning Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky for political reasons, Foreman never became a captive of angry radicals or corporate America. He went his own way, thumping the bible and the grill. Rest easy, big man.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, 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.
2025 Federal Election
Chinese Gangs Dominate Canada: Why Will Voters Give Liberals Another Term?

Thereās an old joke that goes, the Japanese want to buy Vancouver but the Chinese arenāt selling. Glib, yes. But with enough truthā Chinese own an estimated 30 percent of Vancouverās real estate marketā to pack a punch; Especially in this truncated rush to anoint Mark Carney PM before anyone finds out exactly whoās his Mama.
The advertised narrative for this election is Donald Trumpās vote of no confidence in the modern Canadian state. A segment of Canadiansā mostly Boomersā see this as intolerable foreign interference in the countryās sovereignty. So rather than look inward at why Canadaās closest partner is fed up with them the Liberal government has chosen a pep rally rathe than any uncomfortable questions.
Namely about Chinese interference in Canadaās politics, the distortion of real-estate prices in Canadian urban markets, the exploitation of banking and the thriving drug trade that underpins it all. And how itās driving a wedge between generations in the nation. As we like to say, Canadaās contented elites have been sitting in first class for decades but only paying economy.
Theyād like you to forget insinuations that Canada is a global money-laundering capital. Better to blame Trump for the āwillful blindnessā that has Americans and others losing trust in Canada to keep secrets and contribute its fair share tom protecting against the growth of China. (The same geopolitical concern that saw Trump kick the Chinese out of the Panama Canal Zone.)
Thanks to the diligent reporting of journalist Sam Cooper and others we know better. And itās ugly. An estimated trillion dollars from Chinese organized crime has washed through Canada since the 1990s. Theyāve used underground banks and illegal currency smuggling to circumvent the law. Theyāve bribed and intimidated. And theyāve poisoned elections.
This penetration of the culture/ economy by well-organized Asian criminal gangs have been around since the 1990s, but under Trudeau they hit warp speed. By the time Trump inconveniently raised the issue of border security in January, Canadaās economy could fairly be characterized as a real-estate bubble with a drug-money-laundering chaser.Ā The Chinese Communist Party now operates āpolice stationsā in many Canadian cities to supervise this activity and report to Beijing.

In his 2021 book Willful Blindness (and subsequent reporting) Cooper patiently records this evolution with brazen Asian gangs using casinos in BC and Ontario as money-laundering outlets to wash drug money and other criminal proceeds, turning stacks of dirty twenty-dollar bills into clean hundred-dollar bills or casino chips.Ā (When Covid closed the casinos they used luxury mansions as private casinos.)
All financed by underground banks and loansharks. This process became known internationally as The āVancouver Modelā to help establish Chinese proxies overseas and extend the CPP ās reach. Hey, the real estate kingpin is named Kash-Ing. (Kaching!) Itās currently being used to buy farm properties in PEI, much to the anger of residents (who will still vote Liberal to protect their perks.)
While investigators and some authorities attempted to expose the schemes the perps were protected by compromised government officials, corrupt casino employees and the inability of courts to deliver justice. Itās why Canadians were so shocked that TD Bank was fined $3B in the U.S. for allowing money laundering. āNot us! No way! Weāre Simon pureā.
Much of this money ended up in Canadaās feverish real-estate market, with vacant properties creating insane price spirals across the nation. Itās driven the inability of under 40s to buy homesā another major crisis the Liberals are trying to disguise under Mark Carney the compliant banker. Still more of the proceeds were used to build stronger drug-supply chains between Asia, Mexico and Canadaā with heroin and fentanyl then distributed to the U.S. and in Canada.

Against this explosion of housing and drug debt were stories of the political influence of these gangs into the Canadian system. The sitting Canadian prime minister, who praised the Chinese form of governing before he reached the PM post, has been seen in photos with underground Asian gang figures. As were previous Liberal leaders like Jean Chretien who made no secret of his lust for the Chinese market. Chinese money was used to build extensively in Chretienās Shawinigan riding.
Donations to Trudeauās Montreal riding association and to the Trudeau Foundation were favourites of shadowy Chinese figures. āIn just two days (in 2016), the prime ministerās (Outremont) riding received $70,000 from donors of Chinese origin, and at the same time, the government authorized the establishment of a Chinese bank in Canada,ā Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said on Feb. 28.
Donations to Trudeau from all across Canada constituted up to 80 percent of the ridingās contributions that year. In May 2016, one such fundraiser saw Trudeau hosted by Benson Wong, chair of the Chinese Business Chamber of Commerce, along with 32 other wealthy guests in a pay-for-access event. The patterns exposed by Cooper finally prompted a commission by Quebec justice Marie-JosĆ©e Hogue looking into Chines interference in Trudeauās successful 2019 and 2021 elections.

An interim report released last year by Hogue determined that while foreign interference might not have changed the outcome of Canadaās 2019 and 2021 federal elections, it did undermine the rights of Canadian voters because it ātainted the processā and eroded public trust.Ā So petrified was Trudeau of the full Hogue Report that he prorogued parliament for three months and handed in his resignation rather than test his 22 percent approval rating in a Canadian election. Or his luck with the courts.
Luckily for Liberals Trump came along to smoke out Trudeau and allow for the current whitewash of the partyās record since 2015 under Carney. So instead of agreeing with Washington about Canadaās corrupted economy Canadians have decided to engage in a Mike Myers nostalgia fest for a nation long gone. A nation overly dominated by its smug, satisfied +60 demographic that sits back on its savings while younger Canadians cannot get into the economy.
Reaching past the sunset media to those people is Pierre Poilievreās task. He has a month to do so. For Canadaās long-term prospects heād better succeed. The Chinese are watching closely.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, 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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