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Bruce Dowbiggin

MSNBC Worship: Justin’s Playing What They’re Saying

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“I’m still mad at myself for that, for being convinced at one point in time that the Prime Minister was an honest and good person when in truth he would so casually lie to the public and then think he could get away with it.” —Jody Wilson-Reybould

The sum of what Justin Trudeau knows about guns is that they make a frightful noise. But like all Woke folk, the former drama school teacher also knows these “weapons of war” make even bigger noise when used to rally the troops against evil right-wing elements like Pierre Poilievre.

So when the unspeakable tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, occurred Captain Blackface was presented with an enticing opportunity on how to deflect from ridiculous gas prices, soaring inflation, his inane border closures and non-vaccinated bans. Play the gun card. By aiming it at the CPC base.

Sure, Uvalde was a strictly American tragedy. But why not appropriate the murder of 19 U.S. school children to lay some smack upon those saps in the Canadian boonies? Show them how a tyrant really works. “Hey, we’ll get Jagmeet to rubber stamp a gun ban the way her did the national emergency.”

“It will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” Trudeau announced as his cabinet head-bobbed. Thus, Canada declared war on the owners of the 1,831,327 valid firearm licences holders in Canada. New legislation would ban the ownership of “military-style assault weapons” in a mandatory buyback program, and impose restrictions banning the sale, purchase, importation or transfer of handguns. The legislation would also limit magazine capacities and ban toys – such as airsoft guns – that look like guns.

This despite the fact that Trudeau knows the four or five groups in Canada  who control the illegal gun market. Targeting them would remove virtually all the problematic gun incidents in the country. But harassing the gang bangers of Toronto, the Hell’s Angels, the indigenous drug mafia and the Asian gangs of the Lower Mainland of B.C. would touch upon too many Liberal clients. Easier to blame the legal owners who abide by whatever laws the Ottawa geek squad conjures up to disqualify Conservatives.

(U.S. legal scholar Jonathan Turley noted the repercussions of Trudeau’s actions: “Biden saying there’s ‘no rational basis’ to own 9mms and AR-15s sounds like he’s channeling his inner Canadian.” Ouch.)

Lest you think the appropriation game is a one-off, think again. While Canadian voters believe Ottawa politicians take their cues from the public, the reality of the Le Dauphin years is that Canadian policy direction is often conjured up in the fever swamps of MSNBC, CNN or the New York Times, the bibles of CDN Leftist cult thinking. He’s playing what they’re saying.

Example: When the American Left annointed the January 6, 2011 Capitol riot into “the worst assault oi American democracy since the Civil War”, Skippy merely said, “Hold my de-alcoholized beer”. Calling the noisy Ottawa demonstration of truckers protesting the government’s anti-vaxx policies a provocation, Trudeau jailed organizers, suspended civil liberties, seized the truckers’ bank records and credit ratings and described the honking truck horns a “national security emergency”.

With trusty scribes like Andrew Coyne wailing that the Bouncy Castle people had “paralyzed Ottawa” with terroristic actions, Trudeau convened the House of Commons, gelded the NDP and won international censure for his over-the top seizure of the government. Xi Jingping loved it.

Did he care? After winning another term and reaching a non-aggression pact with the NDP, it was full speed ahead on the front benches of the Libs. Best of all for Trudeau, who covets acceptance in the global One World community, his closing down Canada’s democracy hasn’t gone unnoticed. U.S. congressman Thomas Massie (GOP) observed, “The dystopian future Trudeau is manifesting in Canada is coming to America if US citizens don’t get involved.”

But there were more borrowed U.S. story lines to roil the nation. For example, Mr. Dressup noted the affect the 2020 George Floyd riots had in whipping up racial tension and all-around leftist loathing of America. The  dying words of the career criminal,  “I can’t breathe”, became a rallying cry for BLM and the militant left.

The inadvertent death of the career petty criminal beneath the knee of a Waukegan, WI, cop prompted cities burned, stores looted and the innocent killed in the mayhem. The issue also rallied the far-left base of the Democratic Party, allowing Joe Biden to win the presidency.

None of the racial animus was lost on Trudeau’s ”never let a crisis go to waste” crowd. When indigenous leaders in B.C. purportedly found “mass graves” near former residential school properties, the king of the photo op knew what to do.

The local chief Irene Andreas insisted that the tribe knew everyone buried in the Cowessess First Nation cemetery,. “All your elders have knowledge of every grave… So please, people, do not make up stories about residential school children being put in unmarked graves. No such thing ever happened.”

Nonplussed, Team Trudeau staged a revoting photo of him kneeling in the graveyard clutching a stuffed teddy bear beneath his arm. While paid media magpies saluted his “humanity” the action whitewashed a campaign of burning, statue toppling, angry newspaper misinformation and more across the country. His divisive stunt made its mark with the people he craves and drove a stake into reconciliation attempts with the indigenous peoples.

And let’s not forget the Ukraine Express. When the American left-wing media created the Zelensky cult of personality, Skippy ditched his green memes, fired up the government jet and flew to Ukraine with his most loyal cabinet flunkies for some photo ops. All he missed was a selfie with another fatuous hack, VP Selena Gomez… er, Kamala Harris.

Then there was Trudeau getting his Covid marching orders from the titans of DC journalism who daily grilled Donald Trump— and then adopted his vaccines under Biden. Or the misinformation boards urged by the American Media Party to silence critics of the Biden regime. Now outstripped by Trudeau’s multiple Bills C26, C38 etc.

Now, Teddy Bear Trudeau has his eyes on a Vaccine Task Force. Ah, the Venezuela-nizig of Canada continues. Music to this PM’s ears. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author was nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and business won him many readers.

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Bruce Dowbiggin

Kirk’s Killing: Which Side Can Count on the Military’s Loyalty Now?

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“After every armistice, you want to put us away in mothballs, like the fleet. When it comes to a little dying you’ll be sure to put us in a uniform…” Seven Days in May

In the 1964 political film Seven Days in May, a rogue Director of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff conspires to launch a coup against a failing president who’s just signed a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets. The plot is uncovered by a Marine Corps colonel, and the coup is barely averted with all the conspirators apprehended.

In 1964 the notion that the loyalty of the military/ intelligence services might be compromised was a hot topic in the days afterJFK’s assassination. After calming down in the Reagan days— remember Woody Allen’s revolution spoof Bananas?—  it has now returned.

How likely is a military/ intelligence coup? Loyalty of troops has been crucial in many coups and insurrections around the world. Famously the socialist regime of Salvador Allende was crushed in 1973 when the Chilean military staged a bloody coup. Allende and thousands were murdered as General Augusto Pinochet took over the country.

Still, the conceit in Western nations has always been “It can’t happen here”. The institutions of government are believed too strong and independent to allow themselves to be taken over by their militaries. The chattering classes prefer to see their military as Stanley Kubrick did in Dr. Strangelove— bumbling buffoons,  lackeys led by General Buck Turgidson.

Certainly in Canada, where successive Liberal government culminated with Justin Trudeau, the Kubrick model is closer to reality. DEI hiring, cuts to budgets and a slavish reliance on America to protect Canada for free have produced a Canadian military with more in common with HMS Pinafore than Vimy Ridge. From the world’s third-largest navy in 1945, Canada is now a boat that can’t float.

But something seems to have changed with the Tuesday murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. It seems a massive provocation by people who want to destroy the American society. It’s not helped by the voices on the Left claiming he brought it on himself with hate speech. @punishedmother “Maybe Charlie Kirk shouldn’t have spent years being a hateful demagogic fascist and this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe he should take some personal responsibility.It will take careful leadership to prevent this boiling over.”

This growing intolerance between the political sides exposed yet again by Kirk’s assassination has made people consider the Armed Forces’ loyalty in a crisis. As in, who has it? (In pacifist Canada the current clash of cultures is that support of the military might be necessary in resisting the conservative right. Despite Bill C-23 disarming Canadians the unarmed Left might face a large, well-armed rightwing population brandishing weapons.)

In a divided America think of Tom Cruise’s JAG character in A Few Good Men confronting hardened Marine commandant played by Jack Nicholson— and you have the conflict. “You can’ t take the truth!” Fighting generals are a thing of the past when Democrats are in power. Successive presidents have used DEI to create desk generals and commanders who reflect good taste over good planning.

This DEI mission creep in the military was one of Donald Trump’s strongest planks in defeating hapless Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Canadian Liberals, meanwhile, managed to dodge their pathetic defence shortcomings only by making the 2025 election all about Trump and a 51st state, not defence or Chinese influence.

There has been evidence that some at the highest levels of the U.S. military, CIA and FBI have already shown a bias toward Democrats. In the waning days of Trump 45 Chief of Staff Mark Milley told the Chinese leadership— America’s No. 1 global rival— that he would personally tip them off if Trump launched a surprise attack on China.

In another time (or movie) Milley’s treachery would been seen as treasonous, punishable by a life in the stockade or, possibly, execution. In the hands of the DC Media Party, however, Milley’s partisan gambit was buried in the run-up to the 2020 election. As with the concurrent Hunter Biden laptop scandal, the story was made to disappear in a welter of Trump demonization and legal harassment

Now we must wonder again. Sadly for Harris, Milley and Team Obama, the Democrats were thrashed by the Trump agenda. POTUS 45—now 47— quickly began replacing lifetime loyalists in the military and bureaucrats, stifling for now the urge to purge,

Again this scenario was unthinkable a generation ago, a plot in a movie. But the governments of Barack Obama and Joe Biden (Trudeau in Canada) have created a social schism that has turned politics into a blood sport. As we know there were two attempts on Trump in the election campaign by deranged radicals. The defeated Democrats’  obsession over who controls the Supreme Court and Congress in Trump’s presidency, the repeated comparisions to Hitler, are producing greater and more strident anything-is-accepted calls from the radical Left to take to the streets and pursue civil disobedience.

In Canada Mark Carney’s Elbows Up gambit is dissipating rapidly since the election, producing active discussion of separation in Alberta and Quebec (again). This raises questions about what the military might do in the aftermath of a vote by either side to leave Canada. Might they intervene? Would they stand aside? Will tanks roll to protect a Carney Canada?

No doubt Charlie Kirk’s death will be mobilized by both sides in their appeals for the loyalty of the military should a civil war break out in the U.S. Get your generals in a row. MSNBC’s Jen Psaki has declared Trump’s tribute to Kirk “an escalation” Says legal expert Jonathan Turley, “We are already at political assassinations, so I am not sure how much more room for escalation there may be for Psaki or MSNBC.”

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, 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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Bruce Dowbiggin

Ken Dryden: Hockey’s Diogenes. He Called Them As He Saw Them

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There is much talk about the Canadian identity in these days of mass immigration , diversity and refusal to integrate. The 1970s were a simpler time for such rumination on culture, however. Riding the new global identity of Pierre Trudeau (soon to be regretted), the times were fired by the 1972 hockey summit win by Canada over the Soviet Union.

The series contained many of the self-held perceptions of the nation. Plucky underdog. Tenacious competitor in global affairs. Limitless possibilities. All seemingly rolled up into two weeks 53 years ago this month. Many of these notions were still manifest in the 2025 federal election when Boomers had a conniption fit over Donald Trump and withdrew into their Elbows Up phase.

So it should come as no surprise that one of the stars of that 1972 team was goalie Ken Dryden. While not being dominant throughout against the shifty Soviets, Dryden peaked at  the right moments (in tandem with Tony Esposito) to snatch the eight-game series at absolutely the final possible moment.

It’s hardly an exaggeration that, while a number of the Canadian players lost their minds in the tense fortnight, Dryden carried himself with cool dignity. There were no Phil Esposito jeremiads. Not Jean Paul Parisé stick wielding. No Bobby Clare two-handers to the ankles of his opponents. Just the emerging figure of the lanky goalie resting his chin on his stick as he waited in the net for Kharlamov and Yakushev.

For the generation that watched him develop he was likely the quintessential modern Canadian. Son of a charitable community figure. Educated in the Ivy League. Obtained his law degree. Served as a federal cabinet minister. Author of several definitive hockey books (The Game is perhaps the best sports non-fiction in the English language). Executive of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And more.

He was on the American telecast of the 1980 U.S. Miracle On Ice at Lake Placid. And the radio broadcast of the 1976 Canada Cup. Ubiquitous media source. Loyal to Canada. And crucially, a son, husband, father and grandfather. If you’d created a model for the citizen of Canada of his times it was Ken.

He could be cranky and verbose, yes. His books often took issue with the state of the modern game. Concussions. The Trap. Excessive goalie pads. But his defining moment may have come in 1973 when, upset with Sam Pollock’s contract offer, he left the Montreal Canadiens to finish his law degree in Toronto. It’s important to note that his reputation at the time was a goalie carried by the Jean Beliveau super teams. Yet the Canadiens allowed 56 more goals in the 1973–74 season than they had the year before with Dryden. Plus they lost in the semifinals after winning the Cup the previous spring. Karma.

When he returned the Habs ripped off four consecutive Stanley Cups. Phil Esposito praised him as that “f’ing giraffe” who stole at least two Cups from the Bruins. He retired for good in 1979, and the Canadiens didn’t win another Cup till 1986. Which enhanced his reputation. His combination of tenacity, independence and integrity made him many fans. And launched a generation of goalies who broke the mould.

So his passing in the year that Boomers exercised their cultural privilege one last time is a fitting codicil to an era that held so much promise and has ended in a lost culture and renewed talk of separation in Quebec and Alberta. Many have emotional memories of Dryden, and social media has exploded with them on the news Friday of his death at 78.

For us, our quintessential Dryden moment came in 2001 at the NHL Draft. We were working for the Calgary Herald, he was an executive with the Maple Leafs. As we arrived at the Miami airport in a torrential rainstorm who was standing in the car rental lobby but the unmistakable No. 29? As fellow authors, we’d met many times, and we had quoted him so often we can’t count the times. So there was no fan-boy encounter.

This day he was a lost soul whose car rental had fallen through. Could we give him a ride to the media hotel? Sure. The company was welcome. As we rolled along though the pelting rain, searching for the right highway (this was pre-Waze) we talked about family and background. How were my kids? How was his wife now that he was hearing it from Maple Leafs fans?

Above the machine-gunning of the rain we then pivoted to hockey. He wanted to know what was going on with the Flames (they were mediocre at the time). And he wanted to talk about the state of trap hockey which was then choking the art of the game. Where was the beauty, the artistry in a league dumbed-down by clutch ‘n grab?

After chatting and squinting through the sheets of rain for 45 minutes we finally arrived at the hotel in Sunrise. As we walked into the lobby Ken thanked us for the ride and gave us $40 for gas. Media colleagues watching the scene were flabbergasted. Ken had a reputation as being frugal, and here he’d readily given me $40! U.S.! What could this mean? Did we get as scoop they’d have to chase. Ken blandly shooed them away, saying he had to check in.

We didn’t get a hot tip on a story. But we did get several gems to use in our next book Money Players, a finalist for the 2004 Canadian Business Book of the year. We meant to thank him for the material. Somehow the moment was never right. Now we won’t get that chance.

We might say the same for Canada. Somehow the moment was never right. Now we won’t get that chance. RIP Ken.

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, 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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