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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Making us pay; the end of a tradition; and trading our way to oblivion

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

So, got all my chores done on Sunday and was looking for a little R&R time….put the feet up and stretch out a bit. And then I remembered it was Grey Cup Sunday. Now, I’m not much of a sports fan any more and don’t really watch much football, but, hey, this was the Grey Cup and I’m a Canadian. But in my basement room, I only get Canadian TV stations off the aeriel, but I mean that’s CBC, CTV, Global and the A Channel and what else is there if you live in Canada. So, I clicked from station to station looking for the big game. And had no luck and was perplexed. Where the heck was the game, this great Canadian tradition that dates back over a century? Well, turns out it was on TSN – which is, of course, a pay TV station that you can only get if you’re on cable or satellite. Sheeeesh! So folks like me who have been watching free through the airwaves since the beginning of time can no longer watch an event like the Grey Cup. The Canadian Football League has effectively blacked out everyone else in Canada who watches TV like me. And, actually, I ran into this last spring during the Stanley Cup playoffs when some of the games were on TSN. And I guess it’s well within the rights of the CFL and NHL to get more money out of their respective sports if they can. But, to me, it seems they’re shooting themselves in the foot and ultimately ending up with fewer viewers – which can’t be good in an age when advertising revenues for traditional media like TV are dropping through the floor. Anyway, I guess nobody but me really cares about this. The fact that nothing can come without a price these days – not even things like the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Grey Cup, which are supposed to be Canadian traditions. Well, for what it’s worth, they’ve lost me altogether. Don’t like their style…not one bit…

For most of the past two decades, I have had coffee at the Round Table at the Oak’s Inn before starting my day. And, over the years, I have gotten used to facing a crowded dining room on the last Thursday of November – American Thanksgiving. And that’s because a huge number of fellows from Wallaceburg used to attend the big NFL game in Detroit every Thanksgiving Day, and they’d usually start the day off with breakfast at the Oak’s…..and there’d be so many of them you’d have trouble getting a seat. This past Thursday morning as I walked into the Oak’s, there were exactly two football revelers there for breakfast – only two. I said my good mornings to the pair and we reminisced about the way things used to be. And, actually, there used to be another part to the Wallaceburg tradition. The Kinsmen $3000 Draw used to be on the Wednesday evening before American Thanksgiving. So, the men of Wallaceburg would meet for a fabulous meal, to gamble and carouse for a bit, they’d get to bed late and then be at the Oak’s for breakfast first thing the next morning, before heading to the big game. It was a time-honoured tradition in my adopted hometown of Wallaceburg when I moved here 25 years ago. It’s pretty well gone now. I imagine the younger generation of local business people are just too busy for such a purely social undertaking. Too bad, though. It was a lot of fun in the day.

PM Stephen Harper is currently on a round-the-world tour, or at least that’s what it seems as I catch glimpses of him on the TV news. Said on this morning’s CBC news that he was in China this week to boost trade with that country. Now, how, may I ask, do you boost trade with a country that already supplies the Canadian consuming public with pretty well everything it can possibly consume? I mean, if we’re processing Manitoba Whitefish caught in Lake Winnipeg in China, what else can there be? Boost trade, Mr. Harper? How about arranging some kind of deal where we get to sell some type of consumer good in the vast Chinese market. These days, when there is virtually no manufacturing left in Canada, I have no idea what that might be, but we must still make something here. How about Stanfield Underwear? Or Canadian flags? Something? Anyway, it’s interesting that as we move relentlessly toward an environmental abyss, and most environmentalists around the world are telling us that our economic system isn’t sustainable – that we’re destroying the planet – that Mr. Harper and other world leaders are out there feeding fuel to the capitalist fires that are burning us to the ground. It’s completely wrongheaded. And you read that here first….

Out of time for another week…..more ranting….more serious stuff….take care and remember….”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.