Some day, I want to be like Paul Jones

I know a guy who goes to the gym three or four times a week. In summer he plays golf as much as he can in search of the perfect swing.

He can throw together a standing rib of beef with Yorkshire pudding and roasted veggies seemingly on a moment’s notice. With a nice crusty loaf straight out of the oven. And when you’re ready to fall down on the floor, he’ll bring in dessert and coffee.

A wine connoisseur, he always knows just what wine, of what vintage, of which country or which vineyard, will go best with what he’s prepared.

Paul is his name, and, in his busy schedule, he finds time to sit on the board of his local performing arts centre. He’s a past art gallery director. And a voracious reader (on his new e-reader) with a commitment to lifelong learning.

Hanging on the walls of the modernist-style home he designed himself and shares with his wife Doreen are modernist paintings — his own. Among the books on their shelves are one on rural life in Alberta and another on the early days of Ocean Falls. He wrote them.

I don’t mean he strung sentences together and called them books. I mean, this man has a gift with words that makes me weep with envy.

Many of the things he does now — the gym, the golf, the writing, the cooking — have been picked up since he retired. Others — appreciation of fine wine, interest in the arts, community involvement — have been a part of him for much longer.

The past 28 years have allowed Paul more time to do the things he wants to do, to explore the talents he was born with but which had to take second place to work and family for much of his life. He retired from a key management position with B.C. Hydro at 62; a month from now he’ll turn 90.

Danna Bach recently wrote about her wonderful 90-year-old gramma. A remarkable woman for sure, but I’ll see her gramma and raise her a father-in-law.

Paul Jones doesn’t have enough hours in the day to do everything at once so he doles out his time carefully to each pursuit and each new experience. At 80, he thought he might try snowboarding, but Doreen put her foot down on that one.

He started cycling right after retirement. And cross-country skiing, as not only a participant but a race official. You will see no quaint stories here about how Paul Jones still enjoys a nice game of whist or gets a kick out of taking his scooter out for a spin.

When he needs to go somewhere, he drives. He doesn’t do crafts. He fixes things, writes books, works on his computer. When we need to know something about gardening, we ask Paul.

Right now he’s working on a Powerpoint presentation for a couple of speaking engagements about the time he narrowly escaped death when a mudslide buried a power station on the Arrow Lakes. It was in all the papers at the time.

The other morning, Paul shovelled the snow from his driveway. Then, he shovelled the next-door neighbours’.

If you ask him, he’ll tell you about his childhood in Sangudo, Alta., or working at the Ocean Falls mill, or his time in the Navy in the Second World War.

But he’s about today, right now. Point is, some people age more successfully than others, but seniors aren’t children. They don’t need us to praise them for gluing macaroni on a jar and calling it a pencil holder. They don’t need us to pity them and to thank the lord we aren’t old like them.

Me, I want to be like Paul Jones some day.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Coyote population explosion good news, for varmint hunters

The reputation of coyotes has taken a beating lately, and not without reason.

I’ve always thought rather highly of their resourcefulness and resiliency in the face of persecution from humans, but at the present time these skinny little wild dogs are at the top of a lot of people’s hit lists.

Newspapers and websites are chock full of human run-ins with coyotes, who become attracted to residential areas by garbage or chickens. Cats are a prime target, even in urban areas. A familiar story in The Daily News last week told of a pet-owner’s run-in with them.

By all accounts, we have a bumper crop of coyotes this year. Whereas in past years we usually only saw an occasional loner passing through our place or stopping out in the hay field to hunt mice or marmots (and have wished them “good hunting” on that score), this winter they are abundant.

We often see a pair making their way along their “trap line,” and one recent morning we spotted four of them loping up the middle of the frozen North Thompson River.

Not long after, the ravens and magpies enjoyed a feast after our resident coyotes chased a deer onto the river ice and brought it down. The coyotes returned once in awhile to chase away the birds and top up. Before long, the carcass was nothing more than a pile of bones, picked clean before it disappeared entirely into the river at the next melt.

We’re serenaded nightly by their howling, and whenever an ambulance goes past on the Yellowhead across the river, they greet the siren like long-lost kin.

In native lore, Coyote is a trickster, curious, alternately wise and foolish, selfish and thoughtful, but usually conceited and with super powers. But most people have little respect for them; some fear them.

The North American coyote has been hunted, trapped, poisoned and generally persecuted as vermin, yet its survival is not threatened. It has a remarkable way of controlling its own population — when numbers go down, the birth rate goes up. When populations peak, the rate goes down.

That’s why this year’s abundance won’t last. That’s a curse or a blessing depending on your point of view. I’ve already received two offers from people who would be more than willing to engage in a little localized population control. Their idea of a good time is to use a special call — it sounds like a wounded rabbit, I’m told — to bring coyotes in close and then plug away at them.

I’m guessing that, in a day’s work, they could easily rid the neighbourhood of at least a dozen coyotes, but I’d hardly call it sport.

In 1974, I read a book called Man Kind? Our Incredible War On Wildlife by Cleveland Amory, an American journalist, humorist and author who championed the animal rights movement. I met this remarkable man through an organization I helped found called the Wildlife Protection Association.

Amory supported the group through his own Fund For Animals, and visited Kamloops a time or two. Among his many animal causes was protecting the coyote from persecution. In Man Kind? he wrote about the unstinting, and failed, efforts of American ranchers to kill off coyotes. Amory always thought coyotes got a bad rap.

The book includes a picture of several dead coyotes strung up on poles “to teach other coyotes a lesson.” He had a way of ridiculing his opponents that left little room for comeback.

Still, I can understand people’s reluctance to share their habitat with these mangy canines, and who might think the only good coyote is a dead one.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

No reasons needed for a recall campaign

I’m getting mixed messages. Is the recall campaign by the anti-HST people a total waste of time and money, and a completely inappropriate use of the legislation?

Or is it an exercise in direct democracy and exactly what the legislation was intended for?

If you’re a B.C. Liberal, you very likely subscribe to the first definition.

“Recall is meant for a situation when an individual has done something egregious,” Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake said recently. “It’s not meant for expressing displeasure with government policy. That’s why we have elections.”

“Egregious” is a word that’s become quite popular in recent years. It means anything from “a flagrant violation of human rights” to “gross ineptitude.” So, in Lake’s view, you’d practically have to be Baby Doc Duvalier to qualify for recall.

Long-time Liberal Todd Stone wrote in a letter to the editor last week that “the intent behind B.C.’s recall legislation was to provide voters a mechanism to remove an MLA who had committed some form of personal transgression, such as committing a crime, engaging in personal misconduct or not showing up for work on a regular basis with no good reason.”

It was not, he wrote, intended “to be used to address policy differences between political parties or to re-fight previous elections.”

When anti-HST and pro-recall crusader Chris Delaney was in town with former premier Bill Vander Zalm week before last, he rejected such views. Recall, he said, is “the opposite of an election.” It’s a way of getting rid of a politician you no longer want.

Who’s right? Neither, really, but Delaney is closer than Lake and Stone. There are no rules whatsoever on the reasons for recall.

Anyone can start a recall petition if they put down $50 and say in 200 words or less why an MLA should be fired. The next step, collecting signatures of more than 40 per cent of voters within 60 days, is the hard part.

But nowhere does it say anything about egregious or criminal behaviour. The Elections B.C. website states “there are no set criteria” on reasons for recall. Any reason will do.

Presumably, recall applicant Chad Moats could object to Terry Lake’s red hair, claiming redheads make poor MLAs. He might not get enough signatures based on that, but he could try.

What Moats does say is this: “I am proposing the recall of Kamloops-North Thompson Member of the Legislative Assembly, Terry Lake, because he supported the deceptive introduction of the Harmonized Sales Tax. He refuses to represent the clear wishes of his constituents as expressed in the successful Initiative Petition to end the tax and return to a Provincial Sales Tax in its previous form. Instead, he has chosen to represent the interests of the British Columbia Liberal Party and their supporters in big business over those of his voters in Kamloops-North Thompson. Therefore, the voters of Kamloops-North Thompson wish to recall Terry Lake and elect a Member of the Legislative Assembly who will better represent them.”

One hundred and eleven words, well under the limit. What Lake, Stone, Delaney and Vander Zalm are really doing is expressing opinions on what recall should be used for, rather than what it is. You and I might not agree with the way the legislation is written, but it’s a stretch to say it’s being abused.

Moats figures he’ll get word back from Elections B.C. tomorrow or Thursday that his application has been formally accepted. It’s running a couple of days behind because he sent a regular cheque for his deposit and Elections B.C. wants it certified.

There’s usually a pause of three or four days after acceptance before the recall period kicks in, he said, so it could be early next week before the clock starts ticking.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

That next telemarketer might be your Member of Parliament

Telemarketers are about as popular as the common cold. When studies are done, they rank down at the bottom of the list along with door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen, politicians and newspaper editors.

There’s something about having your evening interrupted by a phone call you didn’t ask for and don’t want that puts people in a bad mood. Books have been written about how to get rid of telemarketers. People put themselves on do-not-call lists, in vain. They try being rude, or pretend they don’t understand English.

When none of it works, they hang up. So a telemarketer is starting from behind right off the bat.

Last Monday, between 7 and 8 p.m., 40,000 phones rang in Kamloops and the surrounding area.

“Hello, this is Cathy McLeod, your Member of Parliament for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo,” said the recorded message on the other end of the call.

The only thing more unpopular than a telemarketer is a recorded-message telemarketer. Thirty-six thousand people hung up.

Those who didn’t heard McLeod’s recorded voice asking them three yes-or-no questions about the Conservative government’s economic-recovery plan. The whole thing took a minute or two.

A 10-per-cent response — 4,000 people — is pretty good as these kinds of phone-outs go. McLeod is happy with the result, though not sure if she’ll do it again.

As surveys go, this one was cheap like dirt — $700. Your average 250-sample phone survey, albeit with more questions and more science behind it, runs $3,000 or more.

She acknowledges her quickie phone campaign “was not completely scientific” but the answers were rather interesting. Half those who answered the questions thought returning to a balanced budget by 2015-2016 is appropriate.

Seventy per cent agreed that jobs and the economy are “the first priority to Canada’s success.”

And here’s the really interesting one: only 48 per cent figured the government was “on the right track with our economic action plan.”

McLeod isn’t sure what to think about that, saying she’ll have to dig into it a little more to find out why less than half her constituents like the way the government is dealing with the economy.

When staff walked into McLeod’s Victoria Street office the next day, the voicemail was full. Then the phones started ringing off the hook. Some of those calls were to complain about the survey, but most were from people who wanted to talk more about the economy. That was the real value of the mini-survey, McLeod said.

She offered the assurance that anyone who doesn’t want to be called for future such surveys can have their names taken off the call list.

Since the phone responses are traceable to the phone numbers, could information from this and other surveys be used to chart demographics that could be used in the next election campaign? For example, the mapping of areas of soft versus strong support?

“You’re 10 steps ahead of me on that one,” McLeod said.

I noted there was no mention in her phone message that information would not be used for other purposes. She supposed there’s “implicit consent” when someone answers a survey, but affirmed that it was strictly for getting feedback on the questions asked.

All in all, she felt it was a good process. McLeod isn’t aware of other politicians who’ve hired companies to do recorded-message surveys like this one, but don’t be surprised if telemarketing becomes the next big thing for politicians, right up there with social networking.

Once people get used to the notion, I’m thinking they’ll be more and more responsive. I don’t now if politician-telemarketers will move out of the popularity basement as a result, but McLeod deserves credit for some innovation in taking the pulse of her constituents.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Moving people without cars easier said than done

There’s an old saying” “You can dress up a parkade but you can’t take it to the park.”

Or, at least, there should be. The City might build the most beautiful parkade in the world down at Riverside Park, but it will always be a parkade.

That said, there are reasons to be concerned about it, and reasons that do nothing to help the argument against that particular location.

This week, a group called the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association appeared before council to argue that “more far-sighted solutions are available.”

They’re of the view that we should be talking about alternatives to parkades, instead of about where to put one.

It’s productive to discuss reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and all that, but what this group says amounts to a proposal to significantly cut the number of automobiles in Kamloops.

“Where is the evidence that this parkade is needed?” the submission asked.

That’s a little like denying that climate change exists, when there’s plenty of evidence that it does, backed by the obvious whenever we look out the window and see for ourselves how weather patterns are shifting, radically.

Another parkade is needed, period. In fact, one of the City’s mistakes is thinking in terms of only one parkade when it should be planning for, and acquiring land for, a second.

Ask anyone who works downtown how easy it is to find regular parking, and you will get a pretty clear answer on the need for more of it. In the two existing City parkades alone, there is a waiting list of 150 people. Add the private lots in the downtown core and that number increases substantially.

Another “transparent study” wouldn’t hurt, I suppose, but it would simply confirm the ample evidence that already exists.

Let’s be clear, too, that this is not, or shouldn’t be, a business versus the rest of us disagreement. Yes, downtown businesses need more parking spots for the many employees whose wages they pay.

If those spots aren’t available in parkades, they’re taken from shoppers. A new parkade will free up parking elsewhere, so the end beneficiary is the shopper.

As for turning off the ignition on automobiles and making everybody walk or take the bus or hop a bicycle, it won’t happen. By all means, we should be proving for hikers and bus riders and cyclists but, for various reasons, the automobile is the only practical means of transportation for many.

We can probably somewhat reduce the acceleration of parking needs with a long-term plan, but we can’t arrest or reverse it. So we’re left with the search for places to put a couple of more parkades.

Besides, the case against putting a parkade at Riverside Park doesn’t need the kind of alternative “solution” put forth by the BCSEA. People just don’t want a parkade there because no matter how you package it, it’s an intrusion on their favourite piece of urban green space. I’m on their side.

New sketches by City engineer Dave Trawin show the parkade can be built deeper than originally thought. At the east end it will be only about a foot above the curb; at the west end toward the Fafard bull it will be about eight feet. That’s roughly the height of the ceiling in your house.

Will that make people feel better about it? I don’t know. Concept drawings showing lots of trees and bushes and wide spaces can convince some.

Mayor Peter Milobar and seven of his eight councillors are hoping that will be the case. In the meantime, they don’t seem to have been swayed by the plea for lower greenhouse gas emissions, “social equity” and finding “creative ways” to move people around without cars.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

City snow crews deserve a standing O

“Now I’ve seen everything,” said the woman as a group of us stood staring out the lobby window of Sagebrush Theatre, avoiding the inevitable.

“I just saw somebody crawling on their hands and knees to get to their car.”

That was Saturday night at the symphony. The rain started coming down just before the Magic In Vienna concert got underway, and it wasn’t easy getting to the theatre. It was even tougher getting out.

Every inch of roadway and sidewalk was solid ice. Some tried to find traction by driving with two wheels on the sidewalk and two on the street, but it didn’t do much good. Others spent a good long time trying to scrape enough ice off their windshields to make a porthole to see out of.

All in all, there was nothing magical about Mother Nature’s temper tantrum. Now to the point: at the end of the first intermission, a nice young fellow stepped up to the microphone and explained that he was a member of the crew, and that he and other crew members were working with City of Kamloops crew to salt and scrape things down outside as best they could so we would stand half a chance of making it to our cars without breaking something.

He received a hearty round of applause.

The City quite often takes a cuff backside the head for its allegedly less than impressive work keeping the roads in good passable shape during winter weather.

I, for one, am a staunch admirer, rather than a detractor, of their efforts.

I have here yet another letter from a reader who firmly believes Kamloops residents are getting “the short end of the shovel.” As is often the case, the complaint centres on the deposit of snow on curbs and so on, and the opinion that City snow-clearing practices in general make little sense.

I heard from another reader during the Christmas season who complained about getting a warning from the City for shovelling snow from his driveway onto the street.

It was, he said, “a frivolous amount of snow” that would not impede traffic.

While I’m not a particular fan of over-zealous bylaws officers — and over-zealous legislators for that matter — maybe some of these complainers should live at my house for awhile (please, don’t take that as a serious invitation).

Those who reside outside City boundaries and commute to town each day love the City of Kamloops work crews. Crossing the boundary from regional district into Kamloops is like exiting the Ice Kingdom to the Land of Oz or, perhaps, the Magic of Vienna.

City crews set an ambitious standard for their main thoroughfares, one they hit with almost eery ability — bare pavement. Compare this to us poor country cousins who make do with a bit of sanding and an occasional plow when contractors are able.

One does not live outside town without a four-wheel drive vehicle. Which certainly makes exiting a symphony concert on an icy evening easier, but, all in all, country folk would kill for snow-clearing as good as city folk get.

And don’t even get me started on the yo-yos who push snow onto the road from one side right across to the other with their cute little yard tractors. The City is beefing up enforcement against such dangerous and ill-considered habits, and, I say to City Hall, go for it.

Just try negotiating your way over one of those barriers after it turns to ice. They’re a serious hazard and just plain rude.

So, to City crews from one who paid City taxes for many years and probably didn’t appreciate you enough then, thanks for a great job. And thanks for that special effort after Saturday night’s ice storm.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

 

Blazers — Let’s move on without further distractions

I don’t want to belabour the Blazers situation, as everyone wants to move on, but there continues to be talk out there that the lifting of the ban against Daily News sports editor Gregg Drinnan isn’t quite what it appears. In other words, there actually were strings attached. To be perfectly clear:

The Daily News has not committed to “provide more fair and balanced reporting.” Our position was and is that fair and balanced reporting is already the case, therefore there’s nothing to change. We committed to “continue” fair and balanced reporting of the Blazers, specifying that does not imply any change, or any direction to Gregg.

We did not commit to providing coverage “similar to what (the league) currently receives in other WHL markets.” I don’t know what kind of coverage other WHL markets receive, but I do know that Gregg Drinnan is the most knowledgable writer around when it comes to the WHL, and that he provides quality coverage.

We did not commit to “take necessary steps” to address this matter. We do believe the Blazers organization, its fans and the community are better without the implementation of counter-productive attempts to manage the media. The “resolution” of the disagreement was to remove the ban.

The normalization of relations between local media (for the ban on Drinnan swept all local media into the fray) and the Blazers needs to move forward in an atmosphere of clarity and transparency, and I sincerely hope we can do that without unnecessary distractions.

It was standing room only at recall-Lake rally

It was standing room only at Wednesday night’s recall campaign rally aimed at unseating Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake.

Not because of a big crowd; because there were no chairs.

The chairs, and a phone line, were scheduled to arrive at the recall headquarters on Tranquille Road next day. Meanwhile, three dozen people, including a couple of reporters and the guest of honour — former premier Bill Vander Zalm — stood around in the bare-bones room and talked about the hated HST.

The small group was definitely scaled toward an older demographic, reflecting, perhaps, that seniors are most offended by the tax.

Lake himself was scarcely mentioned by name, an odd thing considering he’s the focus of this soon-to-be launched recall campaign. Well, maybe not so odd, since this is all about the HST — Lake’s solitary sin being that he supports the tax.

And, Lake himself wasn’t there, but nobody expected him to be. In fact, he won’t even be anywhere near the country for part of the recall effort, instead jetting off to an overseas vacation.

Some people think that’s foolish, given that his political career is on the line. Others figure it’s a cool way to thumb his nose at the whole thing.

No matter.  They were there for Vander Zalm and the cause. “Rally” seems a bit of an over-statement, given the small numbers, the venue and the largely subdued demeanor of the group.

But one shouldn’t under-estimate either their determination nor their capability of achieving success. Assurances were offered that more would have showed had it not been for poor weather and the Blazers.

Organizer Chad Moats was hoping for a hundred, and he’ll need 300 to canvass neighbourhoods, work phone banks and take walk-in petition signatures.

He remains confident he’ll get them.

Vander Zalm gave the troops reason to be optimistic, sounding very much as he did in the old days when he was premier, his accented voice resonating in the room, offering assurances that the fight against the HST will change the way we’re governed.

He and fellow anti-HST petition organizer Chris Delaney, who braved yesterday’s Coquihalla snow storm with Vander Zalm to get here for the event, drew a line between corporate British Columbia and what they called “the average shopper.”

It’s a strategy of division, really, but it’s a fair and simple representation of where the battle lines are drawn in this fight. The HST is good for business, but bad for consumers. That’s the message that will be carried into the recall campaign.

One of those listening in agreement with their message was Denise Powers, a retired business owner and former president of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce.

I asked her later if she saw an anomaly between her business experience and her involvement in the anti-HST movement.

No, she said, not at all. “It’s the lies” that have been told by the B.C. Liberals about the tax that motivate her.

And that effectively sums up the other reason the HST is so loathed — distrust of politicians, especially politicians belonging to the Liberal party.

And Terry Lake happens to be one of them. And that’s why he faces the distressing prospect of being the first MLA in B.C. ever to be fired by voters between elections.

IT’S A PARTY, or should be, according to one man at the town hall, who asked a semi-rhetorical question to Vander Zalm. Isn’t there some new party we could all trust, he asked. To which Vander Zalm turned to Delaney and asked if it was okay to mention B.C. First, the upstart party headed up by Delaney himself. To his credit, Delaney passed on the opportunity to give the new party a plug, choosing to stick to the HST/recall agenda of the meeting.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

 

At last, an answer to gun deaths

The terrible shooting in Arizona a few days ago would seem to have brought clarity, in the U.S. at least, on the question of what can be done to stop such tragedies — give everybody a gun.

To be sure, that’s a little different than we look at things in this country. Wednesday, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff issued a statement condemning the shooting as an example of why we need gun control in this country. Not an uncommon reaction hereabouts.

South of the border, pro-gun and anti-gun people, Republicans and Democrats, are disagreeing with increasing volume over the issue.

One view gaining some traction is that if there were no restrictions on packing heat — and, in Arizona, there are very few — everybody would be a lot safer.

The impeccably logical rationale for this position is that if everyone who was at the supermarket parking lot in Tucson on Jan. 8 had been armed, Jared Lee Loughner could have been “taken out” by some other pistol-toting good citizen before he completed his rampage.

To the question of whether or not even more people would have ended up dead or wounded if a general shooting match had broken out, one gun lobbyist rationalized that bystanders were already in danger, so why not let them at least shoot back?

Those on the other side of the argument are pointing the finger at Arizona’s lax gun laws, but let’s not exaggerate. True, parents can legally carry a concealed weapon onto school grounds when picking up their kids, as long as they leave the ammo in the car. And, sure, you can take a gun into the bar, as long as you don’t get drunk.

What could possibly make more sense?

If you’re over 21, you can buy and carry a firearm without a permit. The right to bear, or bare, arms and all that.

It’s hard for Canadians to fathom this approach. Up here, we rationalize the need for guns based on the sport of target shooting, and the “sport” of killing animals. We actually believe — foolish us — that keeping firearms under lock and key is the way to go. We have this apparently outdated notion that we should not allow lunatics like Jared Lee Loughner to simply walk into a store and buy a semi-automatic gun that is capable of killing six people and wounding 14 others in a matter of seconds.

One can only imagine what might have happened if there had been a few more 9 mm Glocks with 30-round magazines in the pockets of the 30 or so people gathered around U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords for her meet-and-greet parking lot event.

But, of course, arming the populace would certainly solve a lot of arguments in a hurry. Rather than shouting at another driver for hogging your parking space, you could simply pull your Smith and Wesson and settle the matter right there.

The next time you get into a rancorous debate with a buddy down at the coffee shop over, say, the Liberal leadership campaign, you could get the last word in, big time. Unless, mind you, he beats you to it.

The playing field for domestic disputes would be levelled. Instead of one spouse beating up the other, it could all be sorted out with a little domestic gunplay.

As we all know, of course, guns — when they’re handy — are already used in all of those kinds of situations. Anger and guns don’t go well together.

There are two ways of calculating the odds. One is that the more guns, the safer we are. The second is, the more guns, the better our chances of taking a bullet.

I subscribe to the latter equation.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Meeting with Blazers had the right outcome

Yesterday’s meeting with Kamloops Blazers majority owner and Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison over the suspension of Daily News sports editor Gregg Drinnan’s access to team personnel had the right outcome.

Robison and Gaglardi agreed to rescind the ban on Drinnan with no strings attached, although an odd turn of phrase later appeared in a WHL press release that referred to the end of the season. That puts a nuance on lifting of the ban that was not agreed to at the meeting.

The ban wasn’t put in place by the league, but rather by the Blazers, so the wording is doubly puzzling. Technically, the Blazers could do it again, though I think all parties recognize there would be nothing productive in that, so the end-of-the-season proviso is out of place with the spirit of the meeting.

Nevertheless, it’s a chapter that’s finished and we can all move on, including Radio NL’s sportscaster Rick Wile, who has been uttering such drivel on the issue over the past week he should be ashamed of himself. He’s taken a liking to claiming we played “the free-speech card” and that we went about generating some sort of international campaign against the ban.

What does “going national and international” mean. That the story was of sufficient interest across the continent that other media started calling and asking for interviews? And that we answered their questions? Picking up the phone and calling us, by the way, wasn’t something Wile ever did. Didn’t have to — he’d already made up his mind.