Time to retire Gretzky Drive?

[Glenco]

Joni Mitchell has her opinions and I respect them. If I disagree with her opinions I'm not going to call for the cancelation of her music or art - or suggest anything in Canada named in her honour should be renamed or torn down. This whole cancel culture thing is very "cultural revolutionish" - its absolute craziness.

You Are judged by the company you keep.
If the person who you call your friend who amongst other thing steals from children’s cancer charities then you will be judged. Joni Mitchell and Buffy St Marie were at one time or another my favourite artists. One lied about her heritage for her entire career which came as a shock to me an insult to my trust in her integrity. Joni Mitchell has been true to her principals her whole career why on earth would you “cancel “ her music or art? But hey I have principles so no more Buffy for me.

 

[Whatup]

Yes - he is friends with Trump. Trudeau Sr. was friends with a communist dictator in Cuba and I don't remember this kind of backlash. Trump is obnoxious and is a USA protectionist president - the Liberals should have expected this but as usual they were unprepared and use emotion and a new found "patriotism" instead of addressing Canada's many issues. Wayne Gretzky doesn't need to apologize to anyone for whom he decides to be friends with. Are all your friends perfect people? Are they all perfectly adjusted progressive and virtuous people who do no wrong? Do you need to justify to other people who you hang out with and who you are friends with? This whole issue with #99 is off the hook crazy and embarassing for Canada. People need to calm the f*ck down. And people are calling for Gretzky to be cancelled - this thread was created to promote "cancelling" Wayne Gretzky Drive - next will be to take down his statue. People want to cancel Elon Musk and demanding his citizenship be revoked - cancel, cancel, cancel. I read on the forum we should stop consuming American culture. Its ridiculous and getting childish and boorish. If I was Gretzky I would not be happy about how this has played out - he has done nothing wrong. Many Canadians are acting like whining imbeciles who are so easily triggered by one obnoxious president who has a history of being loud and obnoxious. So many Canadians, and even Edmontonians are attacking the Great Gretzky because "guilty by association" - its ridiculous.

You Are judged by the company you keep.
If the person who you call your friend who amongst other thing steals from children’s cancer charities then you will be judged. Joni Mitchell and Buffy St Marie were at one time or another my favourite artists. One lied about her heritage for her entire career which came as a shock to me an insult to my trust in her integrity. Joni Mitchell has been true to her principals her whole career why on earth would you “cancel “ her music or art? But hey I have principles so no more Buffy for me.

Gretzky is friends with the President of the USA which is his business. Glen Sather was friends with Peter Pocklington and bailed him out after Peter Puck was arrested and broke. I remember Slats taking some heat for helping out his friend Pocklington but he didn't care what people thought and good on him. Sather knew Pocklington did wrong but he was still his friend through good and bad. Don't tell people who they can be friends with - its ridiculous. "Your are judged by the company you keep" - judged by who? Some people will judge your friends to be fine and others won't - are people supposed to live their lives based on fear of what people think of them? It's just more left wing cancel culture - cancel everyone and everything they don't like. Its a real turn-off and many many people have had enough of it.

 

[Oilguy]

Gretzky is friends with the President of the USA which is his business. Glen Sather was friends with Peter Pocklington and bailed him out after Peter Puck was arrested and broke. I remember Slats taking some heat for helping out his friend Pocklington but he didn't care what people thought and good on him. Sather knew Pocklington did wrong but he was still his friend through good and bad. Don't tell people who they can be friends with - its ridiculous. "Your are judged by the company you keep" - judged by who? Some people will judge your friends to be fine and others won't - are people supposed to live their lives based on fear of what people think of them? It's just more left wing cancel culture - cancel everyone and everything they don't like. Its a real turn-off and many many people have had enough of it.

Sigh, it’s getting a little deeper than that, and you are just ignoring it. Trump is actively taking steps to seriously damage our economy and musing about our sovereignty. These are not normal times and so if as a Canadian you are hanging out with him and also not saying publicly that you disagree with those things then you are part of the problem and people are going to be upset.

Conflating this with Sather standing behind his boss back in the 80’s is just a distraction from you.

That said, I probably wouldn’t rename Gretzky drive over all this either, but I am also very disappointed in his choices here.

 

[archited]

And if you don't like what we say about the stupidity of attacking #99 then ignore it.

And if we don't like the stupidity of what you say we should... ?

 

[trevorhayden]

Lots of Journal letters supporting renaming today!

 

[Whatup]

Gretzky has lived and worked in the USA for decades and is a US citizen. His wife and children are US citizens. Is he not allowed to have political beliefs in a democratic country where he is a citizen and be a republican? Is he not allowed to have republican friends? What is he supposed to do about government policy - he is just a citizen. Is he supposed to "stand up for Canada" and explain his relationship with Trump? Is this trade war his fault? He is the greatest hockey player to ever live, did an unbelievable amount for growing the game and improving the game. He helped Canada win several international hockey championships and he helped this city win four Stanley Cups. But that is not enough - according to many on this forum he is a "traitor" and needs to be denounced, have his name removed from public infrastructure etc etc. He was a great choice to be an honorary captain for Team Canada. Giving the "thumbs up" to the USA bench is good sportsmanship but even that small innocent gesture is maligned and used to call this great Canadian a "traitor". Terrible thing to call someone a traitor but so many do it so easily. Kind of like how easily they call people "fascist nazi's" and "climate deniers" etc etc.

 

[David A]

Gretzky has lived and worked in the USA for decades and is a US citizen. His wife and children are US citizens. Is he not allowed to have political beliefs in a democratic country where he is a citizen and be a republican? Is he not allowed to have republican friends? What is he supposed to do about government policy - he is just a citizen. Is he supposed to "stand up for Canada" and explain his relationship with Trump? Is this trade war his fault? He is the greatest hockey player to ever live, did an unbelievable amount for growing the game and improving the game. He helped Canada win several international hockey championships and he helped this city win four Stanley Cups. But that is not enough - according to many on this forum he is a "traitor" and needs to be denounced, have his name removed from public infrastructure etc etc. He was a great choice to be an honorary captain for Team Canada. Giving the "thumbs up" to the USA bench is good sportsmanship but even that small innocent gesture is maligned and used to call this great Canadian a "traitor". Terrible thing to call someone a traitor but so many do it so easily. Kind of like how easily they call people "fascist nazi's" and "climate deniers" etc etc.

While some people don't agree with his political choices about who to support for, of course he can make them. I don't think that is the real problem here, there is a sense he had the opportunity to stand up for Canada and he did not.

I am old enough to remember the decade or so Gretzky spent here and how it benefited our city at the time. I even met him briefly once and he also seemed to be a pleasant and decent guy at the time. However generations have been born since then, so I can understand how some people younger than me may look at this differently. I am not big on renaming things, I am certainly not there yet, but I do understand the current concerns that he may have forgotten where he came from.

 

[Gronk!]

 

[ChazYEG]

Obviously Gretzky's political acumen does DOESN'T match that of his skill on the

Here, fixed it for you.

As for the renaming... I don't agree in anything about his political views and who he supports, and it makes my stomach turn, but as someone pointed out, freedom of expression is part of our Charter of Rights, and his political views are not the reason why the road was named after him. Political views apart, he is still the greatest hockey player to ever grace the ice, and his contribution to the sport, to the Oilers and to Edmonton, in that sense, still warrant the naming.