The Menno Melange

Well, this is a bit late, but Will and I had our first wedding anniversary last Sunday, the 22nd!

We had a simple celebration, involving a trip to the KW Art Gallery, supper at the Keg, and a movie at home.

It has been a rich year; We went to Cape Breton, Edmonton, Windsor, Detroit, Ottawa, Peterborough and Kingston (to name a few), made various trips to the cottage, we finished writing our musical and began preparations for the performance, we planted a vegetable garden and learned how to can our vegetables, as well as peaches and applesauce, we’ve had the pleasure of many visitors to our humble abode, a hot air balloon ride, and various church involvements.

Next year is looking to be very exciting, too. If all goes according to plan, we will be seeing the performance of our musical in this year, as well as making preparations and leaving for our MCC assignment. We will give more updates about both.

While our prime minister is currently in the news for something else, I’d like to comment on something I saw him do a few weeks ago.

When the Leafs and Senators played in the season opener, one of the side stories was that Stephen Harper was in attendance, and cheering for the Leafs. I was distracted by the Senators’ win (one of their bright spots so far this season) and by the mention of the sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hockey fans in Calgary could have been upset to watch the guy they voted in cheering for the enemy Leafs. Fans in Ottawa who have watched the new guy residing at 24 Sussex cheering for the provincial rivals. Political sceptics could have seen his allegiance as pandering to the big city vote. Even as a fan of the Senators and a sceptic of political posturing in every aspect of life, I saw it in a different light.

Sitting beside him was his Leaf jersey wearing son, who was genuinely excited to be at the game, hardly the ideal companion for a man pandering for votes. I once worked at a sports retail store where our manager was quite excited by the success of the Leafs during their playoff run that particular season, but his excitement was fuelled by the extra money he was making by selling Leafs merchandise. Now, while I don’t actually believe that the prime minister is a big hockey fan, I didn’t sense that kind of fake enthusiasm, but a real enthusiasm based on something else.

I grew up dreaming of attending an NHL hockey game, and when I finally did, my two companions were my equally excited brother and my dad, who didn’t know the difference between innings and periods. Neither I or my brother were fans of the two teams playing, but we were excited to be there. At every home-team goal, we were on our feet, and so was our dad, not because he wanted a certain team to win, or because he knew exactly what was going on, but because it was an exciting place, and we was excited to be there with us.

Stephen Harper was at a hockey game with his son, and who cares how or why he got his tickets or which team he was cheering for.

I watched the 2006-07 NHL season opener tonight. Besides getting to see my Ottawa Senators trounce the Leafs, I heard something that likely also caught the ear of many other locals as well. The Pittsburg Penguins have been purchased by a local businessman, and he may be inclined to move the team to somewhere in Southern Ontario. Read the TSN story here. While Hamilton is an obvious choice, and the frequent subject of other rumours, Kitchener-Waterloo was also mentioned. Various names will be suggested by local pundits, Kitchener-Waterloo Penguins seems to be the easiest at this point, but I will also submit my own idea.

It may sound ridiculous, even a little overboard, but I think that the arrival of the NHL team should accomplish another much needed feat. In that spirit, I suggest the name: Berlin Blackbirds
The benefits are enormous.

• The first, and most obvious that it forces a city name change as well. Having two city names for one connected urban area is unnecessary, especially with the amount of civic amalgamation that has already taken place and will continue to take place. This would bring back the old pre-war name for the area. We’re not at war with Germany anymore anyway, and Lord Kitchener wasn’t all that great a guy anyway.
• Second, penguins, by definition are black birds, so the logo stuff would still be relevant, and no expensive changes or rebranding process would be necessary.
• Finally, Jim Balsillie’s wealth is a product of the success of Research in Motion and their Blackberry technology. It really isn’t that big of a leap from blackberry to black bird. They would quickly market each other.

There’s really no reason that this shouldn’t work, so when it does, remember that it was my idea.