Happy New Year! 2023

I want to wish everyone a happy new year! Let’s hope that 2023 is better than 2022. Like a LOT better. Here’s to hoping that 2023 being more patience, tolerance, and understanding around the world that people can be who they want, do what they want, and live the life they want so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

This message is intended specifically for countries like China, Russia, Afghanistan, and North Korea, plus any middle eastern country promoting terrorism, or hindering the freedom of women, and anyone deemed a minority, and yes, I’m looking at you, Iran.

I’m hoping, but not holding my breath, that people will take a moment this year to think before judging, commenting or doing stupid shit to other people.

Regardless… Happy new year, and lets make some positive changes for 2023 and beyond.

My First Childhood Hero: Pele, has Died.

Upon hearing that my first childhood hero, Pele, had died, I was filled with memories of my youth! I found myself thinking about stories I had told about soccer and my love of the sport, and now that there is something called the Internet, I found myself checking back on some of these memories only to find out they didn’t exactly occur as I had remembered… Oops.

As a kid growing up in Toronto who was, how can I say this politely, not so fit, I somehow had a love of the sport of soccer. I know it was 100% because of Pele, but I don’t remember how or why. I know that I begged my parents to sign me up for soccer, and in hindsight… who signs fat kids up for a sport which requires them to run… a LOT. Nonetheless, my parent put me in recreational soccer and I lasted for 3 long seasons. I played forward, but there was SO much running and I didn’t know how to play soccer, let along forward, so that was a bust. My coach put me in goal, but to ensure I didn’t break my glasses, he made me take them off. So our team had a goalie who was afraid of the ball AND who couldn’t see it. I’m pretty sure after a few (maybe 6) goals, I found my perfect spot… the bench. It was the right choice. I looked forward to the orange segments at halftime and I could watch my team and cheer them on and be safe from running and getting hit in the face. I also remember being kicked in the shin by someone with metal cleats and half the skin on my shin was torn off, and me thinking how barbaric this sport was. The iron is that as an adult I played 25 years of organized ball hockey blocking shots, taking cross checks, getting teeth chipped, stitches, and tons of other things strained, torn and separated.

I digress.

I remember late one soccer game, my coach subbed me in on defence and somehow the ball wound up on my side. I took the ball up the pitch waiting for someone to challenge me, and before I knew it, I was almost at the goal line and completely lost with what to do next. I heard my coach yell, SHOOOOOOOTTTTTTT”, so that I did, as I was tumbling out of bounds, and somehow my shot across the front of the goal had enough spin on it to find the back of the net. My first goal! My last goal too, as I immediately realized that I had finally contributed to my team and was content this wasn’t my sport.

But soccer… I played street hockey a ton, and I loved pitching, yet I played organized soccer, and I remember going to see the Toronto Blizzard professional soccer team in the North American Soccer League (NASL) play in Exhibition Stadium. I could have swore that I watched Pele play against the Blizzard while he was a member of the New York Cosmos. Turns out, that didn’t actually happen. Pele played for the Cosmos in 1975, 76 and 77. The Blizzard played at Exhibition Stadium from 1979 to 1984. Oops. I was right that the Blizzard lost to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and that was the beginning of my dislike of that franchise (the Rowdies, of course, not the Blizzard). I wished that I had the opportunity to see Pele play in person, and while I believe that I did, I think I’m going to continue to tell myself that I did, because I remember seeing him play somewhere, even if it was while daydreaming, on the soccer pitch, wondering why I thought I could actually play soccer.

My 1 goal put me 1282 behind my hero, Pele.

RIP, legend.

The Urban Daddy’s Post 1365: Olympics, Really?

As I mentioned in my most recent post, I have a love / hate relationship with the Olympics. I love that countries build structures for sports and housing for athletes and then turn those facilities into housing less advantaged, and training kids in these sports, but, I hate that the whole process around getting the games is corrupt. It makes me sad to see so much bribery and corruption rampant in the process of deciding where the games will be held, and that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seem to place more presence on making money than on the best interests of the athletes and the populations of the host countries.

What really lost me, however was the cheating, and lack of sportsmanship in Olympic events. Doping from the Russians, Iran athletes refusing to engage with Israeli athletes and the addition of professional athletes really takes the games away from their original intention and into just a money-making spectacle.

It’s become a joke, and for that, I feel horrible for the athletes!

Athletes train and compete for an opportunity to be recognized as one of the best in their field in the Olympics where the best of the best are supposed to be competing. It seems in some cases, its become a case of which country can dope the best, or cheat, or whose judges can do a favour for another country.

The Olympics have lost their integrity.

One way they could strive to get them back is to make a fundamental shift in the way they do things. Out with the old and corrupt and in with the new. There are rules, so use them. If you cheat, you’re out. Entire country. Out. No Olympics for you. No accidental drinking from my grandfathers drink after he took his angina medication, no accidental taking of horse hormones, none of that.

And the IOC needs to look at games which will help countries and where countries will help their people. How about a location which could use the economic support, and making the games into an opportunity for the global community to go to that country over the 8-year period of when they’re announced as hosts, and help build and create and develop. Make the games for everyone and not just for the benefit of the IOC and their pockets.

Cheating, doping, lack of fair play and you’re out. It’s time to make this change to the Olympics before the Olympics are gone for good. You owe it to the athletes!

I also think it’s time to look at some of the events in past Olympics and yes, I’m likely showing my age here, but how about a discussion about the sports that are being awarded medals:

1. Skateboarding as an Olympic sport? Medals being awarded for riding a skateboard down a railing? What’s next? Scootering? That’s really popular with the kids these days… What about Unicycle? Pogostick? Have you ever tried a pogostick? They’re hard!
2. What’s up with race-walking? and golf? Why aren’t billiards there? Or darts? Croquet? Lawn bowling, or bowling? Bocce??? I think a look into the sports being included in the games and awarded medals is always a good thing.
3. Have we not progressed enough as human beings that we can watch beach volleyball and don’t need the women in skimpy bottoms and a bra top? I mean, the men wear tank tops and baggy shorts that go to their knees… What’s up with that?!? It’s 2022.
4. I saw in the speed skating a skater push forward a pylon and it tripped a skater, causing them to crash and be eliminated. If I saw it, didn’t any of the judges? Even after the fact when it was being replayed over and over again. The IOC was very silent on this.
5. I like watching figure skating, go figure, but this judged sport has it’s share of controversy, ranging from bad judging to doping and it’s become something that either needs to be robot scored (so a set of criteria completed get a score, and no “artistic impression”) or it needs to be removed from the games. It’s become a big source of frustration and a bit of a joke and that’s not fair to the athletes. Not fair at all.

All in all, I want to enjoy and watch the Olympics, but I cannot. I’m upset before the games begin at the location of the games, and the cheating and corruption make me sicker. Then a Canadian athlete wins, or beats their personal best, or just competes and my eyes well up with tears, and want to give them the keys to the country for representing us so well.

Please IOC… Fix the damn games, eh!

Canadian Election 2021: What you need to know before you vote

As a Public Policy major and as someone who worked in the government, my experience and expertise mean nothing when you compare it to people who work in the field, are running for election or who have their own views and beliefs.

So, that means this is just my perspective as someone who has lived in Canada for half a century and has voted in more than a few Canadian elections.

I think everyone saw this coming except for maybe the Liberal government who have done a terrible job over the past 6-years at following through on promises, They’ve treated Canadians like we’re all stupid, listening to them evade answering questions, answering with their pre-worded message rather than answering questions and all the while smugly thinking they’re doing a great job, while Canadians stewed in frustration at this drama teachers satire.

Black face, ethics violations. SNC Lavalin, running up the debt and deficit, and being the worst “feminist” government in history by treating his female colleagues like crap. We’ve all been shaking our heads. We shook our heads when this government couldn’t get vaccines to Canadians while the rest of the world was putting shots in arms, everyone in the government would say the same thing; “We have the largest selection of vaccinations in the entire world”, which literally translated to mean, we’ve paid 5 companies a lot of money and only really 3 came through for us.

This government tried to get unlimited taxation powers because they knew they would need it to recover the billions and billions of dollars they gave away to Canadians who needed it, but also to Canadians who didn’t need it, were not qualified to get it but did so anyways.

Federal government workers who couldn’t perform their jobs worked the phones answering questions about the benefit payments were rewarded with a 6% pay increase, and a giant slap in the face when the PM told the public that they were not equipped to hand of benefit payments so that was awarded to a charity, the WE Charity, because Trudeau decided it was a smart move. WOW. So that cost the Finance Minister his job… The umms, and ahhhs, just kept coming. After a Green party member took an incorrect and anti-semitic stance against Israel’s right to defend itself, the Liberals happily stepped up to take that candidate, while telling everyone that they stand against anti-semitism. They also stand against sexual misconduct in the military, in theory, certainly not in practice. Yet, while all these issues were rolling through, the Liberals had their plans, their strategy, and they thought they had Canadians fooled.

Having the NDP support pretty much everything that the Liberals did, allowed the government to take on and pass traditional NDP policies, and while the NDP must have felt this was a great move, essentially, the Liberals were slowly making the NDP obsolete, because why vote the NDP if you can get NDP-style policies through the Liberals.

The next move the Liberals did is to promise a ton of stuff. Listen to their campaign promises and you’ll always hear the number. $1 million here, $1 billion there… They’ll promise to anyone, everywhere, and sometimes they’ll make it happen and sometimes they won’t – well, usually they won’t (see electoral reform). The reason the Liberals spend is obvious, because if they don’t get re-elected, they leave the country with a MASSIVE debt, and the Conservatives have to step in and cut spending, and balance the budget. Then the Liberals campaign on the Conservatives being that party that has to cut programs and prevent all that great stuff the Liberals promised and viola… Liberals back in power.

It’s a great policy, because the Liberals think they’re smarter than all of us…

But they made a mistake.

They assumed that they had an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that no one knew Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, so it was the perfect time (COVID, Afghanistan, Military, etc.) to plunge Canadians into an election, and at the time of this posting, it’s not going so well.

O’Toole, is a different type of politician. Former military, a lawyer, worked in the private and public sector, and really smart, I’ve had the opportunity to meet O’Toole twice, and his experiences and expertise blew me away. He knows what people want Conservative governments to do – be fiscally responsible – and what they don’t want Cons to be (see US).

So over a week into the election, we’re seeing something different. Trudeau is stammering to get out his message. He seems egotistical and disingenuous, where as his main competitors, O’Toole and even Singh, seem much smarter, much more articulate and much more prepared.

Singh’s message to tax the “ultra rich” has not been widely embraced because people fear he’s talking about them, and that his message stifles the incentive of people who want to take the risks and earn the big dollars, that extra taxation of their efforts is counter intuitive. His Tik Toks… Still getting a ton of views. Tik Tok, however, still the most used app for kids. Kids can’t vote. But his Tik Toks are… ummm… anyways…

So, as the Conservatives started polling quite poorly, and have now taken a 4-6% lead over the Liberals, its going to be an interesting few weeks as we see what happens to the Liberal party and i they can right the ship. They need less comments like, “the Taliban are my brothers”, and picking at the Conservatives for not forcing all their candidates to be vaccinated, while not all the Liberal candidates are vaccinated. The Canadian public appear to be fed up, and they’re questioning everything because the Trudeau government forced them to. Will this government wind up like the Conservatives in 1993, or like the Liberal government in Ontario after Kathleen Wynne was done destroying the province.

The countdown is on…

The Urban Daddy is Back… Sort of.

Well after a fairly long period of inactivity and about 60 more drafts, I felt it was time to bring back some content to The Urban Daddy.

Here are the groundrules;

1. Since the kids are getting older, they don’t necessarily want me discussing any details about their personal lives, (“I’ll sue!” said one of them), so I’m going to go back to basics and discuss a bunch of random stuff which involve things Daddies do when their kids are getting older, like work, play and everything in between
2. I’m not an influencer. I appreciate the pitches, and offers, but only on some occasions would I go down that road. I don’t write posts for that reason, and if all I did was give away stuff, why would people come here??
3. I’m Canadian. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I’m not affiliated with Urbandaddy.com in the US, other than the fact that I was here before them, and I sold them my Pinterest account.
4. I’ve been busy. Some good, more not so good, but I’m still here. I’ve gotten a new career working for a company and filling a role that I absolutely love, so that’s good. COVID is still here, but I’m double vaccinated and I wear a mask where possible so I don’t pass along any germs to anyone. I’ve always wondered why sick people don’t wear masks to prevent spreading their colds. I learned this was a very kind thing when we were in Japan a couple of years ago and asked a local guide why there were people wearing masks outside. I thought it might be due to air pollution, but the guide explained that these people are not feeling well and didn’t want to make others sick… Take that, anti-maskers!
5. I took an online cooking class through George Brown College and their culinary area. It was an intro to cooking and it was vegan and the whole experience was amazing. I used to have a hang-up about cooking – had convinced myself that I was unable to just pick a recipe and follow it – but this course had me making tons of great stuff, like stocks, risotto, my own pasta, and my own tofu. I’m going to take another… Soon.
6. I’ve also managed to expand my volunteering and wound up with a board position on a local hockey league as their registrar… Not going to lie, but it’s a huge challenge, because I’ve been busy in my new paid role, and trying to find time for my volunteer role has posed a few challenges.
7. I had hurt myself quite badly at the beginning of the pandemic (not sure if I wrote about this or not), but I was walking on Yonge Street with my sister, and I stepped off the curb to avoid people, but the street was uneven so I rolled my ankle, and in the process did a crap-load of damage to myself, tearing muscles and ligaments off my right hip, right ankle, and I tore my left groin muscle, resulting in me passing out on Yonge Street, then a few days later in the hospital for a ton of tests and medication when I was unable to move because everything seized up. It took me about a year to be able to get everything moving pain-free and since that time, I’ve been walking about 5km/day where possible. I’d love to be able to lose that COVID weight, then the late-night snacking weight, followed by the baby-weight I gained when our now 16yo son was born.
8. I have a love/hate relationship with the Olympics, so I’ll hopefully have some more words to say about them shortly, other than to say that they always make me cry, and I’m so happy for all Canadian athletes who have won medals, or tried their best.
9. So, yeah… I guess we’ll see how long this lasts. 😉