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Wednesday 30 May 2018

Changes coming for Minor Hockey: Novice Hockey Will Be Half Ice


Hockey Alberta announced there will be changes to Novice hockey for the upcoming season. Most of us don’t like change, but studies in hockey have proven half ice practices and games for young seven and eight year old players is beneficial. Starting this season all games and practices will be half ice.  Here is an outline of the changes from Hockey Edmonton. Other associations, specifically rural ones with smaller groups, will have some flexibility to ensure they can ice teams. Some teams might comprise of both seven and eight year olds, but in bigger centres, you will see seven year olds play with seven year olds (novice minor) and eight year olds play against eight year olds (novice major). Keep in mind, hockey associations east of Manitoba have had one-year age groups for decades. Your son or daughter will not have their development stunted by playing against children their own age.

Tuesday 29 May 2018

CBC News: Global dread of rising rates makes stark choice for central bankers: Don Pittis

Canadian housing just one example of painful decision on whether to hold or hike


Most expect that the Bank of Canada, its plaza in Ottawa shown here, will keep its benchmark overnight rate steady in the announcement coming Wednesday. (Don Pittis/CBC)
It seems almost everyone now agrees that the Bank of Canada is not going to raise interest rates this time around.

Heavily indebted Canadian homeowners will once again be able to breathe a sigh of relief when the central bank announces its rate decision Wednesday. Even those in Canada's real estate industry, who claim everything is fine, will send up a quiet cheer.

Canada's enormous mountain of mortgage debt — and the almost-palpable dread that house prices will tumble — is just one example of the serious consequences facing the world's central bankers when deciding to raise rates.

CBC News: Ottawa reaches agreement to start Trans Mountain work this summer: source

Federal cabinet holding early morning meeting to go over pipeline options before announcement


Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau is expected to announce a path forward for the Trans Mountain pipeline project today. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau has reached an agreement in principle with Kinder Morgan that a senior federal official says will allow the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to go ahead this summer.

Lawyers and officials from both parties were still hammering out the final language and paperwork late Monday night in advance of a Tuesday morning announcement by the finance minister.

"What Morneau has negotiated will enable us to now go and get the pipeline built," said a senior government official with direct knowledge of the negotiations. "It's the beginning of getting it built."

Monday 28 May 2018

CBC News: Trump, not Canadian auto industry, may be the threat to U.S. national security: Don Pittis

Claim that Canadian cars threaten U.S. security was just one in a week full of destabilizing pronouncements

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared car imports a threat to security, only one of a week's worth of destabilizing policy decisions likely to make the world less secure. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Things have officially become very frightening when the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, sounds more reasonable and peace-loving than the president of the United States.

But after another wacky week of flip-flops by U.S. President Donald Trump and policy statements characterized by Canada's level-headed foreign minister Chrystia Freeland as "frankly absurd," many — especially those in the southern part of the Korean peninsula — were thinking exactly that.

CBC News: Why Colorado's black market for marijuana is booming 4 years after legalization

Marijuana grown in Colorado, the land of legal weed, is being smuggled out to states where it is still illegal


Criminal organizations have moved into Teller County, a community of 24,000 nestled in the Rocky Mountains about 160 km south of Denver, and are illegally growing marijuana there that they smuggle out of state. The sheriff's office in the county says it has 400 kilograms of marijuana sitting in storage as evidence. (Teller County Sheriff)
When recreational marijuana went on sale in Colorado in 2014, the government's goal was to regulate and tax a drug that was already widely used and to squeeze out dealers and traffickers in the process.

But law enforcement authorities in the state say legalization has done the exact opposite.

Dahlin, expected No. 1 pick in 2018 NHL Draft, seems destined for stardom

Swedish defenseman, 18, drawing high praise, comparisons to Lidstrom, Karlsson


BUFFALO -- Rasmus Dahlin hasn't played a minute in the NHL, but experts already are comparing the 18-year-old from Sweden to some of the League's biggest names, past and present.

They liken his game to those of Hockey Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom and current NHL defenseman Erik Karlsson, and tout him as a generational player, capable of taking after Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews.

But amid the comparisons, the biggest compliment of all might be this: Scouts, coaches and players who have been around the left-shot defenseman, expected to be selected No. 1 by the Buffalo Sabres next month in the 2018 NHL Draft, say he should make a name for himself in the NHL in no time.

"Dahlin will be to a franchise and defensemen what Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews are to their respective teams as centers," said Craig Button, director of scouting and NHL analyst for TSN, and a former NHL general manager. "He's a franchise-defining, elite No. 1 defenseman. I think he can play in the NHL right now; he's that good. His command of the game everywhere on the ice is unbelievable."

Friday 25 May 2018

Stanley Cup Final storylines

Ovechkin pursuing first title with Capitals; Golden Knights goalie Fleury tries for personal three-peat


The NHL will crown a first-time Stanley Cup champion this season.

The Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights will play Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS).

The Capitals are in the Cup Final for the second time. They also made it in 1998, when they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings. The Golden Knights are in the Cup Final in their inaugural season.
Here are four storylines to follow going into the Stanley Cup Final:

Monday 21 May 2018

The Debt Boomerang

In the 1930s, Keynesian economics laid out a new approach to reviving a stagnant economy. Many countries have since followed this game plan, a trend with lasting implications for future economic growth.

According to the Keynesian script, governments achieve the requisite spending to thrust an economy out of a recession via a dose oflow central bank interest rates to incent private parties to borrow and spend. In the Keynesian mindset, spending is the key to recovery – never mind if the spender has to go into hock to do it. This doesn’t just apply to the private sector: governments are similarly encouraged to borrow in order to spend, which is called fiscal policy.

Curing an economic recession with low interest rates not only encourages borrowing and spending but also allows for previously incurred debt to be refinanced at lower rates. Hence, low-interest policy does double duty to spur on spending: it reduces the cash flow burden of previously incurred debt, which adds to spendable income.

Saturday 19 May 2018

Let the Paris climate deal die. It was never good for anything, anyway

Opinion: Paris is a climate fairy tale. It has always been more about money and politics than the environment


In this file photo dated Friday Nov.4, 2016, the Eiffel Tower lit up in green to mark the success of the Paris Agreement to slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases to counter climate change, in Paris. Inscription reads, "it's done.”Michel Euler/AP Photo file
Two weeks of climate talks in Bonn ended last week without agreement on a draft negotiating text, the Washington Post reports. Developing countries demanded to know when the US$100-billion package promised to them as part of the Paris climate agreement would be forthcoming. Hopefully, the answer will be “never” and that will lead to the end of the deal.

Paris is a climate fairy tale. It has always been more about money and politics than the environment. Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump wisely announced that America would withdraw. For developed nations who still believe Paris is a viable plan, the prospect of a massive transfer of wealth under the guise of carbon reductions must seem less attractive without the U.S. to help foot the bill. Still, other world leaders seem irrationally committed to pursuing the real objectives of Paris: wealth redistribution, virtue signalling and globalist governance.

Friday 18 May 2018

Vegas’ wild playoff run built from expansion draft bonanza


After Bill Foley agreed to pay a whopping $500 million for the right to put a hockey team in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the NHL decided his Vegas Golden Knights deserved a chance for a swift return on that investment.

If the other NHL owners had known just how huge Foley’s reward would be — and how incredibly quickly he would get it — they probably wouldn’t have been quite so nice to the new guy.

Thursday 17 May 2018

Developing Warriors, not Winners, is the Path to Excellence


(This week’s blog is written by Reed Maltbie, our new Chief Content Officer and Lead Presenter for Changing the Game Project. If you haven’t seen Reed present for us yet, check out his amazing TED talk on the lasting power of a coach’s words. Drop him a line at Reed@ChangingTheGameProject.com to say hello or if you interested in having him come and present to your school or sports association, We are excited to have him on board driving our movement forward!)

A few years back I was walking through the parking lot at a tournament my club was hosting. It was Sunday, late in the afternoon, which meant all the games being played were for trophies. I had finished my duty as field marshal at the fields for the U-10 boys’ groups and was headed back to HQ to drop off my walkie talkie.

Wednesday 16 May 2018

'Master of persuasion': Why Brian Mulroney's NAFTA playbook remains relevant 25 years later

Political scientist Fen Hampson has written a new book about the former PM and his global legacy

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney is shown during a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico relationship in Washington on Jan. 30, 2018. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)
With the Trudeau government making a last-minute push to get NAFTA negotiators back to the table before an apparent U.S. deadline on Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is heeding the advice of the former Canadian prime minister who crafted the trade agreement in the first place — one who adhered to the principle that "no deal is better than a bad deal."

Brian Mulroney has been advising the Liberals since the election of Donald Trump — a bit of political irony for the Conservative leader who had a strong partisan rivalry with the current prime minister's father.

Through the long lens of history, politicians are sometimes remembered more kindly than in their own time. Carleton University political scientist Fen Hampson believes that Mulroney falls into that category and should be lauded not only as the architect of NAFTA but for his "activist" international policy.

It's an argument he's laid out in his new book, Master of Persuasion: Brian Mulroney's Global Legacy.

Tuesday 15 May 2018

Look at What’s Going to Happen to Sweden’s Fabled Welfare State

STOCKHOLM 20170628 - City views of Stockholm Sweden. Södermalm. Photo: Mikael Sjöberg

Sweden’s got a major supply and demand problem.

By 2025, its entire workforce is expected to grow by 207,000 people—yet it needs more than that number just to staff its fabled welfare state. The worker shortfall could crimp services and raise labor costs, especially in a political environment less hospitable to immigration.

This is how big the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on sports wagering will be in America



If someone offers you a bet on how significant of an impact the legalization of sports wagering will be on not just the games America plays and watches, but the entire business of sports … take the over.

On Monday the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), a 25-year-old law that effectively limited sports gambling to the state of Nevada. The case was brought by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who argued against the NCAA and four professional sports leagues, not to mention both the Obama and Trump administrations, that PASPA was unconstitutional.

Christie was proven correct.

So, what changes now?

Monday 14 May 2018

STRONGBOW ANNOUNCES INTENTION TO FLOAT ON THE AIM MARKET OF THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE



Vancouver, 14 May 2018


Strongbow Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: SBW) (“Strongbow” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce its intention to apply for admission of its common shares (the “Common Shares”) to trading on the AIM Market (“AIM”) of the London Stock Exchange (“Admission”). The Company expects that Admission will become effective in June 2018. The Company’s Common Shares will continue to list, in the immediate future, on the TSX-V in Canada.


In July 2016, Strongbow acquired the rights to the South Crofty underground tin mine (“South Crofty”), a former producing tin mine located in the towns of Pool and Camborne, Cornwall, United Kingdom. South Crofty has production records dating back to 1592 and was the last tin mine to close in the UK, in 1998. Since then, the dynamics of the global tin industry have changed substantially and South Crofty has the potential to become an operating mine once again.

The development of South Crofty is Strongbow’s primary focus and the project is estimated to require the Company to raise £25 million over the next 18 months to progress to a production decision.

MPs to lobby U.S. counterparts on impact of Trump tax in Canada

Thousands of Canadian residents with corporations facing massive U.S. tax bills because of Trump's tax reform

The sweeping tax reform that U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law in December is resulting in massive U.S. tax bill for thousands of Canadian residents with corporations. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)
The plight of thousands of Canadian residents facing massive bills as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's tax reform, will be on the agenda when a committee of MPs and senators heads to Washington this week.

Housing crisis to hit Canadian seniors, as retirement homes fail to keep up with demand

The average seniors' homes rent varied across the country in 2017, with Ontario the highest at $3,526 per month and Quebec the lowest at $1,678 per month

A looming affordability crisis is poised to hit seniors across the country as the baby boom generation makes its long-predicted shift into its golden years, squeezing the supply of retirement home places and pushing up rents, according to a new report from the rating agency DBRS Ltd.Postmedia Network
A new cohort is joining young Canadians and others frustrated by sky-high rents and soaring housing costs: seniors.

A looming affordability crisis is poised to hit seniors across the country as the baby boom generation makes its long-predicted shift into its golden years, squeezing the supply of retirement home places and pushing up rents, according to a new report from the rating agency DBRS Ltd.

Friday 11 May 2018

Vivian Bercovici: Iran's missiles strike in Israel but they can't pierce Trudeau's naiveté

Appeasement has long been the go-to policy for continental Europe. More disturbing is watching Canada adopt the Europeans’ position on Tehran

Israeli tanks take position near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on May 9, 2018.Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images

“If you give us rain, we will give you a flood.” That is the message sent by Israeli Minister of Defence Avigdor Lieberman to Iran. On Wednesday night, Iran fired an estimated 20 missiles at IDF bases in northern Israel. In response, the Israeli Air Force bombed 35 Iranian military sites in Syria, many alarmingly close to the Israeli border.

This represents the first direct clash between Israeli and Iranian military forces and the heaviest episode of armed conflict on the border since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

RBC Cup memories still strong for Jeff Tambellini

The former Chilliwack Chief reflects on the last time the team played in the junior A championship.


A brash youngster in 2002, Jeff Tambellini gives some feedback to a Coquitlam player after scoring four goals to eliminate the Express in that year’s BCHL playoffs. PROGRESS FILE PHOTO

Anthony Vincent recently said that his two year BCHL career seems like its gone by in two weeks,a nd Jeff Tambellini can relate.

It’s been 15 years since the Calgary native played junior A hockey in Chilliwack, but it seems like only yesterday that he was leading the Chiefs into the semi-final of the 2002 RBC Cup in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“There’s part of me that feels like it was a long time ago and sometimes it does feel like it was just yesterday,” he said. “I was very fortunate to play on a great team where they were even better people than they were players. Looking back, it’s one of the closest groups I’ve ever been a part of and the memories we have, even though it’s been a lot of years, they still hold pretty strong.

Friday 4 May 2018

Rex Murphy: The U of A isn't 'brave' for honouring Suzuki. Just the opposite

To award one of the knights of the warm table a degree is not controversial; it is joining the herd to moo in timid unison
Anti-pipeline protesters march in Burnaby, B.C., on March 10, 2018.Darryl Dyck/CP
At the deep centre of conventional wisdom no concept is more hallowed, more warmly cradled in the blanket-robes of political correctness than the Green dogma of global warming. For millions upon millions it is grant-subsidized Holy Writ.

Wednesday 2 May 2018

Riley Presented Coach K Award


WEST POINT, N.Y. – Army West Point hockey head coach Brian Riley was among the recipients of the Mike Krzyzewski Award for Excellence in Teaching Character Through Sport awards on Wednesday.

The winners were announced at the Cadet Mess Hall during the 12th annual awards presentation where Coach K recognizes West Point athletes and coaches for their outstanding commitment to the development of noble character through athletic participation and leadership.

Krzyzewski, a 1969 USMA graduate and former basketball player and coach, presented the awards, a certificate and medal.

"Anytime you receive an award that bears the name of Coach K it is very humbling," said Riley. "It reminds me how fortunate I am to coach at such an amazing place and that I am surrounded by outstanding cadet-athletes on a daily basis. I am very grateful."

Tuesday 1 May 2018

Why A Coach Is A CEO Who Should Treat Parents As Shareholders

I got an email from a club volleyball coach who in the course of conversation mentioned that his team, which costs about $2,000 per player (before travel expenses), had instituted a ban on parents watching practices, except for the first practice per month. Some parents, he noted, were "irrrrrraaaaaateeeee" about this policy, which I take to mean they are a bit miffed.

I started thinking about why these parents would be so upset. Perhaps some simply enjoyed watching their kids practice. Maybe a few worried about something untoward happening away from their watchful eyes. But maybe it's because I had just finished watching the nutty sports parent documentary "Trophy Kids," in which parents referred to their "investment" in their child and talked about getting a high school coach they didn't like fired as "business," and I realized why these parents were upset: because they were investors being denied a voice in their investment.