Eyes On The Prize: Stephen Harper

The Montreal Gazette's Pat Hickey was quoting former collegue Michael Farber, who once observed that "nobody understands ceremony better than the British royal family, the Catholic church and the Montreal Canadiens."

Last night at the Bell Centre, the team honoured the legendary Jean Beliveau with a charity dinner that raised more than $1 million for six children's hospitals across Quebec.

The dinner brought together a star-studded guest list from the worlds of sports, politics and business. A performance by Cirque du Soleil added to the evening's excitement.

But it was Beliveau who stood above the crowd with his regal presence. There have been Canadiens stars like Rocket Richard or Guy Lafleur who have evoked more passion than Beliveau, and there have been players who have scored more goals and more points or won more Stanley Cups.

There has never been a player who demonstrated more class.

I was fortunate enough to watch Beliveau play his last few seasons in Montreal. I have vivid memories of the 1971 Stanley Cup and a hat trick that produced his 500th goal against the Minnesota North Stars. My father would tell me stories about The Rocket and Le Gros Bill, tales that wrapped me in the passion of the sport and the team.

I remember him telling me that Beliveau was retiring. I couldn't understand why - he was still one of the better players around.

Beliveau was my father's favorite player - they were born on the same day and year - my father soon pointed out another legend in the making to me, Guy Lafleur, who would become my favorite over time. On a night I will never forget, Lafleur's Quebec Remparts were playing against Cornwall, and he put on a show. He wore the number of his hero, Jean Beliveau.

There was something about the ceremonies and honouring of Beliveau at this time that troubles me some. As Beliveau is 75 years of age, I sensed an air of finality to the timing and proceedings.

In 2000, Beliveau was diagnosed with a malignant tumour in his neck and throat area. He survived that scare and it is now in remission.

Beliveau, as everyone knows, is an extremely charitable man with lending his time and effort to dozens of worthy causes, most of them involving children.

The finality of which I speak, had to do with this one big bash, held in his name last night. I sensed it, subtly, in the manner it was done. Beliveau has always done his good work in a quiet type of way, removing himself as the center of attention. While always being a willing partaker in anything for goodnesses sake, none of the events were "about him."

This one seemed that way to me.

There is in fact absolutely nothing wrong with that premise - only that it struck me the way it did.

Beliveau is obviously about to slow down his ongoing work. Hopefully there is no other reason for that other than the age of the man. A night like like last night, obviously could not be envisioned for 5 years down the road, when he would be 80 years old.

It is said that the event has raised close to a million dollars that are to benefit several charitable outlets. I find it quite amazing that the great work he has cultivated over decades can culminate in such a beautiful giving way.

There are painfully few, if any, role models of the sort left to rise from the sporting pages. Though a great many do tons of good work, none quite have the same effortless lack of pretension that Beliveau has.

In Beliveau's first act, as a hockey player, his prowess and class on the ice made him a legend and a story for the ages. There are of course many records and Stanley Cup rings and tales that underline a bursting resume of unimaginable success.

In Beliveau's second act, he has outdone the first. In the spirit of giving, he has proven to be a most exemplairy human, a person worthy of the highest admiration.

Few people I've encountered in my life, and I've only met him once, have made me look at myself and ponder changes. Changes as to how I treat people. Changes as to how I feel what life is all about in the grand scheme of larger things.

That notion surprises me! It shouldn't.

As I have been reading a whole lot on Jean Beliveau of late, here are some links that I've found to be interesting and entertaining. I've included a pair of past postings from this site as well. The You Tube clip below is from the HHOF's Legends Series. Enjoy!

Beliveau Lends Class To Fundraiser - Red Fisher

NHL Greats, Prime Minister Turn Out To Honour Habs Legend Beliveau - Montreal Gazette

Beliveau Is A Hero On And Off The Ice - Montreal Gazette

Jean Beliveau at Joe Pelletier's Legends Of Hockey Network

Une Vie Qui N'a Pas Ete a L'abris Des Coups Durs - Bertrand Raymond

Pas Toujours Facile - Bertrand Raymond

Beliveau Is A Player For The Ages - NHL.com

Canadiens Beliveau Is One Of A Kind - NHL.com

Beliveau's Linemates Are His Biggest Fans - NHL.com

Canada's Walk Of Fame Inductees

Jean Beliveau Profile - HHOF

Jean Beliveau Table Hockey Game

I Shared My Husband With The Public - Bertrand Raymond (Translated)

Celebrating The Generosity And Lifetime Achievements Of Jean Beliveau - Canadiens.com

I'm not a big fan of any politicians, as a matter of principle, and have little concerns of afiliation with any political party, as they all seem pretty much interchangable in the grand scheme of things.

Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I think it's kind of cool that our current PM Stephen Harper is a hockey fan.

Harper is actually an involved hockey dad often taking his son Ben off to games and practices whenever he gets the chance.

I missed out witnessing this scene this past Sunday, while my daughter's team was playing it's final playoff game in Ottawa at the Kennedy Arena. Ben's team, the Sandy Hill Chargers, were playing right after Poke Check's team.

The Harper's, arriving at the arena early, were surrounded by a virtual motorcade of secret service types, all in dark shades, and surrounded Harper like five Semenko's around Gretzky, as he entered the arena. My daughter said Harper exited his black 4X4 and was immediatly enveloped by the men who circled him as he entered the arena.

Once inside, our hockey fan Prime Minister proceeded to mingle with the players and parents from both teams and was even game for a few quick photo ops.

Of all the games I could pick not to go to, it had to be this one!

I would have enjoyed chatting up the PM, as it is told he is an enthusiastic hockey historian as well.

The kids themselves, who are on average 12 years old, got quite a kick out of the whole deal. My girl said that Harper asked them all about how their team was doing, what position they played, and how much fun it was to play hockey.

When asked if he would stick around for some pictures, he was happy to oblige, even waiting around while a parent ran to their vehicle to fetch a camera.

Harper doesn't own up to it publicly, for votes sake I gather, but he is an ardent Maple Leafs fan. I coulda had some fun with that.

After her game ended, my girl and some teammates went across to the rink where Harper's son was playing, to watch the end of that game. As it started only minutes later than theirs, the Chargers game had gone into a shootout. Curiously, Ben took one of the breakaways, and missed!

From my daughters standpoint, the funniest part of meeting Harper was when the girls were placing themselves around him in the dressing room for the pictures. As they shuffled to get into position, one girl went to step around the PM and stepped right on his shoe, scuffing it up some, accidently. Poke Check said the girl received a bit of an odd glance from the PM on that one. It seems some of the girls were giggling under their breath as the culprit got what appeared to be a dirty look from our country's boss. ( In the second photo, you can even see one girl holding her hand to her mouth as she tries not to laugh! - she didn't do it!)

Hey, it beats a pie to face!

For more on Harper's hockey excursion to the arena with Ben, check this out.