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.
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