NHL Heading Back To Winnipeg

When I wrote my post about the Atlanta Thrashers starting five African descended players, I noted that ownership had been trying to sell the team since 2005.

Well, it happened. A deal was concluded on Tuesday that will bring the Atlanta Thrashers north to Winnipeg.  

For the first time since the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996, they will be back on the NHL hockey map starting in the 2011-12 season.


True North Sports and Entertainment Ltd.ponied up $170 million plus a $60 million relocation fee to purchase the Thrashers.  The announcement of the deal set off a several hour celebration in the city and congratulatory commentary from Canadian politicians.   A season ticket drive has been launched with a goal of selling 13,000 tickets by June 21. 

The deal is even sweeter for True North Chairman and co-owner Mark Chipman.   He was part of the group of Winnipeg businessmen that tried to put together a deal to save the Jets back in 1996 and keep them in town.  15 years later, he's got his team. 


"It is clear that times have changed for Winnipeg as an NHL market. And this is a wonderful time to add a club to Canada," said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Funny, you didn't feel that way when a Hamilton based businessman was trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes.

This is the second NHL franchise that the city of Atlanta has lost to a Canadian city.   The Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary in 1980, and now it looks like the Thrashers are a lock to be playing north of the border as well in the MTS Centre next season. With 15,015 seats the arena is small by NHL standards and smaller than the Philips Arena where the team used to play, but I'm willing to bet it'll be packed every night. 

The Jets were one of the original teams in the World Hockey Association that my Houston Aeros played in back in 1972 and battled for AVCO Cup supremacy.  When the WHA folded the Jets joined the NHL in 1979. 
         

The deal still has to be approved by the NHL Board of Governors at their June 21 meeting.   As for the new name of the team, True North owns the Manitoba Moose of the AHL and co-owner David Thomson considered transferring the name to the soon to be relocated NHL franchise.

But sentiment of Winnipeggers and Manitobans has been building to rename them the Winnipeg Jets.  The NHL owns the rights to the Jets name and should the new ownership want it, will probably make it available.

The Thrashers aren't the Jets (yet), but Winnipeggers don't care.  They'll have an NHL  team of their own to cheer for this fall whatever its name, and it's past time it happened..  

You Don't Have "Timmy's"?

Saturday afternoon I was in an extended phone conversation with the brilliant editrix of Womanist Musings when at one point I heard Mayhem begging his mom to let him talk to Auntie Monica.

Renee handed him the phone and I spent the next ten to fifteen minutes talking to a very chatty Mayhem.

After getting an opportunity to congratulate Mayhem for getting promoted to Grade 1, him asking me what was I doing deep in the heart of Texas, and then him telling me how his day was going, the conversation turned to his favorite subject, Tim Horton's.

Mayhem asked me if I had one in Houston.  I explained that even though Tim Horton's has been steadily expanding south of the border and has over 500 locations in the States, they are clustered in the Midwest and northeast US.

I told him the closest location to me right now is near Fort Knox, KY and he innocently asked me how do I survive without 'Timmy's" before he handed the phone back to his mother.

Easy, Mayhem.  It's called Shipley's Donuts and Blue Bell ice cream.   We had Krispy Kracks opening up here when I left but Shipley's and a dispute with the local franchisee sent them packing by 2006.


As I mentioned, Tim Horton's is a national institution in the Great White North, and as evidenced by Mayhem and my Ice Capp loving best friend, it seems a Cannuck's bond with their beloved 'Timmy's starts early in life.  In addition Tim Horton's is probably the most recognizable slice of Canadiana next to the maple leaf and the Mounties .

And if you think I'm kidding about that, a few years ago an 18 wheeler was shipped to Afghanistan on a US C-17 transport stocked with Timmy's coffee for Canadian Armed Forces troops stationed there.

During the recent Canadian election campaign I saw the various party leaders photographed either working behind the counter of a Tim Horton's (Harper), working in the Timmy's drive through window (Layton) or buying coffee and talking to voters in them (May, Ignatieff, Harper and Layton) .


The Bloc Quebecois's Gilles Duceppe was the only party leader not photographed by the Canadian media during that just concluded campaign in a Timmy's.  That may have been another factor in why he and his party lost 45 seats and he's no longer the BQ leader, much less sitting in Parliament.

There's also the increasingly iconic photo of two Toronto police officers getting coffee at a Tim Horton's drive through while on horseback.

Timmy's is on every Canadian's brain to the point it has recently become an issue in the upcoming October 6 Ontario provincial election in the form of a political gaffe.  

Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop made the mistake of saying in the Ontario Legislature that “a Tim Horton PC government will protect our communities by making sex offenders wear GPS bracelets that track their whereabouts.” instead of a Tim Hudak government.

The Liberals have pounced on that by referring to Hudak promises as 'Timbits', and making doughnut references to describe the just released Hudak campaign platform budget.

So no, Mayhem I don't have Timmy's here.   The only way that is going to change is if we get someone who purchases the franchise rights for the Houston area and starts building a few Timmy's locations as a result.

The only way I'll get to have a double double, a breakfast sandwich, drink an Ice Capp or scarf down Timbits any time in the near future is if I'm blessed enough to visit y'all.

Silver Lining In 2011 Canadian Elections

While my Canadian homegirl is still along with other progressive Canadians not happy that the Sweater Vest will be around for the next five years with a Conservative majority government to torment them, TransGriot reader Lareyne Leveult sent me an interesting e-mail which pointed out this factoid emanating from Monday's election . 

I know you like to follow the political successes of black people in Canada (e.g. your excellent articles tracking the career of the Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean) so I thought I'd mention that, in addition to Dr. Fry in Vancouver Centre, two new black MPs have been elected: Tyrone Benskin for the NDP in the Montreal riding of Jeanne-Le Ber (a film and stage actor, and artistic director of Montreal's Black Theatre Workshop); and Sadia Groguhé, also for the NDP, in Saint-Lambert on Montreal's south shore (a therapist and unemployment counsellor).

Many other candidates of colour were elected, including a number of new South Asian MPs (including Canada's first Tamil MP, the NDP's Rathika Sitsabaiesan in Scarborough--Rouge River in suburban Toronto); several East Asian, Arab, and Hispanic MPs, especially among the candidates caught up in the NDP's surge in Quebec; and a record seven Aboriginal MPs, including renowned Cree negotiator Roméo Saganash for the NDP in the northern Quebec riding of Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik--Eeyou.

That's wonderful news despite the fact that Marlene Jennings, who was one of the few Black MP's in the last Parliament, was unfortunately one of the Liberals who lost her seat in Quebec's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Lachine riding to an NDP challenger in the Montreal area.. 

Some of those new MP's of color are also Conservatives.

When the new Parliament kicks off in a month,  there will be a little more diversity at Parliament House even if it doesn't affect the policies expected to come from the Harper led Conservative majority.