Lake Toews

This Sunday, the Manitoba Legislature will have a ceremony to name a lake north of Flin Flon after Jonathan Toews.

So what did this 22 year old do to earn this special recognition?  Well in his third season in the National Hockey League, he played for the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks.  Apparently he is also an avid fisherman.

Premier Greg Selinger says that the young Mr Toews has earned the right to have a lake named after him like the many war heroes who earned this recognition posthumously.

I'm not sure where to begin.  Shall I begin with the waste of tax dollars in holding a ceremony in the Legislature? Shall I wonder whether Premier Selinger has weightier matters to attend to?  Shall I wonder if the lake will be renamed if Jonathan Toews should become an athlete at the centre of a scandal?  (a remote possibility given the stellar rap sheets of other millionaire athletes.

This one is too dumb to spend too much time on.  A team of 20, or so, individuals wins the Stanley Cup every spring.  Each year 20 young men achieve something worthy of the consideration of a Provincial Legislature.

Should Wayne Gretzky have a lake named after him for each of his four Stanley Cups?  For that matter perhaps Larry Murphy should have four lakes named after him.  Larry who?

The truth of the matter is that Jonathan Toews is a great young hockey player.  Each and every paramedic or emergency room doctor in Manitoba is more deserving of an honour like this than the young Mr Toews.  Each and every soldier serving in Afghanistan is more deserving.  The average citizen in a run of the mill job is as deserving of Jonathan Toews.

I hope that Jonathan Toews goes on to live a great life filled with many accomplishments.  I hope he does so that he can point to Lake Toews with pride and not embarrassment.