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Letters: 3-on-3 overtime no way to end a gold-medal hockey game

Readers comment on the Olympic Games, Parliamentary shenanigans, defence spending, questionable judicial decisions, plus more

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‘Legacies are on the line’

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Re: Canada should have won with McDavid, MacKinnon and Makar— Steve Simmons, Feb. 23 (National Post print; Toronto Sun online)

Letters: 3-on-3 overtime no way to end a gold-medal hockey game Back to video

Steve Simmons correctly observed that “Nobody likes ending gold-medal games or any Olympic hockey games for that matter with 3-on-3 play.” But, as an arbitrary rule, this is not about preference or taste. It is about whether it is appropriate for an Olympic final. It is not.

Three-on-three overtime is a successful regular-season mechanism in plenty of hockey leagues. It reduces the game to open ice and individual skill. But in a gold-medal final, that is insufficient. The NHL has long understood this. Playoff hockey, one of the most thrilling sporting events, has infinite 5-on-5 overtime.

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An Olympic championship should test the full architecture of the sport — depth, structure, line matchups, and chemistry. Three skaters per side cannot do that. Five-on-five, as long as necessary, is the only format that should decide a game of such magnitude.

This is not to detract from the stellar American performance. I just hope that before 2030, the International Olympic Committee recognizes what the NHL has long known: when legacies are on the line, the game must be decided as it is actually played. Olympic gold deserves nothing less.

Max Thomson, Torrance, Ont.

Let’s be magnanimous. The Americans, with their current president, needed the gold-medal wins for men and women’s hockey more than we did.

Terry Welty, Red Deer, Alta.

‘Fully fund our Olympic athletes’ — or maybe not

Re: Canada chose its Olympic decline — Jamie Sarkonak, Feb. 24

Canadian Olympic athletes would well be within their rights to ask why our federal government can dole out taxpayer money to a plethora of causes — health care for asylum seekers, when many Canadians don’t have doctors; rebates for those wishing to buy electric vehicles; money for UNWRA, where money is purportedly funnelled to Hamas, to name a few — yet fails to adequately fund our Olympians.

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Every four years Canadian politicians rally around our Olympic athletes and then fall silent for the next three years. It is clearly time that taxpayers demand that our politicians triage what is most important to Canadians. It is time for Canada to fully fund our Olympic athletes. This failure is a black eye for our nation.

Jamie Sarkonak argues that spending more on athletes is a luxury we can afford. Can we? Will spending more money on the training of Olympic athletes make Canada a better place to live? Will it reduce the lineups at food banks or provide greater access to medical care?

An argument can certainly be made that it is worthwhile to provide more facilities where everyone, at all levels of proficiency, can participate. Recall the ParticipACTION commercials from years ago? Get people moving.

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Sarkonak hopes that by spending more money on athletes, we as Canadians can enjoy a feeling of collective accomplishment. Some Canadians could care less about the Olympic Games.

Why not create a fund that individual Canadians who want to feel that sense of collective accomplishment can contribute to? Or, why not push for more corporate sponsorship?

Rick Hird, Whitby, Ont.

Why do men’s finals always run last?

Re: Heartbreak in Milan: U.S. beats Canada in overtime to claim Olympic gold in men’s hockey— Rob Longley, Feb. 20

In many major tennis tournaments, such as the U.S. Open, there is a tradition that should disappear: holding the women’s final before the men’s. Is women’s tennis considered less important than men’s? Are the organizers saving the best for last?

The same applies to international competitions such as the Olympic Games. For example, on Feb. 19, the women’s hockey teams from Canada and the United States faced off for the gold medal, while the men’s hockey teams from the same countries did the same on Feb. 22, the closing day of the Olympics. Again, saving the best for last?

This is a questionable practice. Although women may be less physically powerful than men, their matches are just as beautiful and exciting to watch. For equality, the solution is simple: alternate finals.

Sylvio Le Blanc, Montreal

Political poke at Gretzky was offside

Re: Wayne Gretzky comes to his own defence on U.S. criticism: ‘I’m a hockey player, I’m a true Canadian’ — Bruce Garrioch, Feb. 20 (online Ottawa Citizen)

While public confidence in mainstream media remains at an all-time low due to political polarization, TSN’s James Duthie — during the Canada and Finland Olympic semifinal — amped up the messaging that alienates audiences. Duthie ambushed guest panellist Wayne Gretzky with a request to address the state of Canada-U.S. relations: “The tension between Canada and the U.S is at a point we’ve never seen in our lifetimes. And, the tentacles of that have breached into hockey, we saw at the 4 Nations, where it boiled over. It will be a massive subplot if they meet again here. You have been drawn into all this. What would be your message to Canadians today?”

Gretzky responded by saying: “First of all, let’s worry about the game, that’s most important. Let’s hope that Canada can get to that final game. Listen, I’m a hockey player, I’m a Canadian, I’m a true Canadian.”

Sports remain one of the few things that truly bring people together, especially the Olympics. Sadly, Duthie — gleefully looking ahead to a Canada-U.S. gold medal match — did his best to inject political overtones as an unwanted distraction.

Mike Doyle, Whitby, Ont.

Floor-crossing MPs are ‘opportunistic traitors’

Re: Floor-crossing Liberal MP Matt Jeneroux to join Carney on trip to India, Australia and Japan — Stephanie Taylor, Feb. 24

It is not a big stretch of the imagination for someone to perceive MPs Chris d’Entremont, Michael Ma, and now Matt Jeneroux, as unprincipled, opportunistic traitors to the voters in their respective ridings. It is galling that the electoral system allows members of Parliament to invalidate electoral results without consequences simply by crossing the floor. It is equally galling to see Prime Minister Mark Carney rewarding political infidelity using international junkets paid for by Canadian taxpayers.

Electoral reform is needed to require MPs wishing to abandon the party banner under which they were elected, to stand for re-election in an immediate byelection. After all, power to the people is the essence of democracy, whereas floor-crossing shenanigans by members of Parliament is not.

Gordon S. Clarry, Etobicoke, Ont.

Maybe it’s time for all riding associations across the country to have candidates sign an agreement that if they ever cross the floor to another party, they have to resign and run in a byelection. Or give back all the campaign funds that were raised during their election and pay all their volunteers for the hours poured into having them elected. Floor crossing undermines our democracy and should not be allowed, regardless of which party an MP is going from and headed to.

Elizabeth Smith, Hampton, N.B.

Elephants in the defence-spending room

Re: NP View: A defence plan that doesn’t prioritize defence — Editorial, Feb. 21

The Post’s otherwise excellent editorial on the expanding defence bureaucracy missed pointing out some fairly large elephants in the (control) room. Those would be the Liberals’ obsession with DEI-hiring; the inevitable skew towards Quebec’s share of the pie; and, perhaps most fatally when it comes to the safety of our troops, net-zero carbon ideology.

What are the odds that hundreds of millions of dollars will be awarded to firms that promise to deliver a “green” solution to solve our lack of military preparedness? (No doubt the Russians and Chinese are losing a lot of sleep over this.) This level of naiveté would be almost humorous if the stakes weren’t so distressingly high.

Alas, I expect we’ll be seeing familiar headlines in the future — billions spent, success not tracked, hardware that doesn’t work, no one being held accountable and promises that it won’t happen again; until it does.

Jeffrey Barker, Mississauga, Ont.

Federal gun buyback ‘ignoring the will of a majority of provincial governments’

Re: Delays over federal gun ‘buyback’ program contributed to ‘diminished’ support, minister says — Stephanie Taylor, Feb. 26

If ever there was a better illustration of the heavy hand of the federal government ignoring the will of a majority of provincial governments, it would be difficult to find one beyond that of the gun-buyback program.

Seizing guns to prevent mass shootings or crime not only confuses correlation and causality, it reveals a tenuous relationship between the role of government and its obligations to respond to clear rejection of the views of other levels of government within Confederation.

Commitment to gun control as a generic “cause” is admirable but outright seizure or theft of guns as personal property falls into an entirely extreme reaction impacting many thousands of honest, law-abiding citizens. Exactly what is the government trying to achieve by this forfeiture of personal property?

It is high time for governments at all level to address the rights of citizens to own unencumbered property whether it be guns or land without being subjected to ongoing threats from the whims of a government exceeding its obligations to the concept of democracy.

Raymond Foote, Ottawa

Petition takes aim at blinding headlights

Re: Yes, headlights have become blindingly bright in Canada — Kenn Oliver, Feb. 10

Driving at night should not feel like staring into a spotlight, yet as Kenn Oliver recently reported, for many Canadians, that is exactly what modern LED headlights have created.

Experts in road safety, vision science and automotive lighting increasingly warn that excessive glare can reduce contrast sensitivity, delay hazard detection and contribute to driver fatigue. In real-world conditions; even compliant headlights can still create dangerous discomfort glare for oncoming motorists.

I am convinced the vast majority of drivers experience this problem regularly — and many are astonished that governments have allowed automakers to push ever-brighter lighting systems without adequately addressing their impact on other road users.

Road safety must take precedence over marketing claims about brightness. That is why I have launched federal petition e-7159, calling on the Government of Canada to review and strengthen regulations governing motor vehicle headlights. Canadians deserve headlights that improve visibility without compromising the safety and comfort of others.

Luc Gagné, Gatineau, Que.

‘Something very wrong with how justice is meted out’

Re: Lebanese drug dealer wins chance to avoid deportation from Canada over possible lung cancer diagnosis — Chris Lambie, Feb. 18

There is something very wrong with how justice is meted out in Canada — or not. A man who was convicted of trafficking one of the deadliest drugs to hit our streets, for the sole purpose of profit, is not being deported because he is ill. What about the people who put their lives at risk purchasing his drugs, or their families who have to live with the consequences?

The federal court judges in this country need to be replaced by people who have a modicum of common sense and who will put the safety of Canadians first before the interests of convicted felons.

Ted Mead, Winchester, Ont.

The U.S. compared with us

Re: In search of a distinct Canadian identity — Conrad Black, Feb. 14

If one is asked to distinguish Canada from the U.S., one hears the stale banality that our health system is superior, mass and serial murders, although they do occur, are uncommon, and our cities are appealing. One only has to contrast gleaming Toronto with dreary American cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit across the border.

Yet the most striking fact one never hears, and which was not mentioned in Conrad Black’s column, is that while in the decade of the 1860s, the English and French delegates of the British North American colonies held civilized debates and conferences to form the Canadian Confederation in 1867, the Americans fought a brutal civil war that killed a staggering 750,000 soldiers out of a population of about 31 million people. Moreover, a civil war, slaughtering one’s own kinsmen, is far more senseless than killing foreign enemies — far from the ”shining city upon a hill” that Americans like to boast of their country.

Jacob Mendlovic, Toronto

Don’t blame the dairy farmers

Re: Ottawa should aim for real grocery affordability — Matthew Lau, Feb. 4; and The case builds for ending supply management — Herbert Grubel, Feb. 5

Some critics like to blame supply management for higher food prices, but those arguments are not supported by the facts.

Recent statistics show dairy food inflation is lower than general food inflation at 2.1 per cent compared to 3.2 per cent, and the retail price of many dairy products in Canada is competitive with other nations. For example, in 2024 and 2025, yogurt, cheese and butter were comparable to or cheaper here than in the U.S.

It’s also misleading to link food prices to the value of quota. The price dairy farmers get paid for the milk we produce is set annually. As described by the Canadian Dairy Commission, the pricing formula takes into account national inflation and farmers’ costs of production. The value of quota is not part of the equation.

Scapegoating supply management will not solve our shared challenges on food prices. In the search for solutions, it is important that we recognize the role that farmers play in ensuring that Canada has a reliable supply of food staples like dairy, produced to Canadian standards.

David Wiens, dairy farmer and president of Dairy Farmers of Canada

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