More proof (as if it was even needed) that Canadians are the coolest...

[Goofball]

One of our premiers (the equivalent of a state governor, for you yanks) still mixes it up for a little fistycuffs as needed for the benefit of his teammates:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wpremier0114/BNStory/National/home

NWT premier gets three-game suspension for dropping the gloves
<LI class=currentPageType _counted="undefined">http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/icon/icon-package_article_on.png (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wpremier0114/BNStory/National/home) Article (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wpremier0114/BNStory/National/home) <LI class=last _counted="undefined">http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/icon/icon-package_comments_off.png (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wpremier0114/CommentStory/National/home) Comments (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wpremier0114/CommentStory/National/home) (http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/icon/icon-comment.gif8 (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wpremier0114/CommentStory/National/home))
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ANDY BLATCHFORD
THE CANADIAN PRESS
January 14, 2009 at 4:18 PM EST

Few will mistake him for Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, but opponents may think twice before dropping the gloves with Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland.
The hulking Roland, who spends evenings patrolling the blue-line for a “B” division hockey team in Yellowknife, squared off Sunday with a feisty forward on the opposing squad.
The Yellowknife Rec Hockey League had no choice but to come down hard on the territorial premier — it handed him a three-game suspension.
“The game got a bit aggressive,” Mr. Roland admitted to The Canadian Press in an interview from Edmonton on Wednesday.
http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20090114/wpremier0114/_done_roland500.jpg (javascript:;)
Enlarge Image (javascript:;) Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland (left) is greeted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper before the provincial and territoral first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. (The Canadian Press)

http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/icon/icon-digital-leaf-small-red.png
“I did my job as a defenceman, separated a fellow from the puck a couple of times and he took exception to that. He got aggressive with me.
“I kept playing my game, which means when things got a little more heated, I stayed in the battle.”
Mr. Roland, 47, who joined the Black Knights at the start of the season, thinks of himself as more of a puck-moving defenceman rather than a goon.
Still, he's never been afraid to dance.
He rumbled on occasion during his days in the chippy men's senior league in Inuvik, but said this was his first fight in more than a decade.
In fact, Mr. Roland, who stands nearly 6-4 and tops 200 pounds, said this was his first hockey bout since being elected to the territorial legislature in 1995.
“I've been into the heated discussions and the shoving going back and forth, but this is the first time that I've actually dropped the gloves,” said Mr. Roland, who doesn't plan to appeal his mandatory three-game suspension.
“It's the rules of the game.”
The modest premier tried to play down the clash and wouldn't say if he won the dust-up.
“I didn't come away with any bruises, it wasn't much of a fight, it was more of a skirmish,” said Mr. Roland, who was en route to Ottawa for this week's first ministers' meeting.
He also doesn't think his antics will intimidate his rivals in the political arena.
“It may get a few laughs at my meetings coming up,” he said. “I don't think it will cause any more than that.”
The president of the local referees association said Mr. Roland's tussle has been the talk of the town in Yellowknife, which is home to about 20,000 people.
“Being the premier, everyone's surprised that he did drop the gloves, but he's a hockey player, so it's not a problem,” said Greg Cameron, who filed the official suspension request to the league.
“It was just a little hockey fight, that's all.”
Mr. Cameron didn't see the fisticuffs, but said he heard Roland won the decision over his smaller, younger opponent.
The last-place Black Knights (1-13) will have to take to the ice without the premier until at least Jan. 28, but that doesn't mean the league hasn't given the premier some preferential treatment.
The league's website lists the names of suspended players, but instead of Roland's name, officials typed in “#66.”
“He's the premier, they're just giving him a little bit of a break there, I guess,” said Cameron.
“But everyone knows about it. It's a small town, word travels pretty quick. It's hockey, that's all it is.”
The suspension list named Roland's opponent as Jeremiah Donahue of Talbot's Maple Leafs.
The Canadian Press contacted Maple Leafs captain Dean MacInnis for the team's side of the story.
In an e-mail response, Mr. MacInnis said he didn't want to comment on the fight.
“What happens on the ice — stays on the ice,” he wrote.






Outstanding!

[CountArach]

I love politicians who seem like normal people!

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The mayor of pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, is changing his name to Luke Steelerstahl for this weekend :laugh4:

[Pannonian]

Gah. Our former deputy PM traded punches with a voter whilst campaigning for a general election.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Gah. Our former deputy PM traded punches with a voter whilst campaigning for a general election.

Still got nothing on Canada. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawinigan_Handshake)

[lars573]

Still got nothing on Canada. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawinigan_Handshake)
Shawinigan Handshake :laugh4::laugh4::laugh4: I'll have to remember that. Also a past PM told another MP to, ahem, *intercourse* off in a parlimentary session. To this day it's recorded officially as fuddle duddle. :laugh4: He also kicked a talk show host in the pills for harasing him. Ah Trudeau, more style than you. :yes:

[Strike For The South]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt05KC3Add8

Big Bad John.

Texas wins again!

[CountArach]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt05KC3Add8

Big Bad John.

Texas wins again!
I will never get sick of Big Bad John.

I think I've told the story of one of our Ex-Prime Ministers (Bob Hawke) holding the world record for the fastest time downing a yard-glass of beer. 1.7 litres (3 imperial pints) in 11 seconds...

Are we counting former politicians as well? If so it is damn hard to beat former leader of the Opposition Mark Latham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Latham). Who, amongst other things, is known (After leaving politics) for punching a taxi driver and assaulting a journalist (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Mark_Latham_in_fight_12_months_after_resigning_as_Australian_opposition_leader) and smashing his camera with a hammer.

[Goofball]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt05KC3Add8

Big Bad John.

Texas wins again!

Actually, thinking about it, I don't know if Canada can ever top a country who's VP shoots his friend in the face while out hunting...

Dang...

[drone]

Actually, thinking about it, I don't know if Canada can ever top a country who's VP shoots his friend in the face while out hunting...

Dang...

And don't forget, the VP then got the guy he shot to apologize for being in the line of fire. :yes:

[KukriKhan]

More proof (as if it was even needed) that Canadians are the coolest...

OK, but can you keep your dad-blasted geese up there, and off our airport runways and flyways? Cheese 'n Rice, your illegal immigrants are wreaking havoc down here! http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50E8AI20090116















:laugh4:

Full Disclosure: I was almost Canadian once.

[Warluster]

Are we counting former politicians as well? If so it is damn hard to beat former leader of the Opposition Mark Latham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Latham). Who, amongst other things, is known (After leaving politics) for punching a taxi driver and assaulting a journalist (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Mark_Latham_in_fight_12_months_after_resigning_as_Australian_opposition_leader) and smashing his camera with a hammer.

:laugh4: I remember that. But he is a damned boofhead; look at the stuff he wrote and the poltical crap he took for that.

Another one is Kim Beazly; he threatened to knee a jounralist/comedian in the head; though they had it coming.

[CountArach]

Another one is Kim Beazly; he threatened to knee a jounralist/comedian in the head; though they had it coming.
The comedians (Assuming we are talking about The Chaser incident?) actually were fairly disappointed it didn't happen. I also assume Beazley was joking.

Man ALP politicians are great. Except Rudd... Though now that I think about it the Scores debacle may make him somewhat interesting.

[Fragony]

Here is our president's skateboard fail, obviously the dutch are the coolest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbZhOjgjdw

[Xiahou]

More proof (as if it was even needed) that Canadians are the coolest...
Proof. (http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=e25537cf-e677-4c20-a61c-8584a406604d) :clown:

[CountArach]

Here is our president's skateboard fail, obviously the dutch are the coolest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbZhOjgjdw
Our former PM's bowling fail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o8by05rtMY

[Xiahou]

Our former PM's bowling fail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o8by05rtMY
Our president elect's bowling fail (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-afpPb2NT2I).

*I was surprised to discover, when I viewed the entire video, that I've actually bowled there before....

[InsaneApache]

More proof (as if it was even needed) that Canadians are the coolest...

or maybe not....


A British man who was injured while working in Canada has been deported because authorities concluded keeping him in the country would be an economic burden for taxpayers.

Chris Mason, 36, was ordered deported to the United Kingdom after Canadian immigration officials determined that granting the wheelchair-bound man permanent resident status would create an undue economic burden.

Border services agents took Mason to Winnipeg's James Richardson International Airport on Monday and put him on a flight to Manchester. Several of Mason's friends were at the airport to give him money and his belongings — but they were barred from seeing him. Mason had been in detention since last Wednesday.

Mason said he had no desire to return to England where he hasn't lived since he was a child. He lived with his father in Greece before coming to Canada in 2001.

Once here, he began working as a truck driver in Ontario and British Columbia before settling in Winnipeg. The long-haul trucker became a paraplegic after damaging his back on the job.

Mason was further injured in 2007 when he was hit by a taxi while leaving hospital and has been unable to work since.

He had been living in Canada illegally without a visa for more than two years and had been collecting social assistance while battling Manitoba's Public Insurance Corp. over injury benefits when his application for permanent resident status was denied.

"You'd think he was a terrorist," said his mother Gillian Kilford from Manchester. "He was injured during the course of this work. After a period of readjustment he went back to work. He paid taxes in Canada."

She said her son would face hardship finding wheelchair accessible accommodation in Britain. Her son would not be able to negotiate the stairs in her home, she said, adding she had no idea Monday where or when Mason would arrive back in the U.K. since no one from the Canada Border Services Agency had contacted her to make arrangements to greet him at any U.K. airport. "I expect they'll just dump him at immigration," she said.

Advocates for the disabled have been lobbying for Canada to amend the Immigration Act, removing a clause that says anyone who might cause undue economic demand on the social welfare system can be denied the right to live here.

Refugees, who can be injured before being admitted to Canada, are excluded from the "excessive demand" clause in the Immigration Act, but the clause applies to everyone else.

"The Immigration Act frankly prohibits people with disabilities from immigrating to Canada," said Laurie Beachell of Disabled People's International. "The effect would mean people like Stephen Hawking, world-renowned physicist, brilliant man, could never become Canadian."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/01/19/brit-deported.html

:book: