U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is once again urging hockey great Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister — or “governor” — of Canada.
Trump first floated the idea on the Truth Social platform just before Christmas, writing: “I just left Wayne Gretzky, ‘The Great One’ as he is known in ice-hockey circles. I said, ‘Wayne, why don’t you run for prime minister of Canada, soon to be known as the governor of Canada — you would win easily, you wouldn’t even have to campaign.’”
Trump added: “He had no interest.”
However, during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Tuesday, Trump repeated the idea, tacking it on to a complaint about Canada’s military readiness.
“They don’t essentially have a military,” he told reporters. “They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine but, you know, they gotta pay for that.”
He went on to say: “I have so many great friends, one of them is The Great One, Wayne Gretzky. I said run for prime minister, you’ll win in a — it’ll take two seconds. But he said, ‘Am I going to run for prime minister or governor, you tell me.’ I said, ‘I don’t know, let’s make it governor. I like it better.’”
The Gretzky family are close friends of Trump, and were at his victory party on the night of the U.S. presidential election in November. Janet Gretzky, Wayne’s wife, also shared and linked to Trump’s original Truth Social post on Instagram.
Though Gretzky apparently told Trump he had “no interest” in the position of Canada’s leader, such a move would not be completely without precedent. Ken Dryden played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1971 to 1979, during which time the team won six Stanley Cups. He went on to serve as a Liberal Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011, three of those years as minister of social development.
Another former Canadien, Jean Beliveau, twice declined Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s offer of a Senate appointment, and in 1994 turned down the post of Governor General of Canada when it was offered by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
Frank Mahovlich played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, including the last time the team won the Cup, in 1967. He was subsequently appointed to the Senate in 1998 by Chretien, and retired in 2013 at the age of 75.
But perhaps the most impressive Canadian hockey-player-turned-politician was Red Kelly, who played 13 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings starting in 1947, and then another eight with the Leafs, from ’59 to ’67. However, he spent four of those same years as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the Toronto-area riding of York West, while still managing to help win the Stanley Cup twice.
Perhaps today’s Leafs need more MPs on their team — or vice versa.