Even the U.S. president knows what all Canadians should have known about The Great One.
“He supports Canada the way it is, as he should,” President Donald J. Trump posted to his Truth Social account Wednesday.
In other words, Gretzky has no interest in Canada becoming the 51st state, as Trump has been trolling about.
Sad that Trump had to clarify that for some Canadians. But it was a good and noble gesture that he did. It’s ironic that the very person talking about wanting Canada to join the United States is fairer to one of our greatest Canadians than some of the loud haters are. But it turns out he is. Trump knows they are using Gretzky as an excuse to get at him. So, he’s given the hall of famer an exit ramp, which was the gracious thing to do.
“Wayne is my friend, and he wants to make me happy, and is therefore somewhat ‘low key’ about Canada remaining a separate Country, rather than becoming a cherished and beautiful 51st State, paying much Lower Taxes, a Free and Powerful Military, NO TARIFFS, and having a Booming Economy,” wrote the president in true Trump-in-jest fashion.
He added: “Wayne and Janet, his wonderful wife, love Canada, and they should only support Canada, and whatever else makes the Canadian People, and Governor Justin Trudeau, happy.”
In Trump’s unique way, he publicly is freeing Gretzky from the manufactured controversy while also doubling down on his position.
“He’s the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a ‘free agent,’ because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him,” wrote Trump. “He supports Canada the way it is, as he should, even though it’s not nearly as good as it could be as part of the Greatest and Most Powerful Country in the World, the Good Ole’ U.S.A.!”
Trump can’t help himself. But he knows by teasing that the Brantford hockey legend, who holds 63 NHL records, should become Canada’s governor has not gone over to well north of his border.
Bobby Orr got it right in his column in the Toronto Sun when he said Gretzky should be cut some slack on this. Gretzky, in the spirit of what his late great father Walter instilled in him, does a lot of charity behind the scenes for Canadians that no one knows about. Gretzky has done nothing but bring honour to his hometowns of Brantford and Edmonton and Canada as a whole.
And Trump acknowledged this.
“Wayne Gretzky is a fantastic guy! They call him, ‘The Great One,’ and he is. He could run for any political office in Canada, and win.”
However, there are some unfairly questioning Gretzky’s patriotism and spinning without facts. There is even a lightly supported petition trying to get his name removed from a roadway – the same way Canada has cancelled its first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, Don Cherry and Egerton Ryerson.
It’s all nonsense. All of those great Canadians have done way more for Canada than any of the cancellers have ever done. And Gretzky leads the way with quiet charity from going to children’s hospitals to helping wounded veterans. All of those places are fortunate Gretzky allows them to display his statue or use his name on their streets. Gretzky brings in to his hometowns more tourism, investment, charity and good will than any of his enemies combined.
And he did stand up for Canada — not in a media spectacle but where he should have addressed it. To Trump himself.
The back story on Trump skillfully backpedalling ever so slightly for this first time in his new mandate is that Gretzky let him know he was not in favour of Canada becoming the 51st state and that he doesn’t find any of that rhetoric humorous. Several sources tell me The Great One and the president had this talk in which the 45th and 47th president realized the difficult position the hockey star was in and decided to clarify it with his social media post.
Trump knows Gretzky will always be loyal to Canada, always has been and always will be. And his social media post should wrap this chapter up once and for all. If Gretzky would take any advice, Cherry’s is to not say anything. He doesn’t need to. He’s done nothing wrong.
He should handle it like Orr did when the mob came after him in 2020 for supporting Trump’s re-election. Ignore it. Don’t take the bait from sports writers or commentators, who he has known and worked with for decades, or from those who are always trying to tear down somebody.
Outside of Orr and Cherry, the hockey world has not stepped up for Wayne here, like Trump did.
Suggesting Gretzky must address this is a pure trap being set by people who should know better. They know, no matter what Gretzky says and who he says it to, he’s damned either way. He’s in an impossible situation for doing nothing untoward. They also all know where Gretzky’s heart lies and that they would create ultimatums for him must have hurt him deeply since he has always been there for those writers, for Canada and Canadians or any prime minister of any stripe who has called on him.
When you look at how that 4 Nations Face-Off narrative was spun to suggest that he, as honorary captain for Team Canada, came out from the American bench, supporting the American players, while ignoring that this was the route organizers told him to go and that he was in the Canadian dressing room supporting his countrymen prior, you can see why Gretzky is mistrusting of those smearing him out on false information.
Mario Lemieux was honorary captain in Montreal and was dressed in a suit and no one said a thing.
Gretzky does not have to answer to any of his haters or the take the bait from those trying to draw him into further controversy. He is allowed to be friends with Trump as he has been for decades, and he can support anybody he chooses to. It’s the height of arrogance for judgmental arbiters of Canadianism to tell Gretzky, or anybody else, who they can hang out with, how they should vote or how to display their love for their country.
None of the people demanding that would be able to pass their own test. Honest Canadians understand this whole thing was all trumped up, literally. President Trump may have stirred this all up, but with his new social media post he has put it into context and to a conclusion.
The Great One is Canadian, no matter what anybody says.