REGINA - Welcome to this week’s News Watch which, like last week, is going to be another mishmash of what is going on in the world, and our part of the world.
I'm writing this on the day the G7 was meeting in Kananaskis and all the talk going into today was about how will President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney get along? Will they get a trade deal done? Will Trump put his foot in it again and repeat his crazy 51st State talk again?
So far Trump seems to have behaved and the word is there is a 30-day deadline set to get a trade deal done. In other words, nothing earth-shattering. There has been this huge buildup to these meetings and a lot of talk about what might happen because of Trump’s big mouth, but my sense is this will all conclude in far less dramatic fashion.
That’s exactly what we got with the meeting with the First Ministers Meeting in Saskatoon — there was all this buildup about whether Premier Danielle Smith’s list of demands would be satisfied to quell all the separation talk, but in the end it was very much “kumbaya.” Or, more likely, “love is in the air.”
As this goes on here in Canada, the rest of the world seems to be falling apart. While Trump is in Canada, “No Kings” protests have expanded in the USA beyond LA to places like Chicago. And we have war in the Middle East yet again.
This time it’s Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities and leadership, with Iran striking Israel right back. I don’t have a lot to say about this other than my hope this doesn't expand into some wider conflict — that’s the last thing the world needs at the moment. The other thing I keep thinking of is how anyone who lives in that area of the world can stand it. It seems like Israel and the Middle East always have bombs raining down on them, and local citizens having to hide in bomb shelters. It sort of reminds me of the folks who live in Hurricane Alley who get hit by hurricanes all the time: how do these folks put up with it all.
And closer to home we are still fighting the wildfires in northern Saskatchewan, and there has been some positive news. A lot of evacuees have been able to return home, and hopefully try to resume some semblance of normal life.
You would think that would be good news, but that hasn't stopped the opposition New Democrats’ attempts to turn the wildfire response into the latest Sask Party scandal. Their latest complaint: that the new water bomber that the province had acquired was left grounded during the wildfire.
The province’s response: Transport Canada requires an additional 20 hours of training, as well as 25 hours to learn to fight wildfires with those specific aircraft. And it’s pretty hard to train people when they are already out there fighting the fires.
I dunno about you, but the sooner this wildfire situation is completely over, the better. I'm tired of all this negativity surrounding it.
Onto other less important news and I’ll start with the domestic box office. The latest live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon was a big hit this past weekend, grossing a domestic $83 million to knock Lilo & Stitch out of first place. This showing was better than expected and I understand the whole weekend was better than expected in general. In fact, it is shaping up to be a really strong summer season at the box office. Next movie to keep your eye on: F1, starring Brad Pitt.
Speaking of motor racing, a couple of things to tell you about. Formula One is taking a lot of heat for next year’s schedule. They are moving Monaco out of its traditional Memorial Day weekend spot to a couple of weeks later, and replacing it next year with… the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
That has the auto racing fans all upset. Apart from ruining the best motor racing day of the year with Monaco, Indy and Charlotte all in one day, it means the Montreal F1 race will be going head to head next May against the Indianapolis 500 at roughly the same hour.
So in the end, it’ll be the fans who will have to choose one over the other, either attending live or watching on TV. And so it’ll be the fans who get hosed — as usual.
Everyone says this is a lot of arrogance and hubris by F1 to do this and take on IndyCar in this manner. Never mind the hubris, I think this is a suicide move by F1, because they’ll get stomped by Indy head-to-head. Race fans will be tuning into just one race in that scenario, and it will be the Indy.
This has nothing to do with Canada. The Brickyard is by far the more storied venue and far better racing, while what you get these days from F1 is the “soap opera” away from the track (ie. controversy over Lando Norris colliding with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri at this weekend’s Montreal race). Who needs it.
Speaking of this past weekend, it was a big one for motorsports. Le Mans, F1 in Montreal, NASCAR in Mexico City, and Indy in… St. Louis.
The Indy race turned out to be pretty memorable. It had a spectacular crash, as Josef Newgarden went airborne after colliding with another vehicle and landed upside-down. How he managed to walk away from that, I don’t know, but he did.
I probably ought to have watched the U.S. Open golf, but I didn’t. I also probably should have watched more baseball this weekend after the big news on Friday about the sale of the Regina Red Sox to Queen City Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Regina Pats.
What it looks like to me is that the Red Sox realized they needed owners who had the deep pockets to make a go of it in the Western Canadian Baseball League up against several deep-pocketed Alberta franchises that have fancy new stadiums. The status quo of staying at Currie Field long-term is clearly not on. The Red Sox will need a lot of investment from ownership and the rest of the community to not only keep their existing stadium Currie Field going, but eventually get a new stadium. That will be the next big thing for Regina.
I end this column on a pop culture note because if I don’t write it, you know that nobody else in the boring Saskatchewan news media will: Nancy Sinatra turned 85 last week!
Yes, the daughter of Frank Sinatra, who had a number one hit with These Boots are Made for Walkin’ back in 1966, and who also starred in no shortage of 60s B-movies including For Those Who Think Young, The Last of the Secret Agents, and Speedway (opposite Elvis Presley), celebrated her birthday a week ago.
This reminds me of the time back in 1980 when my family went on a memorable vacation to southern California. In between trips to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios and so on, we went to the now-defunct Movieland Wax Museum where they had all the wax displays of all these various famous celebrities.
There was one such display that made a particular impression on myself: a wax figure of Nancy Sinatra in a scene from the movie The Wild Angels, riding a motorcycle and wearing a miniskirt. That was worth the price of admission right there. So be sure to raise a glass of RC Cola in Nancy’s honour — or something.
Finally, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! That’s all.
