Goat Pictures

I want to see those pictures that Mark Chipman has of Greg Selinger kissing of a goat. Or, on second thought, maybe I don’t.

In any event, I was horrified to read in this morning’s edition of the Liberal Party of Canada’s tabloid more commonly known as the Winnipeg Free Press that Chipman is running back to his favorite candy store on Broadway seeking even more of your money and my money to fund what is still being laughably called a “private sector deal”.

After the government has so generously funded his personal arena and a practice facility for his worthless hockey team for reasons only the government can explain, Chipman now wants the government to give him a loan to cover the costs of funding the purchase of an NHL team for himself. Preferably interest-free, if you please.

I seem to recall that David Thompson, one of the richest Canadians, is backing Chipman in his quest for the Holy Grail. If it’s true, why is Chipman running to the government?

If Thompson is unable or unwilling to finance the purchase of the team, what’s going to happen not if, but when the team starts losing money hand over fist? If he has little appetite for the financing at this stage, you’ve got to wonder about his appetite to keep writing eight-figure checks to cover the losses Chipman’s team is almost assured to incur every year, particularly when you consider that Thompson won’t have any more control of the team than I will.

Which leads us back to the government, as it seemingly always does in the Socialist People’s Republic of Manitoba.

I keep hoping that the well is going to run dry on Broadway. There’s a limit to which any government can continue to justify an endless succession of bailouts unless Chipman is prepared to call his team the Blue Bombers, in which case he’d get all he wanted for eternity.

For the time being, however, knowing what spendthrifts the NDP are, they’ll probably give Chipman what he wants. Evidently, the NDP feels that we’re not drowning in enough public debt, so they have to sell us down the river even farther in order to finance the personal fiefdom of Mark Chipman.

So, while the small, but vocal “Return of the Jets” crowd salivates over the possibility of acquiring a team that has missed the playoffs 10 of the last 11 years that will be run by an owner with a sharp contempt and disdain for his customers, the rest of us can only sit back and hope that Chipman’s short-term venture, in the unlikely event he is successful, doesn’t cost us too much during the brief time he has a team.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.