Clinton News Record, 2015-02-04, Page 4editorial
Changing face
of war on ISIS
QMI Agency
It was important to get
it right. The tone has
been set.
And we're not so sure
Canadians are impressed.
On Monday MPs were
back in Ottawa for their
first sitting in the House
of Commons since
Christmas break.
We wrote in this space
on Monday that "what
happens in the next few
months will frame the
debate leading into the
October election."
The two big topics? The
economy and terror.
Then shortly before
question period got
underway, the country
learned that Canadian
Forces had engaged in
two more firefights with
the Islamic State.
That's in addition to the
exchange of gunfire we
learned about in last
week's briefing.
So this gave opposition
leader Tom Mulcair
material as he came
storming out of the gates,
arguing that the govern-
ment had misled Canadi-
ans and put soldiers in
harm's way.
Trudeau managed to
dodge talking about ter-
ror at first. Typical. But
then he did address it,
echoing Mulcair's criti-
cisms of the
Conservatives.
Mulcair is certainly
right that things have
changed from what we
expected. Call it "mission
creep." Call it what you
want.
The government had
firmly stated in October
that Canadian Forces were
going to Iraq in an advisory
and non -combat role.
But that was mid-Octo-
ber. Then we had two ter-
ror attacks in one week.
There have since been
various calls to attack
Canada - including one
issued by the supposed
caliph just the other day.
In other words, the situ-
ation is now different. It
hit us at home. The
Islamic State has Canada
in its crosshairs.
The opposition parties
should by all means hold
the government to
account. But the public
will drop them in a heart-
beat if they go too far and
lose perspective.
After all, recent polling
tells us Canadians want
the Islamic State threat
beaten back.
An Ipsos Reid poll con-
ducted in mid-December
found that 73% of Cana-
dians either strongly or
somewhat agree that
"everything possible"
needs to be done to con-
tain the Islamic State,
including sending Cana-
dian ground troops.
It was even that high in
Quebec. And only 7% of
Canadians strongly disa-
gree with going after ISIS.
In other words: paging
the opposition! Time to
pay attention to what
Canadians actually think!
Some people
don't belong in
competitive sports
Tara Ostner
The Clinton News Record
Competitive sports is a term com-
prised of two distinct words.
The word competitive means "of,
pertaining to, involving, or decided
by competition" while the word
competition is defined as "a contest
for some prize, honor, or advan-
tage," or, a "rivalry for supremacy."
The word sport means "an ath-
letic activity requiring skill or phys-
ical prowess." Additionally, the
word sport can also mean "fun" and
"recreation."
However, any time that the word
competitive precedes the word
sport, sport, of course, means more
than just fun and recreation. This is
something that sometimes people
either forget or fail to understand.
This was made more than appar-
ent last month at a Southern Califor-
nia high school when the school's
basketball coach, Michael Ander-
son, was suspended as a result of his
team beating the opposing team,
lead by coach, Dale Chung, by a
score of 161-2. The idea behind the
suspension was that, by scoring so
many more points than Chung's
team, Anderson's team showed bad
sportsmanship.
In response to the suspension,
Anderson stated that "the game just
got away from me" and if he had to
do it all over again he "wouldn't
play the game at all." In my opinion,
Anderson showed far more cour-
tesy here than he should have.
Chung, on the other hand,
showed ignorance and naivete.
People shouldn't "feel sorry" for my
team, Chung said, instead, people
should feel sorry for Anderson's
team, a team which, Chung said,
"isn't learning the game the right
way."
In fact, Chung has it all wrong:
Anderson's team learned the game
entirely the right way.
Regardless, I don't think that
Chung has too much to worry about
as I doubt that too many people
actually feel sorry for his team. I
certainly do not.
In the world of competitive sports
you are inevitably signing up for the
possibility of loss. You always have
a chance of losing and you know
this; moreover, by joining the com-
petitive sport, you voluntarily sign
up for this.
Striving to outdo the other team
is the very essence of competitive
sports. People who cannot accept
this very simple and inoffensive fact
should not be allowed to join the
game and I wonder why - with so
many non-competitive options out
there - individuals like this even
enter into the activity in the first
place.
There are many things to lament
in this world -likely too many to
count - but feeling sorry for a
defeated competitive sports team,
no matter what the final score is, is
not one of them. To do so only
makes a mockery out of the sport.
It is also a fact that loss, even loss
of great proportions, is a necessary
component of life. The sooner in
life that we can learn to accept this
fact the sooner that we will be okay
with it.
The beauty of competitive sports
is that, among many other things,
this is precisely what it teaches you.
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