The Riders’ risk, and why truck convoy matters
In Rider Nation it’s big news when a coach quits or gets fired. That’s because, as departing Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Chris Jones accurately observed, people everywhere in the province “all talk football, in the shops, as soon as they wake up.”
That Coach Jones moved on is not surprising. His upward, fast and driven career trajectory was well known. His resume never showed a long stay. He departed just days after signing a contract extension, although his employment contract had an “out” clause for an NFL gig and that’s what he did.
Jones should be wished well in his latest football endeavour with the Cleveland Browns, although the last guy who got anything done with the Browns was Kevin Costner as their fictional manager in the movie Draft Day.
The most troubling legacy of the Jones years with the Saskatchewan Roughriders is how he occupied four jobs — vice-president, general manager, head coach and defensive coordinator. While coach/gm combos are not uncommon, generally someone should not earn the GM stripes without a profile, community presence and tenure that rates higher than living in a hotel room without his family, as Jones did.
Sure, the Riders threw everything at Jones to entice him and four job titles could justify him being the highest paid coach in the CFL. But responsible organizations take steps to effectively manage risk. And the downside of miscalculating change management and talent risk leaves the Riders scrambling.
While the football club now tries to find a head coach to build a winning football team, they should take the time to establish a team management structure that leaves them in better shape than the gaping holes left by Jones’s departure.
In recent weeks, the runaway success of truck convoys and protests drawing attention to Western issues has been powerful, as hundreds of semis and big trucks have rallied to draw attention to the plight of the oilpatch.
In particular, the protests have focused on federal government policies like the carbon tax, delayed and cancelled pipelines, Bill C-69 — which will stall resource development — and the tanker ban off B.C.’S northern coast.
Just before Christmas the idea was conceived of a huge national convoy of trucks leaving Western Canada on Feb. 15 and heading to Ottawa. At the same time, in support of the abandoned Energy East pipeline (pronounced by the prime minister to “have no support in Quebec”) trucks would proceed west from Atlantic Canada to the nation’s capital.
Along the way, daily rallies will draw more trucks and, by Feb. 20, the convoy — possibly numbering 1,000 trucks or more — would arrive on Wellington Street in Ottawa outside of Parliament to bring the concerns of the West to Central Canada.
In the same Ontario that spent days clutching its pearls over 1,200 future job losses at the GM plant in Oshawa, there has been scant attention paid to tens of thousands of jobs lost in Western Canada.
In recent days, as the number of organizations supporting, organizing and raising funds for the national convoy has grown, public squabbles have erupted on social media. Now Alberta-based groups Canada Action and Rally 4 resources have pulled out, concerned that the increasingly popular and numerous yellow vest protest groups might radicalize the rallies.
Having met many local yellow vesters, who seem overwhelmingly to be hardworking, sincere and frustrated Western Canadians (and not generally people who take to the streets), the continuing media narrative of racists and radicals hidden in the midst of the yellow vest movement has been less supported by evidence than by innuendo.
Like any protesters, the Ottawa Convoy trekkers would do well to root out troublemakers. But they are on to an issue that has captivated many Western Canadians. This rally is real and it’s going to matter.
Gormley is a broadcaster, lawyer, author and former Progressive Conservative MP whose radio talk show is heard weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on 980 CJME Regina and 650 CKOM Saskatoon.