Roses and Thorns: Of kindness and trade wars

ROSE: To Washington Capitals centre and captain Alexander Ovechkin, who this season made the dreams of a Niagara Falls hockey fan come true. Last October, Ovechkin invited Caps supporter Alex Luey, a 13-year-old cancer survivor and youth hockey player, to a game during a broadcast of the Hometown Hockey program from Niagara Falls. At the game in Toronto, Ovechkin scored a hat trick with Luey in attendance. Luey was invited to further games and Ovechkin scored some more for his young fan. Luey then got the ultimate prize — an invitation to this week’s celebration in Washington DC, as the Caps held their Stanley Cup victory parade in the U.S. capital. “He has been excellent, he has been so kind and nice to me,” Luey said of Ovechkin. “He's just a great person, as are all the Capitals.”

THORN: To Niagara regional council, for the decision Thursday to extend Coun. Andy Petrowski’s paid leave of absence until late September. We expressed our opposition to such a decision on Wednesday, but new information went before councillors during the meeting. Petrowski is taking his leave for undisclosed medical reasons. Council’s vote of 22-4 indicates a majority feel some sympathy for Petrowski and his condition, whatever it is. However, such considerations are not available to members of the public who may be forced to take leaves for personal health reasons. Anyone else who was off for a year or more due to illness, as Petrowski has been, would have been transferred to a long-term illness category and would have seen pay reduced or eliminated. The net result here is Petrowski’s constituents are not being represented, taxpayers across the region are continuing to pay his $30,204 salary, and there’s no end in sight pending the fall election.

ROSE: To the 125-member Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Initiative, who represent municipalities from around the Great Lakes and who this week stood up for common sense against an autocratic American leader. On Thursday, the mayors representing the group issued a statement warning against “isolationist trade policies.” While they didn’t mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, their warning refers to the growing trade war Trump has initiated against Canada, sparked by his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum. Canada, in turn, has promised to impose tariffs on a variety of goods effective July 1, in equal value to the American tariffs. The standoff took a bizarre turn over the weekend during the G-7 meeting in Quebec when Trump left early and issued a variety of derogatory tweets at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He has gone on to vow to take further trade action to punish Trudeau and Canada, apparently not caring whether his actions will in turn hurt the U.S. economy, as they will. “The mayors of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region are keepers of the flame of our special cross-border relationship,” said Niagara Falls, N.Y., Mayor Paul Dyster. “American mayors of the cities initiative stand shoulder to shoulder with our Canadian cousins in the face of escalating rhetoric that threatens to damage 200 years of peace and economic prosperity in the region.” St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who was at the meeting in Ajax, said a trade war threatens the economic stability of the communities of the Great Lakes region. The mayors, because of their prominent position in their communities, are “best suited to tell the story” of the negative economic impacts of Trump’s trade war. We concur — we need more people to thoughtfully speak out against Trump’s words and actions, if only to impress upon other U.S. leaders the grave consequences a trade war will have on both countries’ economies.