Our New Rivalry Will Be With Corbeil
If you have lived in North Bay for even a couple of weeks, you have realized two very important things:
1. City Hall resembles a giant toilet.
2. People in North Bay don't like Sudbury much.
Indeed, should the people of Sudbury and the people of North Bay decide to have a Civil War -- which is a good bet considering how much of a rivalry the two cities have -- poor Verner would be left in total ruins.
Why do North Bayites distain Sudbury so much? Until recent years, the rivalry was contained to the rink, where the North Bay Centennials and Sudbury Wolves would square off in many-an-OHL tilt. Given the geographic challenges of having a hockey league with 3 relatively remote northern teams was that it seemed that North Bay, Sudbury, and the Soo would sqaure off lots of times in a regular season.
Anyway, with the Cents now in filthy Michigan, the rivalry has been more political in recent years, with many North Bayites bemoaning that Sudbury is getting more and more successful as a city, while our city struggles to stay afloat. All of the big industry and fancy big box shops are in Sudbury, with now a few making investments in North Bay. However, it's still not uncommon for many North Bayites to travel to Sudbury on a Saturday to shop at Costco and eat out at Red Lobster.
What's worse in the last couple of years is that Sudbury's MPP Rick Bartolucci -- or Bubbles as many North Bayites love to refer to him as, given that his eyeglass prescription is the exact same as everyone's favourite Trailer Park Boy -- has been championing Sudbury to his provincial Liberal government colleagues, and it seems that Sudbury has seen more initiatives and more money in that riding than MPP Smith has generated for our city. Sudbury's hospital got an 80/20 provincial/municipal split for the costs, while our ratio is 70/30. There are even fears that the 4-laning of Highway 69 will be completed before Highway 11 gets completely 4-laned.
However, it is a simple nice act of recognition by a local Sudbury group that has thrown everything upside down.
The Sudbury Wolves are set to play an OHL exhibition game at Memorial Gardens, and in a pre-game ceremony, will give special recognition to the City of North Bay on being declared the winner of the Kraft Hockeyville contest. They will be making a special presentation to the Hockeyville committee to congratulate them and everyone who participated in making this special achievement possible.
Isn't that a nice gesture or what? Now what do we do? How can we continue to put down Sudbury when they have been so supportive of us? The answer is, we can't. Guess that makes us friends again!
Well, at least until there is less highway to 4-lane on Highway 69 then there is on Highway 11.
Briggsy
1. City Hall resembles a giant toilet.
2. People in North Bay don't like Sudbury much.
Indeed, should the people of Sudbury and the people of North Bay decide to have a Civil War -- which is a good bet considering how much of a rivalry the two cities have -- poor Verner would be left in total ruins.
Why do North Bayites distain Sudbury so much? Until recent years, the rivalry was contained to the rink, where the North Bay Centennials and Sudbury Wolves would square off in many-an-OHL tilt. Given the geographic challenges of having a hockey league with 3 relatively remote northern teams was that it seemed that North Bay, Sudbury, and the Soo would sqaure off lots of times in a regular season.
Anyway, with the Cents now in filthy Michigan, the rivalry has been more political in recent years, with many North Bayites bemoaning that Sudbury is getting more and more successful as a city, while our city struggles to stay afloat. All of the big industry and fancy big box shops are in Sudbury, with now a few making investments in North Bay. However, it's still not uncommon for many North Bayites to travel to Sudbury on a Saturday to shop at Costco and eat out at Red Lobster.
What's worse in the last couple of years is that Sudbury's MPP Rick Bartolucci -- or Bubbles as many North Bayites love to refer to him as, given that his eyeglass prescription is the exact same as everyone's favourite Trailer Park Boy -- has been championing Sudbury to his provincial Liberal government colleagues, and it seems that Sudbury has seen more initiatives and more money in that riding than MPP Smith has generated for our city. Sudbury's hospital got an 80/20 provincial/municipal split for the costs, while our ratio is 70/30. There are even fears that the 4-laning of Highway 69 will be completed before Highway 11 gets completely 4-laned.
However, it is a simple nice act of recognition by a local Sudbury group that has thrown everything upside down.
The Sudbury Wolves are set to play an OHL exhibition game at Memorial Gardens, and in a pre-game ceremony, will give special recognition to the City of North Bay on being declared the winner of the Kraft Hockeyville contest. They will be making a special presentation to the Hockeyville committee to congratulate them and everyone who participated in making this special achievement possible.
Isn't that a nice gesture or what? Now what do we do? How can we continue to put down Sudbury when they have been so supportive of us? The answer is, we can't. Guess that makes us friends again!
Well, at least until there is less highway to 4-lane on Highway 69 then there is on Highway 11.
Briggsy