John Davidson has problem remembering the final time Wayne Gretzky visited his childhood dwelling throughout the road on this small metropolis a pair hours’ drive southwest of Toronto.
The modest dwelling with a one-car storage in a quiet residential neighborhood stays within the household, however the Nice One’s visits have been fewer and farther between, particularly since his beloved father Walter died in 2021. The yard ice rink the place Gretzky developed his generational expertise has since been changed by a pool.
Now 85, Davidson nonetheless chases away the occasional curiosity seeker, a far cry from the times when busloads of kids would pull up, or the time Wayne and his spouse Janet confirmed up with an entourage, three limousines sturdy. The retired steelworker then lowered his hand to his knee to point how lengthy he’s identified Gretzky, earlier than saying: “Wayne’s modified lots since he went all the way down to the States.”
Like many on this metropolis of 105,000 and throughout a nation of 39 million, Davidson has problem squaring the kid he as soon as knew, the participant who received 4 Stanley Cups in Edmonton and re-wrote the NHL’s scoring data, and the individual he sees now.
At 64, Gretzky is now the topic of a once-unimaginable debate over his loyalty to his native Canada on account of his ties to President Donald Trump, whose brazen feedback concerning the nation’s sovereignty have angered Canadians.
Photos of Gretzky celebrating Trump’s election night time victory at Mar-a-Lago and attending his inauguration don’t sit nicely at a time Canadians face an existential disaster within the wake of rising tariffs and the president’s feedback about turning its northern neighbor right into a 51st state. Many discover it unsettling that Gretzky is silent on the subject, even with Trump suggesting Gretzky run for workplace for the eventuality of changing into the nation’s governor as soon as it joins the U.S.
“I at all times thought the hell out of him,” Davidson stated of Gretzky. “Hate is a horrible phrase. Dislike is a greater phrase.”
Gretzky’s on-ice exploits stay legendary they usually start at an early age. When he was 11, he scored 378 objectives and 517 factors in 85 video games for the atom division Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers. His mother and father relocated him to play in Toronto, earlier than Gretzky made the soar to the Ontario Hockey League, the place in his solely full season in 1977-78 he scored 70 objectives and piled up 182 factors, which nonetheless ranks second on the league’s checklist.
Although he performed on 4 NHL groups, ending his profession with the New York Rangers in 1999, befitting his No. 99, Gretzky is greatest identified for his 10 seasons in Edmonton, together with his first when the Oilers performed within the World Hockey Affiliation. Gretzky grew to become an icon in Alberta’s capital for the championships and a spotlight; his marriage to American actor Janet Jones in July 1988 was broadcast dwell throughout Canada.
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Gretzky’s affect abounds in Brantford. His charitable basis offers for quite a few native causes, together with Particular Olympics and distributing free hockey sticks to kids. Outdoors the Wayne Gretzky Sports activities Centre is a statue of Gretzky elevating the Stanley Cup with three smaller statues wanting on, representing his mother and father and a younger Gretzky sporting a Pink Wings’ Gordie Howe jersey.
All this in honor of an individual who has been gone for a majority of his life, and makes his dwelling within the U.S. Of his 5 kids, daughter Paulina is greatest identified for her marriage to prime golfer Dustin Johnson. And whereas the Gretzkys are a far cry from the Kardashians, there’s a Hollywood shine to the household that beforehand served as a gentle curiosity to most Canadians till the turmoil of at present.
Lately, CTV reported, the face of Gretzky’s statue outdoors of the Edmonton Oilers enviornment had been smeared with feces, a part of a polarizing debate that’s raised ire amongst his detractors and eye-rolls from his defenders.
“He’s completed so many good issues in each of those nations, he doesn’t want to elucidate himself to anyone,” stated Brantford councilor Dan McCreary, whose ward contains Gretzky sports activities complicated. He referred to Gretzky’s critics as being a part of a “cancel tradition” motion.
Not misplaced on McCreary is how Brantford sits within the crosshairs of the cross-border dispute. Town serves as a transportation hub — a two-and-a-half-hour drive from three border crossings — and with a producing base linked to the auto trade, now going through potential fallout from U.S. tariffs.
“You may recommend that to him,” McCreary stated when requested if Gretzky might put in a very good phrase to Trump about his hometown. Gretzky didn’t reply to messages searching for remark from The Related Press for this story.
A way of nationwide pleasure led to Kat Philp launching a petition to rename Brantford’s Wayne Gretzky Parkway after Walter, who held the honorary title of Brantford’s Lord Mayor for his in depth neighborhood work.
The difficulty just isn’t whose Wayne Gretzky’s mates are — “You do you,” Philp stated. As a substitute, she feels betrayed by his failure to voice assist for Canada.
“We at all times felt he was nonetheless Canadian. We don’t really feel that approach anymore,” stated Philp, 50, who grew up taking part in hockey, attended Gretzky’s superstar slow-pitch tournaments as a young person and was proud in telling folks she was from Gretzky’s hometown.
Peter Pocklington, the previous Edmonton Oilers proprietor, is shocked by the backlash directed at somebody he’s identified since buying the 17-year-old participant’s rights in 1978 and bringing him to Edmonton to usher within the franchise’s heyday earlier than buying and selling him to Los Angeles.
“Wayne just isn’t a politician. He’s a hockey participant. Interval. And his coronary heart has at all times been in Canada, with Canada,” Pocklington stated from his dwelling in Desert Palm, California. “I’m unsure he’d get up in his personal protection however I feel he most likely feels sorry for them greater than something.”
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