The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
I have never been to Toews Lake, situated about 95 kilometres north of Flin Flon, but I'm sure it's beautiful. What's not so pretty is the controversy engulfing this formerly unnamed body of water. Earlier this month, the Selinger government announced quite abruptly that the lake, roughly 3.8 square kilometres in size, would be christened in honour of Jonathan Toews. Toews is Manitoba's hockey idol of the moment. He was named playoff MVP for guiding his Chicago Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup in decades. Months earlier he played a key role with Canada's much-celebrated Olympic hockey team. Toews is by all accounts a great guy and at just 22, his best days are still ahead of him. The problem here is that an honour along the lines of a personalized lake is normally reserved for people with far greater accomplishments under their belts. People like Cpl. Mike Seggie, a Manitoba soldier killed serving his country in Afghanistan. His sacrifice rightly entitles him to have a lake or other geographic feature in the province termed in his honour. Cpl. Seggie died nearly two years ago and still has not received his posthumous accolade. Toews, on the other hand, had his own lake barely a month after winning the Stanley Cup. As should be expected, the late soldier's family is a little perturbed. Not just because of the fast-tracking afforded to Toews, but because the term "hockey hero" is a misnomer. "We've got nothing against Jonathan. Jonathan Toews is a superstar. He's a role model, but I do not see him as a hero," Cpl. Seggie's mom, Shirley Seggie, told the Canadian Press. "They've put him in the same category as a hero, and a hero to me is someone who goes out and risks their life to save others or to make our country a better country." It's hard to argue with what she says. Hockey may be a religion in Canada, but men who slide rubber discs around a sheet of ice will never Ð can never Ð hold a candle to those who put their lives on the line for a safer world. For its part, the government has denied playing politics with this issue. But it is obvious to any thinking person that they were hoping some of the rabid enthusiasm surrounding Toews would rub off on them. It hasn't. Instead, Premier Greg Selinger and company have just degraded what it means to have a lake in this glorious province bear one's name. As for Shirley Seggie, she'll evidently have to wait a while longer for her son's moment of recognition to come. Even when it does, after Toews Lake, the honour just won't carry the same meaning.
