It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul..— Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.A few years ago, ambulance drivers were wheeling a shooting victim into an Edmonton hospital for surgery. It was a hit on a biker — and cops were trying to make him talk.."Who did this to you, who shot you, tell us who did it," they said hurriedly..The biker went to his death, without saying much. "Really, I was shot in the back," he said. "I hadn't noticed.".This would infuriate the cops. It was a major league, "F--k you.".Imagine. Taking a bullet, knowing you're gonna die, and saying nothing..You might not like bikers, you might not like what they do, you might not like what they stand for, and you may not like your 16-year-old daughter to date one, but one has to admire this man's courage and bravado, as he faced the "dark shade.".The place where we are all going, folks. You, me and everyone else..In stark contrast, I remember, the shame ... the absolute shame, I felt, when all three Mounties tried to hide from taking responsibility for the death of Robert Dziekański..Pinned and handcuffed, they brutally Tasered him to death at Vancouver International Airport. And they tried to hide from what they had done..I'm sure glad my Dad didn't live to see this, because he would have been absolutely outraged..He was a hard-working man, a good Canadian, who knew the difference between right and wrong. He never would have hid, not a chance. He was not a coward..That, my friends, was my grassroots. My beginning. My childhood on Wyandotte Street in Windsor..We grew up on the MC5, the Motor City Five, probably the best Detroit garage bands that ever lived..Kick out the Jams! Motor City's Burnin'! Borderline and many other amazing songs..I tried to get my DJ friend at CKUA to play some of their music but she demurred. A little too raucous for CKUA listeners, she said. Too afraid of music. Imagine that..We dreamed of being astronauts — inspired by the heroics of the Gemini and Apollo programs, which aimed to put a man on the moon, as per JFK's promise..We also prided ourselves, in knowing that many of the men involved in the doomed Arrow fighter jet project, ended up at NASA. It was what it was..Down the street from us, on Wyandotte, Sicilian-American mobster Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone, would often be in a house, playing cards with his relatives..This was a man who probably knew who killed JFK. High up in the mob. Access to everything. Linked with Carlos Marcello in New Orleans and Santos Trafficante in Miami..The key figures in Jack's death in Dallas..I went to school with Giacalone's niece. My friends knew the Giacalone nephews well. We didn't think anything of it, to be honest..Tony Jack was allegedly the guy who invited Jimmy Hoffa, to his last supper ... which was due to take place at the Machus Red Fox restaurant, in Bloomfield township, an upscale Detroit suburb..Don Corleone: "Listen, whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, he's the traitor. Don't forget that.".Bloomfield Hills was awesome ... they had an amazing museum, the Cranbrook Institute of Science, which I was fortunate to visit..As a kid who loved science and geology, it could not get any better!.It was also where the Detroit Lions held their annual red-and-white game, during the NFL pre-season..Back then, fans were allowed to watch training camp everyday and after practice they would obtain autographs from the players..And, well ... we all know what happened to former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, don't we. Well, actually, we don't know. The FBI are still looking for him..Last week, they searched under the Pulaski Skyway, a bridge in New Jersey.. HoffaHoffa .Yet another dead end in the decades-long mystery that has stretched from a Michigan horse farm to the East Coast..I think it was "white shotgun" ... a barrel of acid, and dumped into the Great Lakes, but what do I know..In the movie, The Irishman, they suggest it was somebody close who betrayed him. I would tend to agree with that..So long Jimmy, so long. You should have just let things be, left Fitz in charge. You knew too much, and there was too much heat from Bobby Kennedy and the DOJ..He had to go..But say what you want about Jimmy Hoffa, as a union leader he was a tireless fighter, a talented organizer and a masterful negotiator..In Windsor, where auto factories ruled, he was highly revered. Working weekends and summers at General Motors paid for my university..A lot of my friends and relatives ended up in those factories, made good money and retired in better shape than me..When President Nixon pardoned him on Dec. 23, 1971, only five years into a 13-year sentence, a reporter asked him if he got "soft in prison.".Hoffa bristled, "Wanna try me?" A tough SOB, right until the end..And did I mention, Windsor pizza, was the absolute best? Yes, it was ... nothing, anywhere in Canada comes even close. Although, I did have pretty good pizza in Bangkok, of all places..Giacalone would be convicted of tax evasion in 1976 and sentenced to 10 years in prison and was facing a federal indictment on charges including racketeering, conspiracy and extortion at the time of his death..He was never charged in Mr. Hoffa's disappearance..Well-liked by all, he died of natural causes, February 23, 2001..But, let's go back to that biker, at the Edmonton hospital. Where this story started..I started on this track, because I looked at all the UCP candidates vying to become leaders, and I seriously wondered if any one of them was truly worthy..Do any of them, any, have the Right Stuff? Was there a Peter Lougheed in that crowd? Or even a Ralph Klein? Someone with the passion to lead?.Someone who would boldly stand up to Justin & Co. and right the ship..Folks, this is a crucial time in our province's history and we must play hardball with Ottawa. I can't stress that enough..At some point, we might even have to go "Mau Mau" on the feds. We may have to go our own way to some degree..I know, most of you don't like that, but we have no other choice..If we do not get a better deal under Confederation, we are doomed to the same grinding, backward inequity, locking future generations into a hell they don't deserve..But, if only one ... just one of those potential leaders, had the balls, the guts, to help Alberta stand up and be counted..Someone principled, genuine and true ... someone to lead us into a new era, offering a future for our children and our children's children. In other words, some hope..Someone to battle the Trudeau clown show, not play footsies like Notley's NDP did..A bit of greatness would surely be nice right about now..The man on the gurney was clearly no saint — his world much different from ours — but he was true to himself, until the end..He accepted the cards he had been dealt and he took responsibility for it — looking death in the face..As President John F. Kennedy once said, “You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”.When the time comes to vote, choose wisely.
