Could It Portend A Bad Omen For Our Country’s Future? Or Should It Inspire More Will To Fight & Survive & More Unity?
A Brief Comment from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large
Posted & UPDATED this November 2nd, 2025
My mother, cheering the Blue Jays to their big win in the 1992 World Series
Of all the Toronto Blue Jays fans I ever met, few were more passionate than my mother.
As the 1992 World Series approached between the Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves, there were Blue Jays logos everywhere in my childhood home back on Willson Road in Welland. There were Blue Jay flags, coffee cups, fridge magnets, shirts, jackets and even pajamas.
And – no matter that most of the players were American – all the conversation inour old house turned to “our team.”
It seemed like every time the team scored another run, the phone would ring and it would be my mother on the other end saying; “Doug, did you see that.”
The same scenario was repeated the following year when they played in and won their second world series in a row against the Philadelphia Phillies.
So this time around, as the Blue Jays prepared to play their first World Series since then against the Los Angeles Dodgers, I could not help but think of my late mother up there somewhere in those upper bleachers in the sky, dressed in her Jays garb and cheering “our team” garb on every inning along the way.
Canadian pride on full display during World Series
And this time, even more than in the series of 1992 and 1993, the Blue Jays truly were “our team” for millions of Canadians from coast to coast as we saw this contest against an American-based rival as one more way to show our national pride, and our strength and ability to win in the wake of a punishing tariff war and threats of annexation from a U.S. president who clearly sees Canada as an enemy.
But after a full seven games and a heroic effort by our team, it was not to be and somewhere up there I could see my mother’s tears raining down from the bleachers.
Let’s hope that along with our Prime Minister Mark Carney apologizing to Trump for an anti-tariff ad that the Ontario government ran during earlier games in the series, that this loss does not portend bad things for our country.
A Brief Footnote from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large – I think that the Toronto Blue Jays should be celebrated with a parade through the streets of the city anyway for being this year’s American League Champions and for making it to the World Series when so many sports writers and others thought that they would never get there.
But most of all, when we seem so divided when it comes to other things pressing down on our lives, they managed to unite us as Canadians from coast to coast.
That is something to celebrate at a time when, in a world where there is so much that is bad and ugly going on, there seems to be so little to celebrate.
If you agree with me, email Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow as soon as possible at mayor_chow@toronto.ca . (mayor_chose@toronto.ca
So how about it Premier Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow. Let’s have that parade!
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“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
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