While at the Isaac Brock Society we don’t want to take a moral position as to whether gambling is a good or bad thing I do have to say I almost fell out of my chair this evening after discovering that the Canadian House of Commons just yes voted on a private members bill to legalize sports betting in Canada (through either physical casinos which we do have as shown in the video below, by telephone, or over the internet). Based on the vote today it would appear even less likely that Calvin Ayre will be sent to the US and that the Kahnwake First Nations Internet Gaming operation which is still technically outside of Canadian law will eventually be legitimized. What I enjoy even more throughly is the fact that the US government is going to be absolutely PISSED OFF by this decision. However, as Canada is a sovereign nation the US is just going to have to “take it” so to speak. While I have heard over the years about various proposal to open up sports betting here in Canada I always assumed there would be unbelievable pressure put on Canada by the US not to do this. I don’t know whether this was in fact the case or not but I have to say I personally am incredibly proud of our MP’s of all parties for doing something that is highly opposed by the entire US political and media establishment and standing up to those establishments.
Yes we do have casinos here in “staid” Canada. This one below is only a few minutes away from the Parliament buildings right across the river from Ottawa. In fact the Government of Canada does a lot of conferences at the convention center here so government ministers including Prime Minister Harper are frequent visitors.
wow.. remarkable timing with the Calvin Ayre affair.