Ex-Canuck Todd Bertuzzi threatens move to Vancouver if Trump loses election

Ex-Canuck Todd Bertuzzi is threatening a return to Vancouver if Joe Biden wins the presidency. Arlen Redekop / PNG files

Ex-Canuck Todd Bertuzzi is threatening a return to Vancouver if Joe Biden wins the presidency.

On Tuesday morning, during a Sportnet 650 interview with James Cybulski and Perry Solkowski, the retired power forward revealed himself to be a right winger off the ice as well.

“If I don’t like who gets in, there’s a good chance I’ll be moving out to Vancouver,” said Bertuzzi, going on to reveal his support for Republican candidate Donald Trump.

During his seven-year tenure in Vancouver, Bertuzzi gained a reputation as hockey’s prototypical power forward. Who knew then what sort of power we were really talking about?

“I live out in Lake Orion now on the lake and it is very much a Trump lake, which I’m a supporter of,” he said, in comments first transcribed by Canucks blog Pass it to Bulis. “I don’t get into discussing politics and all that, but that’s who I would like to see in place.”

For many left-leaning Vancouver hockey fans, the disclosure came as a sucker punch — which sounds about right for Big Bert.

As the truculent winger once said: it is what it is.

Bertuzzi is still a Canadian citizen, residing in Michigan on a green card, but considering Trump’s stance on immigration, the power forward might be forced to leave the country anyway.

That said, Bertuzzi is hardly the primary target of Trump’s anti-immigration policies, which have been focused for four years on barring racialized immigrants from the country — not retired hockey players.

Discussing the Black Lives Matter movement, Bertuzzi added: “there’s just so much heat being put on this fire that you don’t know what’s going to end up happening. You just kind of stay out of the way and hope for peaceful times.”

Bertuzzi is hardly the only retired NHLer to throw his support behind the candidate caging children and threatening a coup. Last week, Hall of Famer Bobby Orr announced his support for the incumbent — likely the only time Orr and Bertuzzi should be mentioned in the same breath.

Threats to emigrate elsewhere if one’s preferred candidate loses are par for the course during any election, and this one feels particularly unconvincing. If Bertuzzi is troubled by a Biden presidency, he probably won’t enjoy living under an NDP provincial government, or a left-leaning City Hall in Vancouver.

hmooney@postmedia.com

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