U.S. president-elect Donald Trump says he told Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky he should run for prime minister during a Christmas visit but adds that the athlete declined interest in politics.

“I just left Wayne Gretzky, ‘The Great One’ as he is known in ice-hockey circles,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday afternoon.

“I said, ‘Wayne, why don’t you run for prime minister of Canada, soon to be known as the governor of Canada — you would win easily, you wouldn’t even have to campaign.’ He had no interest,” Trump wrote.

His comment about being governor of Canada refers to Trump repeatedly suggesting the country become a U.S. state, which Ottawa insists is a joke.

Trump added that it would be “fun to watch” if Canadians launched a movement to get the retired hockey player to seek office.

  • @mhague
    -2•2 days ago

    Wait was Wayne Gretzky a rich kid?

    Edit: of course, daddy built an entire rink in the backyard, where they would also play baseball and lacrosse on their farm.

    It’s not that impressive to be great when you start young and have rich parents. Can’t believe I let people convince me Gretzky was noteworthy. He’s not Gukesh lol

    Edit: ok Canada must be different, because apparently Gretzky was poor and they just happened to have a farm and could spin up golf tournaments for charity. Sounds like a good story.

    • @[email protected]English
      13•1 day ago

      I knew a ton of farmers grown up, none of them were rich.

      Also in Canada is pretty easy to build an ice rink.

      Step 1: have any sort of decent size pond on your farm

      Step 2: wait for winter

      • @[email protected]OPEnglish
        4•1 day ago

        I’m a few years older than Gretsky and things were different back then …

        • we still had the Canadian Wheat Board, a collective that worked hard to get the best prices worldwide for Canadian farmer’s crops (Conservative PM Harper sold the CWB to the Saudis and farmers lost a lot of money in that stupid deal)

        • Western Canada, and farmer’s in general, had a huge voice in politicis. Government’s generally worked for the benefit of farmers as they had a huge impact on Canada’s GDP

        • in gr 5 farmer’s kids started being bused into city schools, and I was amazed at how ‘rich’ they were compared to us city kids, ie: they went on holidays all over North America (most of us city kids hardly ever went anywhere), they wore store-bought clothes (city kid’s moms made our clothing), etc etc

      • @mhague
        3•1 day ago

        Makes sense, I read lacrosse and jumped to conclusions about the people they were. Well that, and his dad being a philanthropist… repair man? Working class guy who organized golf tournaments to help the blind.