Wayne Gretzky, Former Canadian Hero
In the summer of 1988, when I was 14 years old, I went camping with my family not far outside Toronto. We emerged from the woods and I wandered over to a newspaper box by the side of the road. Through its cracked glass, I saw a front-page picture of Wayne Gretzky, weeping. He’d been traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. I followed my idol’s lead and burst into tears.
Gretzky, back then at least, was more than a hockey player to Canadians.