'What in the name of Luongo was I thinking': Eby makes good on playoffs bet with Smith

B.C. Premier David Eby wears an Edmonton Oilers jersey in a video posted to social media on Monday, June 3, after losing a bet to Alta. Premier Danielle Smith.

It goes without saying that one should always honour their bets, especially when national pride is on the line.

B.C. Premier David Eby did just that on Monday, as the Edmonton Oilers prepare to make a go for the Stanley Cup in the finals against the Florida Panthers, and could be the team to end Canada’s more than 30-year cup drought.

Back in May, when hopes were still high for the Vancouver Canucks, Eby agreed to a friendly, perhaps lame, wager with his Alberta counterpart Danielle Smith: whoever lost the Canucks-Oilers Round 2 matchup would have to deliver a statement in legislature penned by the winner, wearing the opposing team’s jersey.

On Monday, orange was the new blue in B.C.

Vancouver lost the series to Edmonton in Game 7 two weeks ago Monday. Since then, the Oilers have defeated the Dallas Stars in six games to advance to the finals. Maybe Eby needed a couple weeks to process the loss, or decided to wait until Edmonton had a shot at Lord Stanley.

Either way, the premier posted a video on social media donning an Oilers jersey and made good on his bet—from an office, not the legislature floor, which is closed for the season.

“What in the name of Luongo was I thinking,” he quipped. Then he preached, “Kids at home, I have a lesson for you: you make a fair bet, you lose a fair bet, you honour a fair bet.”

Eby went on to read Smith’s statement with little vocal flair and without looking up at the camera.

“There are few certainties in this life: death, taxes, Alberta leading Canada in economic growth,” it begins.

The statement continues with a list of certainties relating to Canada’s national sport, including that the “hockey gods will continue to bless northern Alberta with the greatest players” and that when the Canucks and Oilers face off in the playoffs, Edmonton always wins.

Eby then goes in to the excuses Canucks fans make when the Oilers win, such as Vancouver players being injured and that “the referees have been paid off with big oil money.”

“It does not change the sobering reality that when meeting head to head in the playoffs, the score is Edmonton 3, Vancouver 0,” he read. “And when it comes to Stanley Cups, it’s Alberta 6, and British Columbia 0.”

The statement concludes, “in the spirit of national unity and pride and because if you can’t beat ‘em you may as well join ‘em, let’s go Oilers, bring Stanley back home to Canada.”

Eby then points out that B.C. teams have, in fact, won the Stanley Cup in the past, technically: the Vancouver Millionaires in 1915 and the Victoria Cougars in 1925. Those honours came before the cup was handed over to the NHL in 1926.

The premier goes on to say—in his own words—that the Oilers are now Canada’s team and he hopes Edmonton can finally bring the cup home.

The Stanley Cup Finals begin Saturday, June 8, in Sunrise, Fla.