Prime Minister Mark Carney says U.S. President Donald Trump seems to be afraid to make a World Series bet with him as the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I think he’s afraid to make a bet. He doesn’t like to lose,” Carney joked Thursday when reporters asked him about a possible wager as he stopped by the Jays’ practice at the Rogers Centre.
“He hasn’t called, he hasn’t returned my call yet on the bet so I’m ready,” Carney said. “We’re ready to make a bet with the U.S.”
Earlier Thursday, Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford both predicted the Blue Jays will win the World Series in six games, though so far neither has plans to attend in person.
Ford said at the end of a press conference at a nuclear plant with Carney that he would be watching Friday’s game from his “man cave” because he doesn’t want to pay exorbitant ticket prices.
“By the way, those ticket gougers, they’re going to pay the price,” he said. “We’re going to get to them, but I’m going to sit (in) the man cave and watch the game.”
Carney said he will be in Asia, where he is set to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, so he joked that he would have to find an “Asian man cave” to watch from overseas.
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“It’s going to be a great series, but we’ve got depth, we’ve got fire,” he said. “For some reason, I’ve got like, the world’s worst timed trip.”
Carney also joked during the press conference that the U.S. has paused trade talks with Canada because “they’re scared” the Blue Jays will win the World Series.
Ford’s comments follow musings Wednesday that he wants to look at the issue of ticket sales, after Blue Jays fans complained of sky-high resale prices not long after World Series tickets went on sale.
Ford’s government in 2019 scrapped part of a law from the previous Liberal government that would have capped ticket resale prices at 50 per cent above the original face value.
Ticketmaster has said it appreciates the concern about high prices for World Series tickets but that it is not setting those prices.
“With so many Blue Jays fans trying to get World Series tickets, it’s easy to understand why there’s frustration over limited availability and rising resale prices,” the company said Thursday in a statement.
“But it’s important to know that Ticketmaster doesn’t set or control ticket prices — and especially not the resale prices that are justifiably getting so much attention.”
The cheapest resale tickets on Ticketmaster for Friday’s game were priced Thursday afternoon at $1,105 for a general admission area — or $1,457 and higher for fans who want their own seat.
Ontario’s opposition parties are calling on the premier to take action.
“It’s the resale value of these tickets that’s gotten super out of control, and that’s why I was happy to hear the premier say he might be willing to reverse his terrible decision when he first came into government, to do away with the protection for fans, and actually think about bringing back in legislation,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.
Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser said it was a mistake for Ford to scrap the former Liberal government’s changes.
“The (World Series) tickets are already out, so it’s pretty hard to put that genie back in the bottle,” he said.
“But the genie would have been in the bottle if the premier hadn’t cancelled a law that we passed here when we were in government to make that better, make it easier for people to get tickets.”
When the Tories scrapped that proposed rule in 2019 they said it would have been unenforceable, but Fraser said that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try.
–With files from Rianna Lim and Global News
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