Gretzky’s Trump ties stir Canadian loyalty debate amid threats

NHL great Wayne Gretzky is the subject of a once-unimaginable debate over his loyalty to his native Canada due to his ties to President Donald Trump.

John Davidson has difficulty remembering the last time Wayne Gretzky visited his childhood home across the street in this small city a couple hours’ drive southwest of Toronto.

The modest home with a one-car garage in a quiet residential neighborhood remains in the family, but the Great One’s visits have been fewer and farther between, especially since his beloved father Walter died in 2021. The backyard ice rink where Gretzky developed his generational talent has since been replaced by a pool.

Now 85, Davidson still chases away the occasional curiosity seeker, a far cry from the days when busloads of children would pull up, or the time Wayne and his wife Janet showed up with an entourage, three limousines strong. The retired steelworker then lowered his hand to his knee to indicate how long he’s known Gretzky, before saying: “Wayne’s changed a lot since he went down to the States.”

Like many in this city of 105,000 and across a nation of 39 million, Davidson has difficulty squaring the child he once knew, the player who won four Stanley Cups in Edmonton and re-wrote the NHL’s scoring records, and the person he sees now.

At 64, Gretzky is now the subject of a once-unimaginable debate over his loyalty to his native Canada due to his ties to President Donald Trump, whose brazen comments about the nation’s sovereignty have angered Canadians.

Pictures of Gretzky celebrating Trump’s election night victory at Mar-a-Lago and attending his inauguration don’t sit well at a time Canadians face an existential crisis in the wake of rising tariffs and the president’s comments about turning its northern neighbor into a 51st state. Many find it unsettling that Gretzky is silent on the topic, even with Trump suggesting Gretzky run for office for the eventuality of becoming the nation’s governor once it joins the U.S.

“I always thought the hell out of him,” Davidson said of Gretzky. “Hate is a terrible word. Dislike is a better word.”

Gretzky’s on-ice exploits remain legendary and they begin at an early age. When he was 11, he scored 378 goals and 517 points in 85 games for the atom division Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers. His parents relocated him to play in Toronto, before Gretzky made the jump to the Ontario Hockey League, where in his only full season in 1977-78 he scored 70 goals and piled up 182 points, which still ranks second on the league’s list.