Peter BlackSome folks best remember Richard Martel for the fierce battles he waged as coach of the Chicoutimi Saguenéens against Patrick Roy’s Quebec Remparts. In the 2020 Conservative leadership race Martel supported Erin O’Toole, a man of some fighting spirit himself, being an ex-RCAF man. His replacement was Pierre Poilievre, who had worked for the purge of O’Toole and whose own subsequent leadership campaign had only one Quebec MP on board. It was, in fact, Charlesbourg-Haute-Saint-Charles MP Pierre Paul-Hus, who reasoned he should support Poilievre for the sake of party unity, not to mention naked personal ambition. Martel is not the first celebrated hockey coach to be named to the Upper House.