A Coffee with Gene Principe, Host of the Edmonton Oilers Broadcast on Sportsnet!

Join us for a coffee and chat with a true Edmonton legend, Gene Principe, Host of the Edmonton Oilers Broadcast on Sportsnet! We had the special opportunity to sit down with Gene in downtown Acheson to discuss his life and career.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Gene has been a lifelong Oilers fan and fondly remembers their first Stanley Cup victory. While he initially dreamed of being a professional soccer player, his passion for sports led him to broadcasting. He shares his journey from attending NAIT to breaking into the industry in Grande Prairie.

Gene also opens up about his personal life, sharing the charming story of how he met his wife, Karen. He recounts seeing her as a DJ, being turned down, and then seizing a second chance six months later—a moment that led to a beautiful 32-year relationship. Gene also reflects on the experience of helping Karen with her city council campaigns, and how he's received unexpected feedback on his haircuts while going door-to-door!

Beyond his career and family, Gene highlights the importance of giving back to the community, mentioning his recent half-marathon run for Sports Central. From its humble beginnings in the trunk of a car to an organization that now serves over 10,000 kids each year, Sport Central is a game-changer. They are instrumental in giving every child the opportunity to play, providing the essential sports equipment kids need to get in the game. 

Tune in to hear our full conversation about hockey, Wayne Gretzky, the enduring power of sports to unite generations, and how Gene’s love for the game has brought people of all ages together.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments and leave us a review!

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Gene Principe, and you are listening to Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. Jennifer, it's 100 degrees outside today, and summer's coming to a close. It's finally summer in beautiful downtown Acheson, Cam. That's right, and just on that note, we want everybody to know that we are coming to you live from the Wall Coffee Roasters in beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. So if you hear some noise in the background, some coffee machines whirring, people talking, stuff like that, it's because, hey, we're live at the coffee shop. We are in the coffee shop. And it is a great day to try a cold beverage at the Wall Coffee Roasters. I am having, Jennifer, just for the record, I am having a mint iced tea. I know. It is refreshing. It is very refreshing. Extremely, extremely refreshing. And so, hey, if you're in the neighborhood, I don't know why you'd be in the neighborhood in Acheson, but if you are in the neighborhood, and come on by, and if you're not in the neighborhood, just come to the Wall Coffee Roasters. And grab a cold beverage on this beautiful, last hot week of summer. Can you believe it? Summer's almost over. I can't believe it. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I don't want to talk about it either. And your son, he hasn't gone back to school yet. No, he goes back to school next week. Next week, yeah. Anyway, hey everybody, we want to tell you that this is a very special episode of Coffee In The Park. Because. Cam, it's our, I will call it our inaugural edition. I like that, inaugural. Of the new format. That's right, so it's our new format. This is now Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. That's right. That's you and me. That's us. You're Jennifer, I'm Cam. Well, I hope so. This is unbelievable. I'm so excited about this. And Cam, why did we make this switch? You know why, Jennifer? Because we want to tell more stories. We want to tell not just business stories, but stories of people who just have done not only incredible things in their lives, but have lived incredible stories in their lives. And we want to tell those stories. And Cam, we've got some amazing stories upcoming. Yes, we do. And I'm really excited about that. So, if you're listening to us and going, but I like the old one better, don't worry. It's going to be the same, just better. We're still going to have episodes like our famous Pet Peeve episode. Of course. No, I've been collecting pet peeves. I have a list of pet peeves. I'm ready for episode number two of Pet Peeves. Episode number one was very popular. I know. We're going to do a Thanksgiving episode. Last year, we taste tested pumpkin pie. This year, I don't know what we'll taste test. Maybe we'll roast some turkeys. Stuffing. We should taste test stuffing. We'll talk about that offline. We'll do our Christmas episode. Of course. I'm really excited. But this is just amazing. I'm so excited. And we want to remind everybody that today, this episode is brought to you by... Wing Snob. Wing Snob. If you have never been to a Wing Snob, you need to go to Wing Snob. Wing Snob makes the best wings in the entire... Do you know why? Why? Because they are fresh, never frozen. Fresh, never frozen. That's right. Wing Snob has 19 flavors. My goal is to try every one of them. I've tried about 7 of them. It's absolutely amazing. What's your favorite so far? My favorite so far, I'm going to say, is Parmesan. Oh, I like the dill pickle. You love dill pickle. I love Parmesan. But we got to try them. They're amazing. So, hey, if you've never been to a Wing Snob, they have 19 flavors of wings, actually 16 and 4 rubs. It's amazing. They have cornbread. And their Parmesan fries are to die for. They are. I love those Parmesan fries. They're delicious. Jennifer, they're amazing. 10 locations in Edmonton and area. That's right. Wing Snob. Never frozen. Always fresh. If you need to know, You go find a snob near you. Find a snob near you by going to www.wingsnob.ca. Not com, C-A www.wingsnob.com. 10 locations in the city of Edmonton. Dot C-A, not com. No, C-A, not com. Ah, not com. I got to remember that. Anyway, 10 locations in the city of Edmonton. Check it out today. If you're hungry, you don't know what to make for dinner, take the kids down to Wing Snob. It's awesome. I love it. It is. Cam and I want to give another quick shout out to our friends over at Mprint Sign and Print Solutions. That's right. Here in Acheson. Downtown Acheson. Well, they're kind of in a suburb of downtown Acheson. They're in another part of Acheson, but they're in Acheson. So Mprint, amazing printers, do amazing work. Some of the most incredible printing work I've ever seen. They are the official printer of Coffee In The Park. They are. They have just printed some very cool merchandise for us. So stay tuned! They really have. I'm excited about it. I can hardly wait. Our new mugs are coming. Our new business cards are coming. And I'm very excited about all of them. So whatever your printing need is, brochures, business cards, they even do, they wrap giant vehicles. They even wrapped a helicopter, which was so cool. They did? Yes! I didn't know that. That's incredible. So hey, whatever you need printed or wrapped, they even just wrap something at the University of Alberta inside one of the big Rotunda areas. Unbelievable. Amazing. Unique solutions. And they will work with you to find what works best. Absolutely. Jan and Don, they do amazing work, whether you're nonprofit or business, they're there to help you with all your printing needs. Give them a call. Go to their website, www. Mprint, not N, but M as in Mary. That's right. Dot, dot, no, see, you're, dot CA. The CA and the com thing is driving me crazy. Can we not just get all on the same page? Okay, www.mprint.ca. For all your printing needs, go to them. Sorry, Jan and Don. We love you guys. You're awesome. Anyway, go check them out. They're really cool. I'm excited about today, the inaugural edition. Here we go. Inaugural edition. Are we ready to kick it off? Oh, let's do it. Okay. Cam, hold on to your seat. No, I literally am. Our guest today is a broadcast personality. He's host of the Edmonton Oilers Broadcast on Sportsnet. And quite frankly, Cam, an Edmonton legend. That's right. An icon. Mr. Gene Principe. Gene, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, wonderful listening to you introduce the show and myself. In honor of Coffee In The Park, my apologies. I was a little latte. Oh, that's okay. Yeah, a little latte. Oh, it started already. The season is around the corner. We also should mention that we have, Gene has brought with him a very special guest. A very special guest. A very special guest who was a podcast guest of ours as well. I know. I was thinking this morning, she's an alumni. She's a podcast alumni. Karen, you're a podcast alumni. That's right. Karen Principe! Karen, welcome. We'll hear you in there if you say hi to everybody. Good morning. Hi, everyone. Right on. Karen is running. She is in the throes. We are in the throes of municipal elections here in the province of Alberta, where we record, and she is in the throes of running again. And we're going to get into that. Yeah, we will because we want her to win. Anyway, Gene, good to have you. Yeah, great. Fantastic. A wonderful location. I tell you, in speaking of Acheson, you make it cool. Is it somewhere near New York? You make Acheson sound like it is this unbelievable place, which it is, but I love the way you build it up to be even something that would make people want to get out here, experience it, drive around and see what's out in Acheson. Well, full disclosure, when we tell people we're in beautiful downtown Acheson, we had a listener who lived out of town, whose daughter lived here in Edmonton somewhere, and she came to visit, and the first thing she said is, can you take me to beautiful downtown Acheson? So they drove her around out here and she goes, that's it? That's it, yeah. But I love the hype. The legend lives on! I thought it was a great introduction, and congratulations on your inaugural. Thank you. Show Coffee In The Park. I'm very privileged to be your first guest under this title, and the fact that you are telling stories about people who aren't necessarily involved in downtown beautiful Acheson. We're so honored to have you, so it's really amazing. So let's kind of get into it. And yeah, let's start from the beginning. All right, literally from the beginning. Yeah. Gene, I believe that I read that you grew up in Edmonton. Yeah. Yeah, I'm an Edmonton guy, born and raised. Initially, we lived, I would say, about a mile or so from the old Northlands Coliseum. So I grew up kind of in that area. Very heavy immigrant-laden area, lots of Germans and Portuguese and Italians, and people that came over and were looking for a better life. Then so many Italians, which I am, moved out to the North side of Edmonton, Castle Downs, and I moved out there in grade 11. I've been a North side guy, excluding an 11-year window where I was beginning my career and traveling around. Meeting my eventual wife in Winnipeg, I worked in Grande Prairie, in Lethbridge, in Kamloops, Toronto, and then in the summer of 1998 moved back to Edmonton. So I really am, I am an Edmonton guy. It's amazing sometimes when people will see you and they just go, Oh, I didn't know you lived here. Right. But yeah, I lived here. So you're an Oiler fan all your life? Yeah, you know what? I remember when they won their first Stanley Cup. I was 17 and back then they didn't have watch parties with thousands of people. No, they didn't. You might have a watch party with eight or ten people. I'm not even sure back then that the bars used to really... I wasn't of bar age, but it really was something that you watched with your family, maybe a few friends at home. Yeah, everybody was in the living room. Yeah, and then you would, after a victory, sort of spill out into the streets wherever you lived. And back then it was Jasper Avenue that was sort of the spot that you would go and high five people and just celebrate as a community and as a group. It was amazing, wasn't it? I mean, for me, I think I've told this story before. I was there. I lived in Edmonton. I was there when we won our first Stanley Cup. I had just bought a brand new firebird, a red firebird. And the night the Oilers won the Stanley Cup, there was all the, everyone, you're right, spilled out into the street. And some guys who probably had maybe a beer, too many, took some spray paint and spray painted my firebird. What did they spray? Anything? I don't think they were quite cognitive enough at the moment to do anything. But the beauty was is we caught it right away. My mom, my dear, my little precious mom, caught it right away and got a rag out and started wiping. And we got it all off. God bless your mom. But that was my first Stanley Cup when the night we won. That was my first. So you're right. It was very different. It was very different. Yeah, it was, you know, the idea of, I guess, watch parties and thousands of people gathering shoulder to shoulder, sometimes standing the entire game with, you know, limited access to many things. But people have really grown to love that in Edmonton. I do see it elsewhere, but I think the way Edmonton was built, the rink and the ice district is honestly phenomenal. I've been to many, well, every NHL rink and other stadiums. I will say that in the US particularly, college and NFL, the football, the tailgating is a mess. It is. It's very different. Different culture. You're talking eight times a year. So what Edmonton has truly is special, and that's both inside Roger's Place and then outside. So we've heard it said, and you can maybe confirm this for us, that Edmonton is considered to be one of the, what's the word, the best hockey towns. The fans are just, there's no other city in the NHL that has fans like Edmonton does. I would agree with you. You know, it's always hard to distinguish who's the best. Right, right. Who's the best. But if you are looking at the best, and you watch, one of the great things about the playoffs, I think, is you have people all over the world watching, and they see these drone or aerial shots. First of all, the city's really starting to look beautiful. It is. Particularly May and June. Downtown's changing a lot, thanks to people like your wife. Yes, they're really pushing what a downtown should be. Yeah, exactly. For those that may or may not remember, it used to be, I think, the railway went through. Yeah, that's right. And it was just, you know, it was just kind of empty land, really. And to have that kind of vision that Mr. Cates had, and then to have all the support of the city, the province, and the people, to get that done, I mean, this is a lasting legacy that will forever be here. And luckily, at the same time, we happened to come upon this young boy named Connor McDavid, and Leon Draisaitl, who have given us all kinds of reasons to want to get down there. But it all started way back with the Gretz. Yeah, oh, for sure. The great Gretz, right? When you and I were at 17, 18, or what? The great Gretz. Yeah, well, I mean, my wife's right beside me as we record this, but when I'm at events, sometimes people say, what's sort of been one of the great highlights of your life? And I'm like, getting Wayne Gretzky's phone number. I mean, having Wayne Gretzky in your Rolodex. Yeah. You have it? I had dinner with him. Oh, see? Yeah. I had a moment with him. Just me and Gretz, and a friend of mine, Gretz. I've had dinner with him once. Like me and Gretz, you know? We talk every never, but yeah, me and Gretz. It's just, you know, it's amazing because some people have got a chance to watch him. Some people have just watched him, you know, highlights or YouTube or old games on Sportsnet or Hockey Night in Canada. To meet him and get to know him and to hear him tell stories and to hear him say, you know, it was funny, Karen will remember I had my 50th birthday party eight years ago. And, you know, you're trying to decide who to invite, who not to invite. So I decided at that time, Wayne was working with the Oilers as a VP. And so I kind of invited not the players, but I invited, you know, the equipment staff, the coaching staff, the general manager, of course, Wayne and for, you know, Wayne couldn't make it. Yeah. But, you know, for probably a year or so, he'd say, hey, how's that birthday party? Or happy birthday. And I thought, this is so amazing that Wayne is referencing my birthday party. Amazing, yeah, yeah. And he's been nothing but kind and supportive. And when we get into the playoffs, he'll often say, hey, when you need me, let me know for an interview. And- A true gentleman, eh? Yeah, really great, great, great guy. You know, of course, his unbelievable statistics have led us to call him the great one. But he really is a great one away from the rink as well. Well, next time you see him, say hi from Cam. Yeah, I'm sure he'll remember. I'm sure he'll totally remember. If we had time, I'd tell that whole story. He might remember a little snippet of that, but other than that. All right, so this is amazing. So you grew up, you watched the Oilers. Did you play hockey? A little bit. I was a seventh defenseman playing house league hockey. I wasn't, you know, nowadays or even back then, you'd say I was an average, maybe below average skater. Right. I always thought like I was a better ball hockey player because you didn't need to skate, you just run. Yes, I agree. Yeah. And I played defense. When I was 16, I graduated into, you know, kind of all the hitting and I was quite a small guy. I was only about five foot three or four and maybe 130 pounds. And it got to be a bit too much. And so I quit. Not that I had any aspirations that I was going anywhere. But I played hockey. I remember some of my greatest memories were going to an outdoor rink in Edmonton where I lived. And skating Saturdays and Sundays. Yeah. Just going to skate. And when it was cold, you'd go into the shell or the little dressing room and warm up. And I love hockey. The shell. I haven't heard that. Oh, my goodness. I haven't heard that word. You used to have shells. That's right. It wasn't really an indoor arena. I grew up in Westmount and we had the outdoor rink and the shell. And I played hockey on Saturday. And you're right. You go into the shell to warm up. Yeah. And warm up. And so I love the game. I always enjoyed it. But I just wasn't very good at it. But, you know, I would say to anybody who plays any sport, you don't have to be good at it to enjoy it. It's important to remember that sometimes it's such a push to be good or be successful. It's okay to not be good, but still have a lot of fun. And we're going to talk, actually, I think we'll talk about that in a few minutes. We know you're involved in something there. But I have a question. So the whole broadcasting thing, Gene, and going into that, is that something you wanted to do kind of growing up? Or was that as you got older thinking, this might be a really interesting career path for me? I grew up wanting to be a professional soccer player. I wanted to play for Italy and the national team. You know, you're a kid. I always say, make sure you have dreams, right? Nobody can stop you from dreaming of what you want to be and what you want to do. And back when I was playing indoor soccer, we were just then developing actual indoor soccer facilities. We used to play in a gym. That was kind of our indoor soccer. And I remember being at Commonwealth Stadium and trying out for the under 16 Alberta team. I was a pretty good soccer player. You know, I didn't really know how good I was because there really wasn't knowledge outside of your team and the few teams you played. You really had no idea what was outside of that. And so I tried out for the provincial team and I did get cut. And it was heartbreaking. But I was, you know, 15 and I thought, you know, if I can't be a professional athlete, what would I like to do instead of that? And I thought, well, if I can't be one, I would love to be a sportscaster, broadcaster and cover professional athletes. So I always had a love for sports, watching sports. In fact, I remember my dad would always give me, heck, all you do is watch sports, you know, an old Italian immigrant. That's it, right? That's it. Go out and play, no I'm watching them play. But I always had a fascination, an intrigue with the actual announcers of the games. So it seemed to be a great sort of fit for me. And at that point, I'm in high school and I wanted to, you know, pursue that. So I went to NAIT, which is Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton. And I said, let's give it a go. You know, my parents were, I wouldn't say disappointed, but they sort of saw me as going to university and becoming a teacher. I was going to say good Italian parents. Yeah. Yeah. I want our son, doctor, lawyer, Right. a counselor, a teacher. Something, you know, my dad used to always say to me. Broadcaster. Was not a fit. No, they really didn't know anything about it, right? And my dad used to, a couple of things used to always say to me, he'd show me his hands, right? He was a carpenter, full of calories. Yeah. And he would say, I don't want your hands to look like mine. Right. And the other thing he would often say to me is, I want you to have a job where you shower before work. Not after work. And so that was something that he really wanted. That's really great. When you're young, I never really got that. Yeah. Shower before work. What do you mean? What do you mean by that? Right. Well, when you're 17, you don't shower before work or after work. Maybe Thursday night or something. Yeah. So they grew to understand it. I mean, going to work in Grande Prairie and Lethbridge, that wasn't something they quite figured on, but it was the road to what I was hoping would be success. So did you know that was how the road had to go? You had to start in Grande Prairie. I think so. Not that there's anything wrong with Grande, I was born in Grande Prairie. There you go. Well, I left when we were two, but I was born in Grande Prairie. So, but did you know? But it's starting in those smaller markets. Starting in the small market. For sure. Yeah. I think I understood that just realizing that that is the way that often broadcasters go. Yeah. It was certainly something that was told to us, not at, but over and over again, so that kids weren't getting out of school at 20 and thinking, hey, how come Sportsnet's not knocking on my door? There was no Sportsnet when I got out of school. But, you know, why isn't CBC hiring me to do their Hockey Night in Canada broadcast? So it was a good eye opener. It doesn't mean you still don't think you can do it. Sure. But you understand if you don't, that it's not a failure. So did you know, right from Grande Prairie, that your dream, you were going to make the big market someday? You know what? I had always set Toronto, and by the age of 25, as my two goals. Now, I did get to Toronto, but I never got there by 25. I was 28. So it felt... Pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah, at the time, it felt like not fully achieving my goal, but still achieving a portion of it. Oh, I think that's fair. There's guys here, probably 48, that didn't make it to Toronto. I appreciate it more now than then. And just to be clear, I still was happy about it. It just wasn't quite on my timeline, but it was really a huge opportunity for both myself and Karen. Karen went from a dental assistant to a dental hygienist back then. She went to school. I understand the Center of the Universe Talk for Toronto. I get that people discuss that. But when you put it on a resume, a little delusional. Yeah. When you put it on a resume, it's a big deal. When you put it on a resume, it really helped me come back to Edmonton and start hosting the Oilers back then on A Channel back in 1998. But we need to, because we have had your wife on the podcast. Yes. We have to talk about it. We need to talk about it. Because we heard the version of how you met. We heard Karen's version. We heard Karen's version of this. So Gene. I think it's pretty accurate. Yes. Well, this is how I remember it. Okay. Here we go. This is probably similar. I remember I have a cousin, she's still in Winnipeg and her then-fiancee and I went to the bar next to her condo and I saw Karen and she was DJing. I'm like, oh my God, look at her. I was like, I was honestly... When you say your... Did we know she was DJing? Yeah, I remember she was DJing. She was kind of like her sideline gig. Yeah, that's right. So I was like, and he's like, you should go talk to her. But I'm like, I should. So I ended up, I requested a song and I barely knew her for five minutes and I asked her out and she said, oh, I'm sorry, but no. And I'm like, yeah, that was the story. Turn him down. Just like that. Yeah. And did she not know who you were? Yeah, no, that was not music to my ears, even though she was DJing. And then about six months later, the same cousin and her fiancee in Manitoba, they have what are called socials, which are basically a big wedding hall party. Right. The premise being you're raising some money for these, this new couple to get their lives started. And he comes over to me and goes, you'll never guess who's here. I'm like, who? He goes, remember that girl from Grapes, which was the name of the bar. Sour Grapes was me that night. And I'm like, of course I remember. He goes, she's here. And I'm like, oh, wow. So she was sitting by her brother who's a behemoth. He's like six, four. And her brother Paul actually looks, he was only 18 back then, but he looked older. So, you know, they were six, seven years or they are six, seven years apart. So I thought it could be, it didn't look like someone who was a lot younger. So I waited till he left and I went and sat beside her. I love that. I waited till he left. He's a big dude and I thought, I don't want to get him upset. And I just said, do you remember me? She said, no, I don't. And then I kind of reminded her and it came back a little bit. And we had a great chat and I just asked for her number and said, I'll give you a call. And I remember afterwards, my cousin's fiancee, not Karen, she didn't come with us, but a bunch of us went back to his parents' place and I told the guys that I got her phone number and they thought I was like a hero. They're like, oh my god, you got her number, that's great. And I called her Tuesday, I think, and we went out. So you got her phone number, what day did you get her phone number? Saturday. Saturday. And you waited till Tuesday? Yeah, I waited. Smart. A couple of days. Good move, Gene. You don't want to call right away. Right away, yeah. Oh, that's not cool. I already got shut down once, so that's played a bit cool. And I remember we went out after one evening that she worked. Yep. And yeah, I mean, you know, along the way, any relationship has its ups and downs. We were separated by distance for quite a while when I went to Toronto. That's hard. That's hard. But yeah, you know, 28 years of marriage later and being together since, you know, March of 93, which is 32 years plus later. Wow. It's all worked out. Well, I have to say the stories sync. Yeah, yeah. They sync. They align. We had stories that didn't always sync. To be honest, you know, like, he'll sit there and go, I don't remember it that way. She'll go, yes, it was. So this is good. This is good. This is so so rejected the first time, but the second time around. You know, I'll say this and I say to my son and I guess my daughter, I never had an issue with being turned away or turned down. Yeah. Never. That's good. Affected my confidence or just was, you know, not the right person or, you know, they didn't like me or they didn't find a good, whatever it was. It wasn't meant to be. No, it wasn't meant to be. If you're holding out hope that the first and only person you asked to go out or to marry you is going to be. I got lots of stories. That's another podcast, but yeah, we'll get into that another time. But all right, so you got married. Yeah. How many children you have? We have three, all in there early to now, mid 20s, 22, 24, 26. You look young. You should still have kids. Kids in high school. Listen, not this campaign as much, but certainly last campaign, I got a lot of, you know, is it your cousin? Is it your daughter? Like, okay, do I look that old that that would be my daughter? She's very offended. What was the state of your hair with those comments? For those who don't know, what Gene is famous for is one of the, well, one of the things above many is his amazing hairdos. You let your hair grow out quite often. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Last time was 19 months that I let it grow and then I cut it during the second round of the playoffs versus Vegas. Previous to that, I had let it grow a couple of years and we raised money. Can I just say, at that time, it would have been my like 89 year old mother. She would watch hockey. She would watch the games. And she would phone me and go, when will Gene cut his hair? I don't even know the guy. Don't be asking me. Well, I'll say this, going to door knocking for Karen in her attempt to be re-elected. If short hair were on the ballot versus long hair, landslide win. Everyone's like, your hair looks better short. Your hair looks better short. That's actually probably a good question for the ballot. Is short or long hair for Gene? I think that's a good referendum. They're better than some of the others we have. No offense, Karen, but that's a good referendum right there. But you know what? Let's dive into that a little bit. The whole city councilor run. Tell us what it was like the first time when Karen said, hey, I want to run for city council. Well, you know, I wasn't fully shocked. I think Karen has put with my job, career, young kids, she worked, of course, as a hygienist assistant, well, hygienist since we got married, but she put any other further aspirations that would put a strain on the family way in the background. And then when the kids got a little bit older, she always was someone who wanted to help, not just one person or one group of people, but as many people as possible with her volunteer work. She said, I'd like to be in politics. And I'm like, oh, okay. So how do we go about doing this? So it was a real learning curve. Was it just that? Oh, okay. Are you a political person? I never was. I'll be honest with you, I didn't even know the city councilor in our area before Karen ran. I was never one, you know, I don't blame people for being upset about things that they're not happy about, but I either wasn't upset or didn't care enough to follow through. You know, your property tax is your property tax, the roadway is the road. I just kind of was in my sports world. Yeah, it just happened. And that's it. So I didn't even know who our city councilor was. I'm not talking about 25-year-old me. I mean, I would have been 50 and I didn't know who our councilor was. So not something to brag about, but it was a fact. I'm not going to say typical male, but I think it is, right? I was the same way. Yeah, I just didn't know. I don't know. Yeah. So it was a little different now, but I didn't know. Yeah. Maybe now, even if Karen weren't in politics, I might know just because the landscape of politics certainly has shifted. It has changed, yes. But I was like, okay, what can I do for you? And I think being, as my buddies would call me, a D-list Northside celebrity. Yeah. That's fantastic! I think going to doors and helping support her is, I feel, the most, and doing whatever is sort of needed. But I think when it comes to face to face, that's the best thing I hope that I can do for her. So we were talking about this yesterday, Jennifer and I, and we were just kind of chatting, and that is the question we had. What's it like when you're campaigning for Karen, and you ring a doorbell here in Edmonton, and the door opens- And there's Gene Principe standing there. And there's Gene Principe. Well, it's various reactions, and I want to clarify that I'm like anyone who wants to support Karen. She doesn't win because I'm her husband and I'm on TV. She wins because of what? Because she's a great counselor. Absolutely. She is a great counselor. Because I'll tell you this much. She has to win this election. I'm just saying that this is not a political podcast, but we're going to say vote Karen Principe. There are others we would say- Don't vote them. We won't mention them by name because we're new. We don't have lawyers yet, but we're just saying vote Karen Principe. Thank you. I agree with you. As much as people may or may not like me or may or may not recognize me, they vote because they think Karen can do the job and do it properly, and do it to the best of the constituents in our area. But reactions at the door are really varied. Some people get it right away. Now, when I go door knock, it's shorts, sometimes cut-off shirts, glasses. I mean, I'm far from being in my traditional outfit for work. Are you hurt when they go, who are you? You know, and I'm okay too when they don't recognize me. Sometimes we'll get reaction after. Sometimes it's during the conversation. Oftentimes, I don't say, I'm Gene Principe. I say, I'm Gene, Karen's husband. This is my wife, Karen Principe. And then if they put Gene Principe together, then they do. But I don't start with my name because I'm not there for me. I'm there for her. And so I leave it up to them. You know, one of the more interesting things is when people say, Oh, man, do you ever look like the guy from TV? Yeah, that's got to be great. I'll get that. Do you ever play along with that? Yeah, we kind of do. Yeah, I do a little bit. I do a little bit. But Karen has been, Karen's like, you know, don't string people along. Oh, I would total, I would just take them down the garden path. So she's like, let them know who you are. I do parties, if you need to hire me out for like 50 bucks, I'll come. I'm an impersonator. So the reactions are varied. And you know what I really love about sports? I'm not kidding. From five to 85, it's little kids, it's high school students, it's university men and women, it's lawyers, doctors, janitors, plumbers, people who work, people who are retired, people who are into their golden years. I mean, it is everyone and everywhere. Oh, my 90-year-old grandmother. And I love that. I think in theory, you would think it's males 25 to 55. I'm just picking numbers. Yeah, I love watching hockey with seniors because they yell at the TV. Like, I know younger people do too, but my mom would scream at the TV. She would give McDavid what for. Like, she would just like, and I'd be there. He can't hear you. No, he'll know. He'll know. I mean, like, so yeah. Well, I get a lot of advice. People think I'm the GM. You have to tell Connor to, yeah, I don't like, he's not passing very well. Yeah, I get lots of, you know, people will. He should shoot more. Yeah, that probably is the big, Connor should shoot more. Gene, can you deal with that? I get so many questions about the Oilers. Sometimes it's straight Oilers. Sometimes there are a little bit of politics, and then they go, okay, let's talk about the Oilers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think sometimes people feel like they should ask some political stuff before we get to the Oilers. And so, I'm more than happy. Question or two. So Karen gives you the debrief beforehand and fills you in. I've learned a lot by going to doors. People know more and more about what's going on in the city, and certainly in the area that we live in. I just think it's so cool. You guys are such a great team. You really are. Yeah, that's what we are. It just hit me. I was sitting here thinking, this is a great team. They're a power couple, Cam. No, they are. You've been on the covers of magazines. I've seen that. No shirt on. Yeah, that was a bit risque. I saw that in a restaurant waiting for my takeout. And I went, whoa. Am I old enough to read that? I didn't know if I could open that. It gave me more street cred than you can imagine. I had more players come to me, including McDavid. He came to me and goes, I think the way it worked at that time was maybe, once the players get going, they're really focused. But I think wives and girlfriends may have seen the Edify magazine and saw it and then said, hey, you should see who's on there. And honestly, I had players stopping me going, when did you do that? Whose idea was it? McDavid was one of them. Whose idea was that? That's great. So it was a lot of fun. And I think that, you know, I think that they see me with a shirt on, suit and tie, asking hockey related questions, and then to see myself and my wife, they're like, oh, there's a human behind the shirt. I was going to say, the human side of you. Although I'm not sure shirtless on a magazine cover. But, you know, we should find that magazine cover and put that up. We won't do that. We have one if you want. More than one, actually. Probably a box in the basement, right? Well, it's funny because we have two sons and a daughter. And I said to Karen, I said, don't worry. She's like, we should tell them, you know, they're not going to see it or even hear about it. Of course, they heard about it. Our two sons were kind of like, our daughter was, she was pretty well surprised. Yeah, I wouldn't say upset, but kind of like, why didn't you tell me? And now my friends are, are kind of bugging me about it. Or, you know, I know what my daughter, I mean, well, with this body, my daughter would be, why the heck did you ever do that? But anyways, I can only imagine how it would go. So there was a bit of a, you know, my kids have always said since they were old enough, they always would say, summer doesn't start till Dad takes the shirt off. I take my shirt off all the time. I've never been one, you know, just going back to confidence. For the record, he is 100 degrees, but he is sitting here with his shirt on. We just want everyone to know. Yeah, if we were outside, it might be a different story. If we were outside doing the podcast, he'd be tanning, okay. Yeah. Okay, so this is pretty cool. So we're getting to know some of the inside. This is really awesome. So Karen's involved in City Council. You're on the road. How does this, this has got to be a unique, how do you make this all work? Especially during hockey season. Yeah, you know what, having older kids helps, but even older kids, when they live at home, they're there, right? So there's a certain, well, they're used to, when Karen was a dental hygienist, she would work, let's say, seven to three, and when you clocked out, you were done. There wasn't anything, there were no emails, very few phone calls, once in a while. But work was finished, where now work seems never finished. All the time, right? As a counselor. And I'll joke with her sometimes, it would be 10, 30, 11 at night, it should be in her laptop, or responding to texts, or working, and I'll say, hey, go to bed, the city will still be there in the morning, right? And you can continue whatever it is that you're doing. But even, I mean, I go to a number of events, job-related, and often I'll see Karen there. I never knew how busy city counselors were. And so I have a lot of respect for people that run, and I have a lot of respect for people that run and win, because it is a sacrifice that you cannot explain to anybody. It's a full-time job, plus plus. I would agree, and I never thought that, and I would have never thought that you would get invited. I would often say to her, man, you go to everything, and she goes, and I'm not going to everything, because I can't go to everything. So there are things that I have to say no to. And then you, you're on the road all the time. Yeah, I would say between regular season and playoffs, I would say I'm away three months of the year. Wow. Just, it's a lot. It's separated, of course, between road trips. Sure, sure. I remember when the kids were young, particularly my daughter, and the Oilers weren't in the playoffs. You should say, who do we cheer for? And I'd say, well, whoever wins the first game. And then, well, who do we cheer for? Whoever leads the series, right? You know, you want to get home if it's two teams that you don't have a real emotional investment or a tie to. Yeah, you like to be home. So, this isn't any kind of therapy, marriage therapy podcast thing. We don't even go down that road. But, so just tell us about how you make that, you're gone a lot, you're, Karen is gone a lot. How do you, what, how do you be intentional to make that? And again, this isn't, we're not looking for marriage. I'd be lying down here. No, no, I just think this is fascinating. Dr. Cam. Yeah, Dr. Cam, Dr. Cam. How are, you know where we're going with that? Yeah, I know where you're going. I think, I think we just do it. Yeah. You know, there's no, there's no set pattern or theme. Certainly communicating, even though she says, I don't do it very well. Didn't I tell you that? No, it's just a man thing. As the two women sit here nodding, going, yeah, just, that never, and we're sitting here going, what? Yeah, and I think support each other, support each other. Oftentimes, when I'm door knocking for Karen, people will be, you know, amazed, might be strong, but like, oh, I can't believe you're at the door. And I would say, well, you wouldn't believe what Karen has done for me and our family, right? Yeah, yeah. She left Winnipeg. She left all of her family behind, which is not easy. Moved to Toronto, then moved to Edmonton, where my family has been and continues to be. So she made a lot of sacrifices for us. So for me to go to a door and knock on it and say, hey, would you consider voting for my wife? So we just do it, you know? It just sort of works. And summers, we have a lot of time to catch up. And during the winter, it's a lot of sometimes passing each other by. Hey I'm headed on, oh, you're going on the road tomorrow. How long you gone for? Oh, 10 days. Oh, okay, all right. We'll see you in 10 days. Well, I think I just watching and listening, you guys are great role models. You really are. And again, like you said, Gene, nothing's perfect. But you guys are great role models. And I think that's just amazing. And it's really cool how you make that work and make it work so well. Well, I think that's one of the things first off, circling when you talk about role models, I think that's something I used to just do my job. And I never really thought about what other impact you can have on people. And I one year, a couple of years ago, when Jay Woodcroft was the coach, and there was a sort of a day in the life of Gene Principe. And it was bought a silent auction item. Anyway, this young boy would have been 12 with his father, spent the day with us. And Jay Woodcroft was so kind to them. And Connor and everybody was just made his day. And at the end of the day, I asked his dad, I said, you know, how did it go? And he said, Morgan said it was the best day of his life. Now, he's only 12. Yeah. So he's going to have some more great days. Yeah, 12, you have that, but no, but he'll never forget that. And I think that's what Connor has learned from the day he stepped into a pair of skates as an Oiler to where he is now, is that a photo, a handshake, a pat on the back, a smile. Can make somebody's... Yeah, and it's not just Connor, it's Zach Hyman. It's, you know, Ryan Nugent, you know, name your person. And I'm not them. But if people watch you on TV and they have this feeling that you are a bit of a difference in their lives, then shame on me if I don't spend some time with them and Karen does it, too. I think you are them. Like, honestly, I know they have their position in what they do. But, you know, even telling people you were going to be on this podcast. People were so excited. People were like so excited. Oh, that's nice. And they were like, how did you get him? They were just like all over the map, I can't believe. I'm surprised, actually, most of them haven't shown up. We've told a lot of them to stay away because we didn't want them interrupting us. But I think you are. I think you just are. I know if my mom was with us today and she knew that I was doing this today, she'd go crazy. She'd be like, why didn't you invite me? And the same with my dad. Yeah, same with your dad, right? Yeah. And so I think that is incredible. Yeah, I know where you're going. You do know where I'm going with this. So talking about being a role model, and I know Karen, one of the reasons that you decided to run for City Council is because you are so actively involved in the community, giving back your time. So thank you for your service, not only for volunteering, but for being in municipal politics, because we talked about this before. It's not easy and it's a lot of work. So thank you. We need more people like you. Yeah, absolutely. But Gene, tell us a little bit about your community involvement, because I know you just ran the Edmonton marathon. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, yeah, so I've run one marathon and one half marathon. For me, running is really an escape. Not that I have a pressure filled life or career, but... How far is the marathon? 26.2 miles. 20 miles? Miles, yeah. 42 kilometers. We're going to be tired walking back to the office. I can go back to my office, which is across the park, but I feel like I run a marathon. Listen, I grew up, as I mentioned, I grew up playing soccer, and there's certainly running involved, but not that kind of running. I never thought of myself as a runner, and I'm not sure I am, but I like to do it. I was telling my daughter the other day, when I start out training in April for a marathon, I run two kilometers, one kilometer out, one kilometer back. That's it. That's what I start. I'm telling you this, it's not the easiest of runs. Then you go three, then you get to four, and you just slowly work your way up. Where I remember when I was training for a marathon, and our longest run was 20 miles, and I ran 10 and 10 back, and I'm like, I never imagined I could or would want to ever do that. But I just really enjoy it. I'm not a music listener when I run. I just, as I say to people, I just listen to my thoughts. Sure. And it takes me everywhere. So you just did a half marathon. Yeah. And you did that for? Sports Central. Okay. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about Sports Central, because we know that's a really, it's a big deal for you. We've dug a lot into it. We're actually, next week, we're going to tour. Oh, awesome. We're going to go see Jana. We are going to go see Jana. Yeah. And we're going to go see that. We're very excited. Because we've determined, just we're going to let the cat out of the bag, and this is a great time with you. Jennifer and I have determined that with this new format of our podcast, because everybody has something they're passionate about, and we want to be passionate about kids and sports. Yeah, that's wonderful. Kids and sports. There's lots of great causes. Yeah. Lots of great causes. I agree. You know that. You're probably asked to represent a million of them. But we really felt through our discussions and through circumstances in Jennifer's life and in my life, we want to really support kids and sports. Kids in sports. It doesn't matter who you are, what your parents do, what your income level is. You should have access to and be able to play sports. And I feel that in our world, that's shifted. And I think it's time to get back to kids just being able to be active and play sports. I grew up in a single family home. My father passed away when I was two. I was the only child my mom raised me. We didn't have the money. I would have loved to have played more hockey. Although at that time I was like three foot four. I would have loved to have played more hockey. But we regarded, we wouldn't have been able to afford it. And it seems like sports has gotten so expensive for kids to be involved in. And what you're doing is amazing. Yeah, I think up until, I'm not sure how many years ago, I would go to events and help. But I felt like I needed to sort of dedicate myself, particularly to one, but also help others. Yeah. I will say after two long runs into the Stanley Cup final, I didn't block a shot. I didn't take a hit. But there is a small part of me that would love to put the Gone Fishing sign up and just come back in September. But if you do that, you miss a lot of great opportunities to promote the community, to help the community. So I say it once in a while, but I would never do it. And I really don't say no unless I can't physically do something. I'm away. I have a conflict. Sports Central certainly was kids' sports. Yeah. Tell us about it. What does Sports Central like we know, but just for our audience? Yeah, just to understand. So it's located near the old arena where the Edmonton Oilers used to play. It was started by Tiger Goldstick, who was a long time broadcaster in Edmonton. He literally started out of the trunk of his car. Wow. He would gather equipment. I didn't know that. He would go to a local school, a local playground, and if kids didn't, he would open up the trunk and kids could pick up a basketball, a soccer ball. So now 30 plus years in, it's grown into this community organization that services well over 10,000 kids a year into sport. So kids who need a pair of soccer shoes, hockey equipment, the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation has been unbelievable supporters to get so many kids involved in what I think we would believe is probably the most expensive sport, and that's hockey, the equipment being the big thing. But I hear about people having to pay $1,000 to register for a sport, or $800, or $1,500, and so... Well, you know. I do know. You know that your son's in sports. It's incredibly expensive. It is. I remember my family was only able to kind of get us through... I mean, if I had a hockey stick, it had to last a year. I would get a pair of soccer shoes, and I would treat them like I wasn't getting another one. Same with me with skates. Yeah. Skates was... You didn't want to grow because you didn't want to grow those skates. I knew my mom couldn't afford another pair, and so you wore them sometimes when your feet hurt. Yeah, absolutely. So it gets kids active into sports. Some are just individually or with their family and friends. Some it leads them to be on teams, and teamwork is amazing. And Alfonso Davies, who's become known as certainly one of ours and plays... We watch a lot of soccer and plays in Germany, and will represent Canada at the World Cup. You know, Alfonso, when he was a kid and came over as a refugee at the age of five, he didn't have a bike to get to practice. And so he got a bike from Sports Central. Didn't know that. Yeah. We had... So people who are listening would know that we had Alfonso Davies' manager on one of our podcasts. And, wow, it's an amazing story, both for the manager, actually. When you listen to his story, you're like, wow, and for Alfonso, it's pretty incredible. So you know, I'm not saying he wouldn't have become who he is, but I always say if Stuart Skinner doesn't have a pair of goal pads, if Connor McDavid doesn't have a pair of skates, if Leon Dreisaitl doesn't have a stick, they'll never play. I don't know. You know, maybe they don't play, or maybe they start so late that they don't become who they are. And those are, listen, every kid that walks through the doors of Sports Central, we're not expecting Alfonso or Connor or Leon or Stuart. We're just expecting them to be a champion of our community, whatever that means. Gene, that's it right there. It is not about them becoming superstars. It's about them being amazing people in society. Well, again, I think sports teaches you so many valuable lessons in your life. And, you know, from leadership to working together, to just being and overall giving back, because so many teams give back to the community too. It's just, it's those basic life skills, I think, that everybody in sport can learn. Absolutely. And I'm hoping in the future, we get to do a podcast just on this alone and with Sports Central. And just to put it out there, you know, Jennifer and I have talked a lot about it. We're a little fish podcast, you know, in a big pond of podcasts, but that's how, whatever we can do to help spread this word. And I just are, you're our role model in this, and we want to follow in that. Well, we certainly, everyone in Sports Central, you know, the board, and we have so many great employees, but a lot more volunteers that make that place run. And, you know, I coach my daughter's soccer team, and I don't always say this, because then it starts to be old hat, but, you know, I always say to the girls, when you're in the most difficult situations, not just in sports, but in life, you got three choices, okay? You can give up, you can give in, you can give it your all. If you give up and give in, you know what the result is going to be. But if you give it your all, you never know. That leads. That leads perfectly into our, I know, our final question, Gene. I can't believe it. This again, we could go on. I mean, he's got to go, but I could keep him here forever. This is amazing. I got to be on. This is just, I'm, this is great. OK, Gene, this is the final question we ask all of our guests, and we did ask this of your wife. So we'll be interested to hear what yours is. What was her answer? I may be. No, no, it's not that kind of question. Gene, what is the best piece of advice you've been given either personally or professionally that you still carry with you to this day? Well, when I was young and I was starting out in my broadcast career, you know, my goal was to talk for a living. Yeah, that's what we do. But I heard once one of my instructors at NAIT said to me, because I think as a young kid, sometimes you're more in tune to talking to people and not listening to people. But he would always say, you know, listen and learn. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. And I know that adage is incredibly well-worn, well-used. But I have learned so much by listening to other people over, well, the decades now of my life. And that's, again, I think one of the things, when I initially started in sports, it was about the sport, the result, the athletic achievement, endeavor, challenge. But as I've grown older, I've come to realize that so many things that happen in sports are life lessons. Learning to work with people, play with people you like, you don't like. Understanding that when you go to work, you're going to, chances are, be on some kind of team. You've got to learn how to get along. And one thing I always tell my daughter's team, I understand, and I see that with the Oilers, not everybody's best friends. But you don't have to be someone's best friend to be a great teammate. Absolutely. That right there is gold. That is gold. Wow. I mean, well, I can tell you right now, this 53 minutes has been incredible. Like, it's exactly that. You learn. Just listening, I have learned. Like, this is unbelievable. Gene, we can't thank you enough for being on this podcast with us today. Thank you so much for taking the time. We get to watch you all the time. And that's great. But today, for me, has been, I want to watch you more there. But I would love to sit and have more of these conversations. Well, you know what? Despite the title Coffee In The Park, talking to you two was certainly not a grind. There it is, ladies and gentlemen. Well, thanks, everybody, for listening. Hey, don't forget, everybody, we're brought to you by Wing Snob. 20-19 flavors. We're brought to you by Wing Snob. Go to Wingsnob.ca. I got the brochure right here. I could read them to you. No, we're not. We'll do that because that takes a lot of time. Anyway, www.wingsnob.ca and Mprint. M. Best printers around. That's right, Mprint.ca. www.Mprint.ca. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Hey, make sure you tell everybody about the podcast. Tell your neighbors, tell your friends, tell your coworkers, tell your enemies. If you don't have a friend, make a friend, just so you can tell them about the podcast. Actually, that's a really good thing to do. If you don't know somebody, just go, hey, have you ever listened to Coffee In The Park podcast? Before you know it, you'll be drinking coffee and having a great time. Cam, subscribe. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. And we have a brand new website. Oh, man, is it good. It is www.coffeeinthepark.com. No. That's C-A, no.com. How can you tell this is our inaugural? This is opening a restaurant and not having the food cooked. This is unbelievable. Gene saved us today. There's no doubt about that. www.coffeeinthepark.com. It's a great website. There's a great, well, there's a bunch of pictures of me and Jen, and she makes it look great. I'm just in there to fill in. But they can listen to the podcast directly from the website as well. Wherever you get your podcast, you can listen to us, or you can go to www.coffeeinthepark.com and you can listen to us off there. That's right. Thanks. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Gene. Thank you, Karen. You're welcome. I'm so glad. Our next is about wine sommelier. She's going to come tell us about wine. We tell that story so much. Yes. Anyway, the wine you recommended that day. It was perfect. Anyway, thanks, everybody. Have a good one.