Of all the stupid things Calgary Flames president Brian Burke said this week — and it is a long, long list — perhaps the stupidest of all was Burke’s decision to include Manitoba’s experience as evidence of the wisdom of investing huge sums of public money in private stadiums and arenas.

“It’s discouraging when other (cities) cheerfully, willingly construct venues: hockey rinks in Manitoba, football stadiums in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, hockey arenas in Alberta, but our little city is a little smarter than all those people and we’re not going to do it,” Burke said Wednesday during a talk with local business leaders at the Canadian Club of Calgary.

Wow, there’s a lot of stupid to unpack there — and we’ll get to that. But first some background.

• Like Mama always said, Calgary… ‘stupid is as stupid does’ - https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2017/06/09/like-mama-always-said-calgary-stupid-is-as-stupid-does