By Canadian Press

New CFLPA executive director David Mackie says there’s plenty of work to do

Mar 27, 2025 | 3:51 PM

There’s labour harmony through the 2029 season and a search continues for a new CFL commissioner, but David Mackie hasn’t had the luxury of time to settle into his new role as the CFL Players’ Association’s executive director.

Mackie was hired Feb. 24 to replace Brian Ramsay, who left in August to take on the same post with the Professional Hockey Players’ Association. Former CFL player Peter Dyakowski had served as interim executive director until Mackie’s appointment.

“There’s never a lull, there’s always work to be done,” Mackie told reporters during a teleconference Thursday. “If it’s not cleaning up things from the past it’s ensuring we’re starting initiatives to better benefit the members moving forward.

“Just CBA negotiations don’t dictate the work that we do.”

Mackie, 30, retired after six seasons with the B.C. Lions to take his current role. The six-foot-two, 252-pound fullback from Jackson’s Point, Ont., had served as a player rep with B.C. and in 2024 was elected as the union’s third vice-president.

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“Obviously he knows the issues, obviously he’s relatable to the membership, he’s very intelligent,” CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian said of Mackie. “We went through an extensive, thorough hiring process . . . we interviewed up to 75 candidates and that process led us to hire David Mackie.”

Mackie said he would have continued playing with B.C. had he not been offered the job.

“I knew I had a lot of football left but this is an opportunity that allows me to stay in the game for a long time,” he said. “I get to impact the game on a greater scale than what I would as a football player.

“I’m excited to step into it and see where we can take this league.”

Mackie cited player health and safety and the protection of union members among his top priorities. But so is establishing a solid partnership between the CFLPA and the league’s new commissioner.

“I understand this is a labour relationship and it’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows,” Mackie said. “But at the same time on a daily basis there are ways we can grow this league together and our players should be involved and ultimately want the league to grow.

“We fought for revenue sharing in 2022 and so ultimately if the league grows, we grow.”

Earlier this week, the CFLPA sent both the league and Edmonton president and chief executive officer Chris Morris letters of concern regarding comments made by Elks general manager Ed Hervey that the CFL didn’t have “superstar players.” Hervey had made the statement when asked about former Edmonton receiver Eugene Lewis, who had claimed to be a superstar and was critical of Hervey for his treatment of Lewis during the free-agent process.

Lewis ultimately signed a two-year deal with the Ottawa Redblacks.

“Our stance is still strong, there’s plenty of superstars in this league,” Mackie said. “But in terms of how we’re handling their response, we’re handling that internally with the league.

“We’ve had a conversation with Randy (outgoing commissioner Randy Ambrosie). There’s obviously going to be some sort of leadership change on their side and we plan on establishing clear communications, good and bad, and that’s how we’re going to handle this.”

Roughly a week before the start of CFL free agency, the league announced its salary cap this season was increasing over $412,000 to $6.06 million. The cap last year was $5.525 million and was slated to rise to $5.650 million in 2025.

A reported $18-million boost in league revenues triggered the cap increase. The current collective bargaining agreement between the league and union, reached in 2022, contains a revenue-sharing formula.

But the timing of the announcement — during the CFL’s negotiation window — drew criticism.

“Obviously the positive part of that is revenues have gone up,” Elimimian said. “I think we can do a better job of getting the information faster and more efficient so players can make the best decision and general managers can have the information to be able to spend accordingly.”

So what needs to happen to speed up the process?

“I’ll keep that between us and the league,” Elimimian said. “We’re having discussions now about the process, making sure the process is smoother, the process is cleaner.

“The details of that we can iron out and we are ironing out in terms of how that money is being allocated. What we want to see is that money to be allocated to touch every member, this is a win for all of our members … we want all of the players to benefit from that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2024.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press

<!– Photo: 4c6e75b4edca2ec296d8e44929b51a702f920dcd7d06b94f7865c93ab80a6dbd.jpg, Caption:

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie speaks during a State of the League fan event ahead of the 111th CFL Grey Cup, in Vancouver, on Friday, November 15, 2024.

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