United we score, Divided we're shut out

It’s called hockey night in Canada for a reason!

MICHAEL SILICZ

Canada has always been a country of different cultural groups coexisting peacefully. However, the continuing antagonism between Quebec on the one hand, and the rest of English Canada on the other, always remains a source of open tension in our country. Multiple referendums, constitutional conventions, and a lengthy history of conflict have made sure that the spectre of Quebec separatism always remains in the Canadian political discourse. But despite the rhetoric of separatists, Canada will always remain a unified nation. How can one be so sure?

The question of Quebec’s place in North America has been in contention since the earliest days of European colonization. Likewise, the debate is not going to disappear anytime soon. Yet for over 150 years Canada has successfully remained a unified federal state, despite the history of tensions between the French and English. How then has Canada remained unified for this long period of time?

Many people, from academics to politicians, have tried in vain to answer this question. The reason why they fail, however, is because there is one key argument that they continually overlooked. What’s needed is an innovative approach that would look at the real issue that matters to both the English and the French. Instead of always arguing about what divides us, it is time we cooperate by agreeing on what unites us. Thus, the key to solving French/English relations in this country lies in the one thing that all Canadians, whether in Hull or Ottawa, can unanimously agree upon.

Canada is the best country on earth at hockey. Period. How many times do we have to prove it? And it is on this basis that the future of our country relies!

If Canada were to split up, our preeminence as the hockey superpower would be placed in grave jeopardy. The consequences of Quebec separating from Canada would have reverberating negative ramifications affecting the greater hockey balance of power, much to the detriment of both Canada and Quebec. Thus, if we want to unite and rise above the separatist debate, let us all agree to put aside our petty differences to remain number 1 at what really matters — hockey!

Currently, of the top 25 pointleaders in the NHL, 14 of them are Canadians. But if Quebec did separate from Canada, what would be the implications for Canadian hockey dominance? Of the 14 Canadians in the top 25, three are from Quebec (St. Louis, Lecavailer, Briere), and the rest are from outside that province. Yet those three players from Quebec represent three-fifths of the top five Canadian scorers. If Quebec and Canada were to part ways, Canadian hockey would suffer dearly by losing some of its top players to Quebec. Not only this, but greatest goalies in the world, from Roy to Brodeur to Luongo, are all from Quebec. The dilution of Canadian hockey talent from one team into two would spell the downfall of our hockey dominance, be it Canadian or Québécois. History is ripe with examples of the dangers involved with separatist nationalism on the hockey front.

Take the USSR for example. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, Canada used to have to fight tooth and nail to beat the Ruskies. But with the disintegration of the Soviet Union came the end of Russian hockey supremacy. Or, look at the peaceful split between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Instead of remaining a unified hockey powerhouse under the flag of Czechoslovakia, the division into two separate nations doomed both countries to hockey mediocrity. Let this be a lesson to Canada.

“The more successful a multinational federal system is in accommodating national minorities, the more it will strengthen the sense that these minorities are separate peoples, with inherent rights of selfgovernment, whose participation in the larger country is conditional and revocable.” This quote from William Kymlicka, the leading scholar of Canadian multiculturalism, accurately describes the paradox of federalism in modern liberal states. However, like many of his colleagues, Kymlicka has ignored the real glue that binds Canada together — our heritage of hockey domination.

John A. Macdonald referred to Canada as a “dominion from sea to sea.” Well, from Sakic in the West, Crosby in the East, and Cheechoo in the north, Canada remains a dominion thanks to hockey. Thus, even though Quebec and the rest of Canada will always have a tumultuous relationship, it is important to remember that in order to be the best hockey nation on earth, Canada must remain one country, Quebec and all.

Michael Silicz is a first-year law student with a background in history and political studies.