What does it mean to be Canadian?
Why do we put ourselves through endless hours of watching winter sports that wouldn't usually interest us in the slightest, JUST because we know that a representative of our country is competing in it? For instance, I have taken on a new love for curling... not just because I get to watch the women's teams scream "yeah!" "harder!" and "woah!" in a bent over position, but because I genuinely enjoy the tactical elements and technical skills required to be good at it--and more importantly because our Canadian women had done extremely well throughout the tournament. What does it matter that they did though? I could have been going for the Swedish or Chinese teams just the same, its not like I'm more familiar with the Canadians either way. I don't watch the qualifying rounds, I've never met any members of the team, and as far as I know, unless they are involved in a future Olympics, I'll never see them again. I spend 3 years and 11 months cursing curling because they show the 'Tournament of Hearts' during the Champion's League of soccer and I end up missing important games for these women who scream fiendishly in Cinderella-like roles, holding brooms and scrubbing floors (ironic when you think of it this way, huh?). I even heard that the Chinese team had been training in Vancouver since August. Call them immigrants and then tell me who should be wearing the Canadian colours?
And what about in Speed Skating (as one of MANY examples) where I just finished watching a man with the last name Heung, competing for Germany under dual-citizenship... but a resident of Brampton, Ontario since birth. I'm a holder of dual citizenship as well, Canadian and Italian... does this mean I can round up a group of guys with a similar citizenship status and represent my "Fratelli d'Italia" in the next Olympic games in the glorious game of curling? It's absurd if you ask me.
What's the point of representing a country if you don't live in it? Isn't participation in the Olympics supposed to be a celebration of a country which has set up social conditions for its citizens to strive and improve themselves constantly... a reflection of a nation which believes in its people and encourages them to be the best that they can be in many aspects of life -- including athletics? If this were the case, then why do so many Canadians need to draw upon dual citizenship capabilities in order to represent another nation? Is it because Canadian society does NOT provide these circumstances for all of us? Or is it just that these dual-citizens aren't good enough to represent Canada, so they go elsewhere just so that they can participate in the Olympics. If this were the case, then it would be clear that they are doing so for egotistical purposes, and are definitely not interested in representing their homeland. Why should we, therefore, support our athletes then if there is an underlying truth that they are merely there for their own satisfaction and could care less about the colours on their backs?
Nationalism is a tricky topic. I'm not suggesting that our athletes don't care about their nation. They most definitely do. What I AM suggesting however, and would argue this to the death... is that many Canadians support Canada but have absolutely NO idea why. They don't know what it means to be Canadian, and would most readily associate it with that Molson Canadian commercial that suggests we're in the best nation because we have the best backyard in the world. I don't know about you, but I could name many, many places that could challenge for that title... and even so... why should this make me want to support our red and white so passionately? Do I really have so little in common with the American who lives a 2-hour drive away in Buffalo, NY? Do I really have more in common with a fellow who lives on a cliff in Nova Scotia, which would take me more than 24 hours to drive to? By the same token, what exactly do I share with a Northern Quebec resident, who can't even understand me if I tell him I like his hat?
Nationalism is stupid, and quite frankly, although it can be a lot of fun, it causes more problems than it does solve any. I'm not done talking about this, and I will have a dump truck full of commentary for when the World Cup starts this June. What I will leave you with though, is a suggestion that you go out and do some thinking--maybe even some research. Figure out why it is that YOU support Canada in these Olympic games and then figure out why everyone else does. You'll be surprised at how stupid your reasoning will sound in this post-modern world of equity and acceptance...
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