58 replies to this topic

[scouterjim]

I have never been a hockey fan, or a fan of any sport for that matter. Recently, I was told I am a "poor Canadian" because I don't watch hockey. A poor Canadian? Let's see: I have voted in every election since I was 18 (that's 40 years now). I have been politically active. I have volunteered with youth for 21 years. I do a lot of other volunteer work as well. I fly the Canadian flag on my home all the time. I am a "poor Canadian"? Some armchair athletes think that becuase I don't watch a game that determines how good a Canadian I am? Shake your heads. I am a better Canadian than many of them.

[Michael Hardner]

I have never been a hockey fan, or a fan of any sport for that matter. Recently, I was told I am a "poor Canadian" because I don't watch hockey. A poor Canadian? Let's see: I have voted in every election since I was 18 (that's 40 years now). I have been politically active. I have volunteered with youth for 21 years. I do a lot of other volunteer work as well. I fly the Canadian flag on my home all the time. I am a "poor Canadian"? Some armchair athletes think that becuase I don't watch a game that determines how good a Canadian I am? Shake your heads. I am a better Canadian than many of them.

Maybe if you watched The Beachcombers you can redeem yourself.

[scouterjim]

[quote name='Michael Hardner' date='18 February 2011 - 12:26 PM' timestamp='1298060802' post='627593']
Maybe if you watched The Beachcombers you can redeem yourself.
[/quote

I think I watched an episode of that once. About as interesting as day old coffee.

[Sir Bandelot]

About as interesting as day old coffee.

...

[bloodyminded]

I have never been a hockey fan, or a fan of any sport for that matter. Recently, I was told I am a "poor Canadian" because I don't watch hockey. A poor Canadian? Let's see: I have voted in every election since I was 18 (that's 40 years now). I have been politically active. I have volunteered with youth for 21 years. I do a lot of other volunteer work as well. I fly the Canadian flag on my home all the time. I am a "poor Canadian"? Some armchair athletes think that becuase I don't watch a game that determines how good a Canadian I am? Shake your heads. I am a better Canadian than many of them.

I like hockey, but yes, it is taken far too seriously, often as some sort of sop to "Canadian identity."

Ignore any such remarks. They're meaningless by definition, and the speaker didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

[scouterjim]

I like hockey, but yes, it is taken far too seriously, often as some sort of sop to "Canadian identity."

Ignore any such remarks. They're meaningless by definition, and the speaker didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

Oh, I quite agree they haven't a clue. It just amazes me how much a game can mean to people, especially those who are, as I called them "armchair athletes". They couldn't haul their oversized butts off a couch to even lift a hockey stick, let alone play.

[Shwa]

I have never been a hockey fan, or a fan of any sport for that matter. Recently, I was told I am a "poor Canadian" because I don't watch hockey. A poor Canadian? Let's see: I have voted in every election since I was 18 (that's 40 years now). I have been politically active. I have volunteered with youth for 21 years. I do a lot of other volunteer work as well. I fly the Canadian flag on my home all the time. I am a "poor Canadian"? Some armchair athletes think that becuase I don't watch a game that determines how good a Canadian I am? Shake your heads. I am a better Canadian than many of them.

Do you watch or play any sports at all?

[wyly]

I never considered anyone less of a canadian for not watching hockey that's a weird concept but some people live and breathe the game and can't conceive of someone not liking it...

I loved hockey until that period of clutching and grabbing took over, that killed my interest...then stepping back from the game I saw it as rather silly how people get so wound up over their "local" team, as if any of the paid mercenaries give a crap about the cities they play for...

[fellowtraveller]

Maybe if you watched The Beachcombers you can redeem yourself.

It is not enough. As penance, he should be obliged to listen to Tommy Hunter albums, all of them.

[Jack Weber]

I can't stand hockey at all....

And I'm a huge sports fan!!!

I find it to be nothing more than tacky winter filler crapola that goes on wwwaaayyyy too long..

Whenever I tell some hockey loving lunkhead that I'm not really into hockey,I invariably get this "Have you hit your head,or something?" look...

And then this statement usually gets blurted out...

"You don't like hockey???

Are you Canadian,or what?"

I then usually answer these unmitigated simpletons with this response...

"Uh...Could you tell me how a bill is passed in Parliament???"

This is usually met with a "I dunno...Who cares,anyway?" kinda of response...

Which is met with this diatribe...

"Lemme get this staright...You think the greatest act of patriotism you can muster is watching a hockey game and,most likely,drinkin' alot of beer on a Saturday night in February?That silliness is more important than understanding how a bill is passed into law in this country that might have an effect on everyone living here??

Got it...And to think my Grandfather fought for this simpleminded expression of freedom,and my Dad's cousin did alot of time in a NAZI POW camp,as well....

Seems like a wasted effort,at the moment."

It's usually met with either a blank stare from said hockey loving lunkhead,or,a "I'm not sure if I've been insulted,but I'm still angry!" Eff You!!!

At this time I (usually) walk away laughing at the abject stupidity of this person...

Pitchers and Catchers report next week...

And hockey is still irrelevant to this sports fan...

Edited by Jack Weber, 18 February 2011 - 07:36 PM.

[lukin]

I can't stand hockey at all....

And I'm a huge sports fan!!!

I find it to be nothing more than tacky winter filler crapola that goes on wwwaaayyyy too long..

Whenever I tell some hockey loving lunkhead that I'm not really into hockey,I invariably get this "Have you hit your head,or something?" look...

And then this statement usually gets blurted out...

"You don't like hockey???

Are you Canadian,or what?"

I then usually answer these unmitigated simpletons with this response...

"Uh...Could you tell me how a bill is passed in Parliament???"

This is usually met with a "I dunno...Who cares,anyway?" kinda of response...

Which is met with this diatribe...

"Lemme get this staright...You think the greatest act of patriotism you can muster is watching a hockey game and,most likely,drinkin' alot of beer on a Saturday night in February?That silliness is more important than understanding how a bill is passed into law in this country that might have an effect on everyone living here??

Got it...And to think my Grandfather fought for this simpleminded expression of freedom,and my Dad's cousin did alot of time in a NAZI POW camp,as well....

Seems like a wasted effort,at the moment."

It's usually met with either a blank stare from said hockey loving lunkhead,or,a "I'm not sure if I've been insulted,but I'm still angry!" Eff You!!!

At this time I (usually) walk away laughing at the abject stupidity of this person...

Pitchers and Catchers report next week...

And hockey is still irrelevant to this sports fan...

I like hockey. Like baseball too...and football.

I think many people have become hockey fans because they feel it is the trendy thing to be in Canada...especially after watching a cliched Molson Canadian commercial.

However, some of us are true hockey fans and follow the sport in our quiet, ordinary way.

A big turn off for me with hockey is seeing many young kids these days who play hockey thinking they are something special,walking around with inflated egos. Growing up in a small town in the 80s many of my friends and I loved to play the game. We'd get the key from the local custodian and sometimes play until 1 in the morning. If we couldn't get in the rink we would shovel the snow off the river to play. Many times we played street hockey for hours at a time. When the snow melted we played in the tennis court or in a grass field. That for me is what hockey is/was about. I never see a street hockey game anymore. I still love the game but not as much as I used to.

[kimmy]

This is the result of a national identity built around what August1991 refers to as "kitsch".

We're a country with no common ancestry, no common culture, increasingly little common history...

and in an effort to invent some sort of national identity in the absence of these things, people grasp at meaningless symbols-- kitsch.

Canadians love hockey, maple syrup, donuts, coffee, toques, flannel, Cape Breton fiddle music, bad sketch comedy, and public broadcasting. That's Canada! That's kitsch.



-k

[Sir Bandelot]

Real Canadians actually play the game, not watch. That which you see is only entertainment, complete with the staged fisticuffs, that privately pay big dividends. Real Canadians are out there playing hockey, not watching. We know that is lal bullsit for sales to the masses.

And we like old, re-heated coffee, murky stuff served in dark coffeeshops, with rotten floorboards...

Old school ways, when men were men. Not yer "Tim Hortons" con-gloperated, latte sippers.

Food, that's made by real human beings...The rest is merely byproducts of generation "disturbed."

[kimmy]

Real Canadians actually play the game, not watch.

So, what you're saying is that Jim isn't a real Canadian-- not because he doesn't watch hockey, but because he doesn't play it?

-k

[bloodyminded]

So, what you're saying is that Jim isn't a real Canadian-- not because he doesn't watch hockey, but because he doesn't play it?

-k

And I personally used to be a real Canadian...mostly when I was ten. I have become slightly less of a real Canadian year after year. And I guess about, oh, three years ago, when I stopped playing altogether, I lost the quality for good. That really sucks.