Attn Fellow Canucks: "Hockey: A People's History" starts this Sunday.....

Not many sports that I don't like, but there's always a little extra excitment when it's hockey season. It just sucks that it is abnormally hot out still. Still getting those summer temps rolling in. Yesterday I think it was close to 30 C again.

 

Gotta love the Celsius talk. Oops, I took the bait on that one, eh?

 

Mr R,

Re Lacrosse.

The common misconception is that lacrosse is Canada's national sport. This issues from some long-forgotten MP back in the 60s who sparked some publicity with his campaign to have lacrosse named the national sport by a bill in Parliament. Not only did the lacrosse bill come to a vote--it was defeated.

The correct answer: Canada has no national sport. Period. Two magazine lacrosse features that went through fact-checking.

YHS, etc

 

thanks for the update......

and thank you Canada for inventing hockey....it's provided me with countless hours of fun, lifelong friends, trips for tournaments in 4 different countries.....and over 50 stitches on my face!

Best game on earth.

 

These guys are biting.

;D

 

Dude, it's too bad that's about the only thing of note Toronto's mighty captain has ever won.

Au contraire, my friendless friend.

I give you the National Sports of Canada Act of 1994, which received Royal Assent on May 12 of that year and cites both hockey and lacrosse as the national sports of Canada.

It stemmed from a private member's bill to recognize hockey alone; lacrosse was added upon a recommendation from the Canadian Heritage minister's parliamentary assistant and the bill (C-212) went through the House of Commons and the Senate with unanimous approval. Only three months passed between the bill's introduction and Royal Assent.

http://lois.justice.gc.ca/en/N-16.7/251603.html

2. The game commonly known as ice hockey is hereby recognized and declared to be the national winter sport of Canada and the game commonly known as lacrosse is hereby recognized and declared to be the national summer sport of Canada.

 

Further to that, the Peterborough Lakers wrapped up the Mann Cup (Canadian major box lacrosse championship) on Wednesday night, beating the Victoria Shamrocks 17-10 to win the best-of-seven series 4-1.

The Mann Cup is to Canadian lacrosse players what the Stanley Cup is to hockey players. It's the Holy Grail. The best of the best don't consider their career to be a complete one unless they've won the Mann Cup. TV commentator Brian Shanahan, one of Brendan Shanahan's older brothers, was both good and lucky enough during his career to play for five Mann Cup winners in a row.

This was the third consecutive year that Victoria and Peterborough met for the championship. Peterborough also won in 2004. Victoria, which has played in five straight national finals, won it in 2003 and in 2005.

 

Mr J,

I stand corrected -- both my lacrosse pieces, which point out that lacrosse wasn't the nat sport, were published prior to '94. But a lot of kids were taught the wrong thing in grade school and I'm sure there are encyclopediae canadianae abundant published pre-94 with said "fact"

YHS, etc

 

You're probably right. Over the years it was frequently referred to as our "national game" or some such variation, usually in a promotion for the '76 Olympics in Montreal or the '78 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton.

 

I would be so all over this.
Do any US cable packages carry the CBC? I know mine doesn't.
Is there a visit to Floral, Saskatchewan?

 

And if you come to my local, the world-famous Blue Goose Tavern in beautiful downtown Mimico, there's a great photograph of Brendan and Brian in their parent's backyard (good Mimico lads). Brendan's holding Lord Stanley's mug, Brian the Mann Cup.

Also a great signed poster of Brendan when he played for the Blues. Inscribed "To the Blue Goose, send my brothers home"

 

To generate new revenue streams, you can be assured that the Mother Corp aka CBC will have a handsome multi DVD set of this available for sale.