The Globe this morning, in a page 3 story about the NDP's current conference to figure out how the fuck they're going to ever actually do anything in Canada, has a picture that shows they might have finally figured it out: hockey.
Hockey's long been intertwined with Canadian politics. If Jackie Robinson's career was a milestone in civil rights for black Americans, certainly Maurice Richard, despite the shitty documentary, was the same way for French Canadians. Ken Dryden, the Stanley Cup-winning and Hall of Fame-being-in former Habs goalie and Maple Leafs owner, is the Liberal MP for the riding my high school is in. And of course, Don Cherry has been the leader for legions of Canadian racists who used to vote Alliance and now vote Conservative. In fact, I wonder if there's a good book that's been written on the subject... Sarah?
Anyway, at the NDP conference, Andrew Ference, apparently of the Boston Bruins (though I've never heard of him), spoke about "500 NHL players [who] have chosen to pay offsets to the carbon they produce," such as in their $2000 carbon fibre sticks that break three times a game.
I think if Mr. Ference, if that is his real name, actually spoke up at places other than the NDP conference that is getting embarrassingly little coverage (though to be fair I don't read the Star), it could actually make a difference. Canadians care about both hockey players and carbon emissions, and hockey is not exactly the most carbon-neutral sport even without team buses and planes (think about how many hockey rinks need to be kept air conditioned around about 10 degrees even during July). Having famous people who aren't David Suzuki (as much as I love the man) tell us about why they like what the NDP does is a good idea. So maybe Layton could get something like this going somewhere big and public where people who might be pursuaded would notice, instead of to fucking members of parliament in his own party.
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This is not directly related to the main topic of your post, but I'd like to point out that I think carbon off-sets are really dumb.
ReplyDeleteAlmost as dumb as Curt Schilling, the former-baseball player and persistent right-winger (and avid Everquest player, according to his wikipedia page). He's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the political advocacy of American athlete-celebrities. I'm not sure there's anything to learn from that except that a) having semi-illiterate beef-heads on your side of the political scream-fest may not always do you such a service, b) my knowledge of anything sports is limited to one and seriously dated at that, and c) baseball in America and hockey in Canada are probably not comparable, so nevermind.
I would actually say that baseball and hockey are probably pretty comparable.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I could be incorrect, but Schilling sounds quite a bit like Don Cherry (and Sol, I don't know about any work like that but I'll look it up) whereas someone like Dryden seems more like a Ronald Reagan type: a celebrity who also happened to be a good politician. So sports figure does not necessarily always equal semi-illiterate beef-head.
And carbon offsets may be dumb but because hockey in Canada is almost like a religion to many folks, the idea might be a good gateway to people who don't necessarily read the G&M or the Star, and who may need someone like a famous hockey player to reassure them that caring about the environment isn't just for those homasessual liberals in Toronto.
Wow that sounded really patronizing. I hope y'all got what I meant by that.
Not to turn this into a sports blog, but baseball and hockey aren't comparable at all; baseball's popularity in the states has dropped a huge amount in the past decade. Football in the States and hockey in Canada is a more apt comparison, but as far as I know all football players do for politics in the US is attend dogfights.
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant about the baseball-hockey comparison (or non-comparison as it were) is that despite the mythology of the all-American sport, baseball on a national level doesn't hold a candle to Canada's obsession with hockey. Hockey is so tightly woven into the fabric of Canadian identity (compensating for much else, I might provocatively suggest), even football, with all the cultishness of its fan-dom, doesn't really occupy the same position in the United States. Brett Farve isn't going to be showing up on our five-dollar bills anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I know that really wasn't the point. And I do take your point, Sarah, even if you are a total bitch.