Unlike a lot of hockey fans, they really like the shootout...

The continuing militarization of Canadian culture took place Saturday night at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, when the start of the Toronto Maple Leafs game vs. the Vancouver Canucks was interrupted by military intervention. To paraphrase Don Rickles, this page tuned into a hockey game and a "Support our Troops (tm)" rally broke out. I am sure that the throng assembled were more entertained by the soldiers rappelling from the arena ceiling and the military brass band playing "O, Canada" than they were by the Leafs dropping a 6 - 1 decision to the visiting Canucks. However, one does need to ask why last Saturday was the best time for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) to stage "Salute to our Armed Forces Night" when the game was already wrapped in the trappings of the CBC's "Hockey Day in Canada" festivities.

The answers lie with the Harper government's ongoing Americanized efforts to make Canadians attach our nationhood to the military rather than with such unmanly pursuits as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or Universal Health Care. MLSE and a cowering national broadcaster appeared only too happy to comply, sticking this charade just before (thanks to the NHL's unbalanced schedule) the only game this season between the teams from English-speaking Canada's two biggest TV markets (a similar stunt in Montreal, where Quebeckers reject the Conservatives' Afghan misadventure outright, would be jeered off the ice). The cynical capper to this propaganda exercise was the recruiting commercial stuffed in right before the opening face-off, which I'm sure had at least a couple young and uninformed puckheads thinking about enlisting right after they finished their beer and donuts

Let me know when "Salute to the Peace Movement" night takes place, and Dave Bouchard is in the lineup. I'll buy tickets for that one.