Get Your Politics Out of My Hockey Game!

As the Stanley Cup playoffs have unfolded this year, I have been really annoyed by something. I don’t know if this is something that has happened in previous years; it may just be that the Canucks haven’t stuck around in the playoffs long enough for me to notice. Though I am quite pleased to be living in the country that I do, I am a devout internationalist. It is bad enough that I have to sit and listen to both the American and Canadian national anthems before the puck drops. It is worse that this year they have been bringing out members of the armed forces and veterans from the Iraq and Afghan wars to honour them during these national anthems.

Given that both of these wars are extremely controversial in both countries, you would think that the NHL might want to hold off on promoting them. In Canada, the majority of the population has been opposed to the wars for a very long time. In the United States, the Iraq war has been unpopular for sometime and support for the Afghan war has been steadily declining.

Comrade Ted Grant used to joke that religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, professional sports is. Perhaps the NHL has become a little more conscious of their role in society.