ICYMI – Geoff Russ: Multiculturalism is a terrible reason to drop hockey for soccer

Culture wars come to sport?

…Despite the disappointing finish at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Canada is still the world’s premier hockey nation, but we can only remain so if the country remains committed to it being our national winter sport.

The glorious past of hockey, and the ice it is played upon in winter lets Canadians recognize each other and their forebears in a way that soccer could never. So goes that, and so goes a pastime that connects today’s youth players to those at Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink in 1877. If any sport has earned the lion’s share of a $1 billion investment, it is not soccer.

Revitalizing Canada’s winter pastime, which creates common ground and connection between a logging town on Vancouver Island to the ramparts of Quebec City, should be a national priority, as is maintaining our international supremacy in the sport, so shaken at the present time.

This is Canada, and we Canadians play hockey. There are many who evidently prefer that we didn’t. When they rear their ugly heads, what they deserve is a stiff, verbal check into the boards, every single time.

Source: Geoff Russ: Multiculturalism is a terrible reason to drop hockey for soccer