EDITORIAL – Canada regains a moment of pride at the good old hockey game

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THERE WAS a touching moment just before the game between the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators last night (Sunday, April 22, 2024).

The singing of the national anthem is usually a pretty mundane part of any event. Some people even think we should put an end to the practice.

Being an anthem singer at a game is mostly thankless. Either nobody pays much attention to you or you get criticized by fans for doing a poor job. Only occasionally is it controversial, as when a  Canucks anthem singer got fired for his involvement in an anti-mask rally in 2020.

Mostly, the crowd just puts up with it, sometimes lamely mouthing a few of the lyrics. But, last night, the Canucks anthem singer bravely invited fans into it, pausing her own singing to urge spectators to carry on, and they did. Proudly, they belted out O Canada with some true patriotic fervour.

It might have seemed a small thing but considering the self-flagellation the country has been going through in recent years, it was uplifting to see several thousand Canadians being proud of their country again, proud enough to loudly sing it.

And we should be proud. Put aside the self shaming and moral guilt and proclaim ourselves Canadians and proud of it. Maybe all it took was a few Canadian teams to make it into the National Hockey League playoffs to reawaken us.

The fact the Canucks won was icing on the cake.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.