Canuck in Boston Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I define a sporting nation as one where the citizens and government actively support or engage in sporting endeavours. I exclude hockey from this because it is more than a sport in Canada. Do Canadians care about sport? I am curious to read your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Bananas. I really like them. More than that. I think it's a lot more than that. Hmmmmmm, bananas. Think I'll go and have one now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Well, practicaly everyone I know plays some sort of sport or another. And those that don't, they golf. They're usualy summer sports mind you. Outside of hockey (amongst the males of all ages at least) I'll guess curling is the most popular come winter. Keep trying to get my buddie to hook up for some racketball at the YMCA where he's a member but it all comes down to time. Never played racketball but it looks like it'd be fun. I'm a plum man myself. Fresh off my Baba's trees come autumn. Firm. Shiny. Just that little stream of succulant juice rolling down your chin as you chomp in... Gotta go find the Wee Elf before she heads off to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh1 Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Canuck in Boston I define a sporting nation as one where the citizens and government actively support or engage in sporting endeavours. I exclude hockey from this because it is more than a sport in Canada. Do Canadians care about sport? I am curious to read your thoughts. UHmmmm......What the bleedin' ell is your question ? or am I intoximacated....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frostman Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I played hockey from age 6 to 17, Junior football at high school, loved mountain biking, in summer, and downhill and cross-country skiing in the winter. Does that make me a valued member of a 'sporting nation'? There's nothing like fresh rasberrys. So cool and soft, but with a little tangy sourness. I hate picking em though, those little pricklies hurt my non-sporting hands. Seriously though, if your question is based upon the reality that amateur sport is not as supported by fans, commercial enterprise, and government in Canada as much as it is in the US, I would say that Canada is not a sporting nation. Do Canadians on average participate in lots of sports? Absolutely! Do we love watching Hockey, Baseball, Football, and Basketball? Sure, in pockets. But we seem to have greater concern supporting universal health care, than getting funds for amateur athletes (justifyably so). I do value athletics, and I respect people's in-born talents and the hard work that goes into sports success. But, I feel that in other countries of excess (ie the US) they have a support structure for sports that is not necessary when other more important infrastructure issues would be foresaken to pay for sports programmes. If all this means that Canada is not a sporting nation, then so be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I guess its how you look at it. If you look at it from a participation level, you have to say: " Yes .. definitley". everybody plays at least one sport. But the better question might be are canadians willing to support sports? with regards to this question I might have doubts. Looking at attendances for sporting events in canada in relation to other countries, I am inclined to think that we fall behind most nations. Similarly, you could argue that the private sector could do so much more to support sports and I see very few people really raising hell to get more public (Gov't) funding for sport in Canada. Even if you look at hockey,Most american based teams draw more consistant crowd than many candian cities have. IF hockey is such a religion, then you would think that there would never be dark clowds over canadian hockey clubs as there have been in the past. Some like to point to failures in some southern US markets but consider that in some of those places hockey rank lower than Rooster fighting in popularity. Also, compare the relatively poor support for AHL hockey in canadian cities versus places Springfield, Rochester, and Hershey. Then look at how canadians suport "non-pro" sports or minor prosports in comparaisons to americans or europeans. As far as the larger centres, do we have any places in Canada that could possible compare to places like Philadelphia, Detroit, St Louis, Boston, and New York in the way they support their sports teams? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffymac1971 Posted August 17, 2004 Share Posted August 17, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Canuck in Boston I define a sporting nation as one where the citizens and government actively support or engage in sporting endeavours. I exclude hockey from this because it is more than a sport in Canada. Do Canadians care about sport? I am curious to read your thoughts. Canada is a sporting nation, however the issue is that Canada is poor funded, way too much beaurocracy, mediocre level of coach and the sports governing bodies in Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee has no vision. Around 10-15 years ago Canada was on par with Australians, but with the realization of hosting the games in 2000, they put there money where the mouth is. A few years ago, I recalled an article that Rosie DiManno of The Toronto Star wrote leading up to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, and in that article she wrote on how the Aussies turned their program around. During the Montreal Olympics in 1976, Australia only won 5 medals 1 Silver and 4 Bronze and the only medal in the pool was in the Men's 1500m where Stephen Holland won bronze for Australia. A couple hours later, Holland received a phone call from then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Fraser called a congratulated Holland and his bronze medal effort. Holland went ballistic. He blasted the Australian program for the lack of coaching, lack of adequate training venues and the lack of public and private will for Sport in Australia. Holland was sick and tired of using a kiddies pool to train and then told Fraser to go F**K himself and said he didn't vote for him either and then hung up. During that Conversation, Fraser felt bad about the conversation and ordered the Australian Minister of Sport to hold around table with the Australian Olympic Committee, The Body of Sport and came up with following recommendations: - Opened up the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra in 1981 where a High Performance Center was established. - Immediate increased funding for Athletes and the Governing programs and the initiative to bring world class coaches to Australia. One of these coaches included Don Talbot, The Canadian National Team Coach from 1981 to 1986. Talbot coached the likes of Alex Baumann's Double Gold, Victor Davis Gold and Anne Ottenbrite's Gold in Los Angeles. Talbot is still the head coach of the Australian Program to this day and the results speak for themselves. - Increase funding and training for the grass roots programs - Enticing the private sector to support sport through tax breaks and world wide company recognition of Aussie Companies and Industries. And as the saying goes the rest is history.......Australia is flourishing and Canada is floundering. The so called summit of sport in 2001 was a joke and didn't do nothing. All it was only beaurocratic talk, no vision and no action. I guess we have to sink so low in order to resurrecting our sporting programs. (Summer Sports Anyways), Where do we take action? BTW can you imagine if anybody told Paul Martin or Stephen Owen the Minister to **** off on National TV. Hey it may happen yet!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 The comments by Rick Say would sum all this up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh1 Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 You have got to be asking about watching pro sports in Canada . 'Cuz even a quick look at www.baseball.ca , www.basketball.ca , www.footballcanada.com , www.curling.ca , www.ringette.ca , www.canadasoccer.com , www.rugbycanada.ca , www.softball.ca shows high levels of participation in sports . I didn't even look at hockey , swimming , track or horseshoes . It's just that we only have a handfull of markets that can compete with U.S. markets in pro sports . But our participation in sports is high. EDIT : We did make the world cups of Cricket and Rugby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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