Hockey has had both an enduring but also a complicated relationship with ideas about what it means to be ‘Canadian’. While not every Canadian skates, or plays the game, or even cares about the game, the sport itself occupies a serous place in the Canadian cultural psyche. While the game has often been seen as something to unify Canadians, or to express ‘Canadianness’, it has also been exposed for very serious flaws in its culture, its infrastructure, and its dubious place as a game of character and inspiration for Canadian youth. The game of hockey, as we understand it now, has undergone dramatic challenges and changes since its first official appearance on ice in Montreal in the 1870s. This episode seeks to understand some of the key developments in the game that we now recognize today. From the rules to the rink size, to professionalization, commercialization, internationalization, to the broadening of the hockey cultural mosaic. From its amateur roots to a game that is international in its appeal, incorporating men and women from different socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups, and one that continues to evolve alongside modern value systems while evoking serious discussion on its relevance to modern Canadians.
Book recommendation: Canada’s Game: Hockey and Identity by Andrew C. Holman published McGill-Queen’s Press in 2009.
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S8E3 The Honan Mission – First Generation Canadian Missionaries in China
S8E2 The Frontier Constabulary - Canada’s First Secret Police
S8E1 Kurt Meyer - A War Criminal in Canada
S7E21 - The Dakota War and British North America
S7E20 The Avro Arrow Part 2
S7E19 The Avro Arrow Part 1
S7E18 To Pass or Not to Pass - The Emergence (and Divergence) of North American Football
S7E17 A Thankless Task - Policing in New France
S7E16 The 1979 Binational Lesbian Conference
S7E15 Rise Republic Rise: The United Irish Uprising in Newfoundland
S7E14 The Guess Who
Announcement - Name Change!
S7E13 Gravenhurst: The Gateway City
S7E12 Nic Power - The Bad Detective
S7E11 To the Winner Goes the Spoils: The Origins of Lord Stanley's Cup
S7E10 More than Just Beads and Bannock: First Nations Women and the Fur Trade
S7E9 Viola Desmond: The Woman on the 10 Dollar Bill
S7E8 Ring the Alarm – The Japanese Attack on Canada’s West Coast
S7E7 – Gahoendoe and the loss of Wendake
S7E6 – Forgotten Battle: The Battle for the Scheldt – a conversation with Mark Zuehlke
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