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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S6E5 John Labatt’s and the Windy City
S6E4 Bert and Ernie Eh? The Canadianization of Sesame Street
S6E3 A Century of Service: The Life of Nova Scotian Provo Wallis, Admiral of the Fleet
S6E2 Clio’s Treats: Culinary Connections to Canadian History
S6E1 Chaos in the Cariboo Sky: The Crash of Canadian Pacific Flight 21
S5E20 The Underground Railroad
S5E19 A Lost Cause? Canada’s Diplomatic Involvement in the Vietnam War
S5E18 Nuns on the Frontier – The Ursulines of Quebec
S5E17 The Dutch Food Crisis and Operation Faust
S5E16 The Wabanaki Confederacy
S5E15 The Coloured Corps and the War of 1812
S5E14 – Un-Canadian Content? Bryan Adams and the Waking up the Neighbours Controversy
S5E13 Leo Major – A French-Canadian Rambo
S5E12 Kicking in the Door – Canada Invades Nazi Germany
S5E11 The Mad Trapper of Rat River
S5E10 An Uphill Skate – The Women of the Hockey Hall of Fame
1867 & All That
S5E9 Cougar Annie – The Wild Woman of Vancouver Island
S5E8 Little Stalingrad – The Battle for Ortona, December 1943
S5E7 Tricky Bob and the 1917 Federal Election
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