Toronto

• It’s been 30 years since a Canadian NHL team has won the Stanley Cup.
• It’s a familiar debate among many Canadian hockey fans: if one’s team is no longer in contention for the Stanley Cup, does their allegiance switch to any remaining Canadian team — even one they usually hate?

Hockey allegiance

• The sentiment to support a Canadian team, or more accurately any Canadian team, doesn’t appear to be a recent creation.
• Hewitt, Sporting Editor of the Toronto Daily Star noted in 1930: “Montréal’s Canadiens today returned the Stanley Cup to Canada, birthplace of hockey … the Stanley Cup is returned home after a two-year sojourn in the United States.” So while it might seem natural for Canadian fans to seek an oasis in a time of drought by rooting for any Canadian team, the question remains: Why do many Canadian hockey fans feel the urge to support teams they would ordinarily delight in rooting against?
• Perhaps the answer lies within the connection between Canadian national identity and the National Hockey League itself.

Hockey and nationhood

• While hockey is undoubtedly one of Canada’s national pastimes and passions, the NHL occupies an outsized presence in our collective cultural imagination.
• This unusual dynamic led author Ryan Edwardson to argue the following in his book Canadian Content: Culture and the Quest for Nationhood:
  “Canada provides a fascinating case study in which to explore how nationhood has been defined and pursued through culture.”
  “Canada provides a fascinating case study in which to explore how nationhood has been defined and pursued through culture.” While sport plays a role in many nations’ cultural identities, Canada’s symbolic identification with hockey culture, and chiefly the performance and reputation of our NHL representatives, leaves our sense of nationhood vulnerable.
• When our self-conception becomes too closely tied to the fate of our NHL teams, their performance is a direct reflection of our own national quality and character.

Americanization of hockey

• As the NHL has expanded beyond six, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22 and eventually 32 teams, a new encroachment emerged in the minds of some Canadian hockey fans: Americanization.
• Throughout the mid- to late-20th century, an influx of American popular culture into Canada caused genuine concern about hockey being subsumed by the voracious economic appetite of America after the Second World War.
• With aggressive and repeated American expansion, hockey itself has changed with it.

Canadian rivalries

• Regardless of this perceived American encroachment into hockey, there are still Canadian fans unwilling to let go of their rivalries — even if it means rooting for another Canadian team.
• Canadian national hockey includes many historical, geographic and even linguistic rivalries against other Canadian teams.
• The sentiment expressed by The Hockey Sweater’s main character is familiar to many segments of Canadian hockey fans as well.

• MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, May 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PATTISON Outdoor Advertising , Canada’s leading Out-of-Home advertising company, is now the sole provider of bus advertising in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) thanks to the addition of MiWay to its transit portfolio.
• PATTISON Outdoor will sell exterior and interior bus advertising on MiWay, the public transit system for the City of Mississauga.
• With the addition of MiWay, PATTISON Outdoor can now offer local and national advertisers unparalleled access to a growing population of nearly 766,000 Mississauga residents across 179 square kilometres.” Cameron Milne, VP/GM Central Region at PATTISON Outdoor.
• "Adding MiWay to our bus advertising offering is an exciting milestone for PATTISON Outdoor as it allows us to further extend our reach in the Greater Toronto Area," said Nicholas Campney, Director of Leasing and Legislation at PATTISON Outdoor.

• HAMILTON, Ontario, May 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Share the Road Cycling Coalition (The Coalition) Ontario’s cycling advocacy and policy organization today released province-wide polling data at the opening of the 15th annual Ontario Bike Summit.
• The findings are outlined below:
  68 per cent of Ontarians (9.8 million people) ride their bike at least monthly.
• A majority of Ontarians, 65 per cent, expressed their desire to cycle more if there were improved cycling infrastructure.
• 61 per cent of respondents stated that they would feel more comfortable cycling if their area had well-connected and safe cycling infrastructure.

• "Diane's Lingerie is a shining example of a retailer that embodies the true spirit of entrepreneurship and community service," said Diane J. Brisebois, President and CEO, Retail Council of Canada.
• Diane's Lingerie is a well-deserving recipient of the Independent Retail Ambassador of the Year award, and they represent the best of what the retail industry has to offer."
• "Diane's Lingerie is honoured to be named Independent Retail Ambassador of the Year.
• The Independent Retail Ambassador of the Year Award will be presented to Diane's Lingerie at Retail Council of Canada's Excellence in Retailing Awards Gala on May 30, 2023, at the Toronto Congress Centre from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.