Talent Is Canada’s Greatest Export - Time To Invest In Women's College Hockey At Home.
Women Hockey Players & Canada’s Brilliant History Of Quietly Shaping The World.
Right now young women from Canada are finishing up the hockey season. High schools and club teams. Many have plans to keep playing at the collegiate and university level next year. Some, but only a select few, will go on to play at Canadian universities. Right now young women from Canada are finishing up the hockey season at U.S. colleges. A small number have scholarships, but most are paying top dollar to play and get an education. With the explosion of Canadian women’s hockey over the past decade, Canada finds itself in a familiar position of exporting its talent to the United States. U.S. tariff threats might have given Canadians a new found clarity about the choices we must make going forward as a country, but women’s hockey was already coming of age and we owe it to our Canadian girls and women to invest in hockey programs at colleges and universities at home. Let’s bring that tuition and cost of living revenue back into the Canadian economy.
Jennifer Botterill and Cherie Piper - Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010.
If you listen to American podcasters inevitably the host comes to the realization that half the talent in the ‘American’ entertainment industry are…Canadians, and then somehow immediately forgets. There is always this moment where the host pauses and says, “oh right, you’re Canadian, there are a lot of Canadians in…” It’s often comedy because comedians get interviewed a lot, because, you know they are funny and entertaining. Canadian comedians also have a long tradition of sneaking into New York or California. But the same could be true of actors, athletes, scientists, writers etc. Canadians are the polymaths. For a small group of people we are everywhere. Canadians are socially secular and we know how to blend in.
If the American podcast host asks what it’s like to grow up or be Canadian, there isn’t often a very good answer. Canadians don’t generally define ourselves by who we are, instead we act out our lives inspired by what we love. If we love to laugh we are comedians. If we love movies we are directors and actors. If we love science we find cures or go to space. Living next to Americans all this time means Canadians have learned to make use of the best of America and avoid the worst of of it. It’s not so much political as inspirational. The great works of American art made in moments of sorrow and oppression are made manifest in Canadians as joyful self expression. So goes The Band. We love the best parts of America, the art, music, athleticism and invention. Little Richard, LeBron James, Merryl Streep, Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Jobs. The same is true for political discourse. Canadians aren’t inspired by the current U.S. political tone. Some Canadian politicians are trying to emulate it. Canada First..really? This is obviously the Fascist calling card around the world and the Trump/MAGA slogan. In this moment when Canadian sovereignty is under threat how stupid do the Federal Conservatives think we are? American politics is a drunk fight at 3AM between friends, during a long walk home from the bar. Punching your best pal in the face, waking up bloodied and beaten in the morning, not remembering why and still needing your friend for a ride home. It’s awful, no thanks, Canadians will pass on that.
In Canada, friends fighting tends to happen in a hockey game and even then we know it’s sort of stupid. But in an otherwise serene state, a good hockey scrap does get the blood flowing.
Speaking of a good fight. Let’s talk tariffs.
Besides the fact that U.S. tariffs are personally insulting to Canadians, based on the endlessly bellicose delusions of a muppet like grandstander that could only come from America. The tariff threat only shows how little Americans know about Canadians or and how much we invest in the U.S. economy and could just as easily not.
In Canada the best comparison would be the 1972 Summit Series. We didn’t know anything about the Russians, we totally under estimated the Russians and before we knew it they were kicking our buts at our own game.
There is a grocery list as long as our border with examples of how Canadians have been essential friends and economic partners with Americans. That’s another story. Canadians are more than happy to do business elsewhere, around the world and within Canada. Just watch us! But the clarity that comes from insult, after the rage recedes, is empowering.
What is empowering in Canada right now - Women’s Hockey.
Jenna is a Canadian hockey player. Tenacious as a toddler and right through into adolescence, she always had the personal determination to get into the corners of life and come out with puck. Jenna’s mom, Jennifer swore she would never be a hockey mom but now finds herself joyfully spending days and nights driving with Jenna to practices, games and tournaments. Jenna will graduate from an Ontario high school this spring and her heart is still into playing hockey, the game she loves. Forensics is her focus as a post secondary academic major and Trent University in Peterborough has a top notch Forensics program she is considering. Jenna would rather stay in Ontario to go to university, but Trent University doesn’t have a women’s hockey team. Neither does Fleming College in Peterborough and Lindsay. Even if there was a women’s hockey team at Trent University the competition would be fierce. There is a wide age range for university hockey players sometimes 17 to 25 years old, and with few teams the spots are hard to come by. Ideally there would be ‘Junior and Senior’ or ‘Division - 1 and 2’ teams at universities and colleges to accommodate demand.
‘average income Canadians are now investing hundreds of thousand of dollars into their child’s hockey development before the age of 18 and have few options to continue that development at the university or college level in Canada’
It’s normal now for women hockey players to travel to showcase tournaments in their last year of high school to attract the attention of university coaches. Many of these showcase tournaments are in the U.S. and Jenna and her mom have travelled to a number of these tournaments and had offers to play at U.S schools. You hear that a lot these days from young hockeys players, ‘there is interest from U.S. colleges.’ But what does that really mean? Usually it means 60k a year in tuition fees. In what seems to be a typical American bait and switch, the U.S. college system is luring Canadian athletes into a sort of ponzi scheme. You hear the phrase, ‘Jane has committed to the university of…..’ That’s not to say that U.S. colleges and universities don’t have top notch athletic programs with real scholarship money. But a bad blindspot for Canadians is the comparative quality of U-Sports, the Canadian university sports union. Check out the hockey program at UNB. Many of these players were stars in the CHL. Until recently young male hockey players in the CHL Jr system were dis-qualified from playing in the NCAA, the name for U.S. College Athletics. But that’s changed and now U.S. colleges have an another gender of hockey players to run the bait and switch with.
To put it plainly, average income Canadians are now investing hundreds of thousand of dollars into their child’s hockey development before the age of 18 and have few options to continue that development at the university or college level in Canada. That’s a huge amount of money that is being left out of the Canadian post secondary system and economy every year. Let’s bring those dollars and that commitment to our young people back to Canada. Call it a strategic response to tariffs.
During the 1970’s Ontario Premier Bill Davis invested significantly in the Ontario community college system. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau did the same for Canadian universities. Ontario’s community college system is the envy of Canada and the world and like Fleming College in Peterborough, have become large local employers, community stake holders and integral to the training and development of young people. Over the past decade many of these community colleges have become dependent on international students to maintain budgets in response to government cut backs. The international student programs have coalesced with a Canadian housing crisis. International students have an overall net benefit to Canada. (We should probably start building cricket fields.) But in the meantime two problems offer a uniquely Canadian solution brought about by a great Canadian success story. Women’s hockey.
Ladies first. The gang on the rink.
Today, in every town and city across Canada girls hockey is an equal priority to boys.
It wasn’t so long ago that women were left out of hockey all together. We’ve normalized the presence of Hayley Wickenheiser or Jennifer Botterill as the ambassadors and still young matriarchs of Canadian hockey, not to mention the PWHL. Jennifer Botterill might be in the top 5 of hockey broadcasters in North America. Cheryl Pounder is no slouch either. Today, in every town and city across Canada girls hockey is an equal priority to boys. In many instances the separation of the two genders creates unnecessary and costly duplication of services. Have you seen these girls play?! Skate, pass, shoot and even hit when they aren’t suppose to. They are tough and talented.
The same could be said for women’s sports in general, (hello Caitlin Clark) but in Canadian women’s hockey the explosion of talent, commitment, development and investment in the past decade is a sight to behold. Truly, a Canadian success story of generational significance.
On the eve of an Ontario provincial election, here’s an idea. Let’s bring our girls home, or help them to stay in Canada and celebrate and invest in their world class athleticism. Let’s build and invest in women’s hockey programs at universities and colleges across Ontario and Canada. Let’s bring the Canadian dollars invested in oversized U.S. tuitions fees and make it affordable for our girls and women to play collegiate hockey in Canada. Let’s take the shrivelled lemon of authoritarian tariffs and threats on Canadian sovereignty and turn them into a lovely lady lemonade, on ice.