Elbows Up!, page 22
The 1972 showdown was eight games: four in Canada, four in Moscow. Everyone—the Canadian players and fans, even the Soviet players and fans, and the experts from both countries—knew that Canada would win decisively, likely all eight games and by big scores.
In Game 1 in Montreal, the Soviets won, 7–3. Imagine the reaction all across Canada. Then multiply that by ten.
Instantly, the stakes changed. Something deeper than hockey pride was on the line. We were the best in the world when it came to hockey; the rest of the world didn’t think about Canada that way when it came to many other things. Now we had lost. What did that say about us? About Canada? About Canadians? The next seven games would decide. These were the stakes.
We left Canada trailing two games to one, with one game tied. We lost the first game in Moscow. The series was all but over. Then we won the next two games, leaving it to one final game. In 1972, not many North Americans travelled to Europe; almost none went to Moscow. Three thousand Canadians were in that arena. They were there because, somehow, they knew they had to be there. For the last game, on a Thursday, played entirely during work and school hours all across the country, 16 million out of Canada’s population of 22 million people watched. Behind two goals to start the third period, we tied the game, then won it, and the series, with thirty-four seconds remaining. I felt immense excitement. I felt even more immense relief. In that series, Canadians discovered a depth of feeling for their country that they hadn’t known was there.
In 1980, I was the other person in the Olympics booth in Lake Placid, New York, when the U.S. beat the Soviets and later won the gold medal. (When Al Michaels said, “Do you believe in miracles?” “Yes!” I said, “Unbelievable.”) At the beginning of the Olympics, for the U.S., there were no stakes. The team was made up almost entirely of college kids. The Soviets, at the time, were the best team in the world. Even after the U.S. team won some early games, their players seemed on a roll to enjoy, not to be taken seriously. Then they beat the Soviets and two days later defeated Finland to win the gold.
This was not a good time for the U.S. in the world. Among other problems and conflicts, Iran was holding fifty-two Americans hostage in Tehran. Weeks passed. The U.S. seemed powerless to get them back. Unbeknownst to all but a few, six of the hostages—all American diplomats—had escaped and were being hidden in the Canadian embassy. The Canadians sheltered the diplomats for months, and eventually helped them escape. The news that the diplomats had made it safely out of Iran came just before the Lake Placid games began. Everywhere I went around the village, Americans came up to me and said, “Thank you, Canada,” as if they were otherwise friendless in the world.
In 1980, hockey was not a major sport in the U.S., and so Americans had no expectation or even hope of winning against the Soviets. What they did have at stake in 1980 was the Cold War. That they had to win. The hockey team’s victory in Lake Placid felt like part of this bigger fight. It fit the story Americans wanted to tell about themselves. And although hockey was a fairly minor sport, forty-five years later, for many Americans, the “Miracle on Ice” remains their favorite patriotic sports moment.
Now to today. Now to the 4 Nations tournament. Being Canadian these past few months hasn’t been a lot of fun. The threat and now the coming reality of high tariffs on Canadian goods exported to the U.S.—and the disruptions and dislocations, known and unknown, that these tariffs will cause—is never out of mind. Even more difficult in the day-to-day is Donald Trump’s relentless and insulting commentary.
Canada as the U.S.’s “51st state”; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau”; the U.S. using “economic force” to annex Canada, its nearest ally and inescapable geographical fact of life. It’s the kind of trolling that Trump does to everyone, to every country, whenever he wants to, because as president of the most powerful nation on earth, he knows he can. He loves to watch the weak wobble and cringe, and those who think they’re strong discover they’re not.
Na na na na na. It sets a tone. It lets everyone know who’s boss. It’s what he did all his life in business. And although at a boardroom table he wasn’t always the guy with the deepest pockets, in the Oval Office of the United States of America, he knows he is. Being Donald Trump got him elected, but being president is what allows him to be Donald Trump. On November 5, nobody had as much at stake in the election’s result as he did. He needed to win to hold the world’s highest office, to avoid lawsuits and prison time. He needed to win to be him.
It’s been amazing to watch world leaders of proud, historically significant countries, kings in their own domain, suck up to Donald Trump, to see billionaires and business titans, who know how the game is played—cater to political authority in public, play hardball in private—who reside proudly and smugly above and beyond politics, fold like a cheap suit. And later, when they do respond, because prime ministers, presidents, and ceos eventually have to say something, their words sound so lame. “There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau said. By answering at all, you end up making any slur sound slightly, disturbingly legitimate, and you make yourself look weak.
How would Americans react if a president or prime minister of another country said the same about their president? That he’s crooked, crazy, a lunatic, a loser? That he’s the worst president in the history of the world? That their country is just another failed empire in its final death throes? That both president and country are a disgrace and everyone knows it? Probably not well.
But what do you do? What do the decision-makers in other countries do? What do average Canadians, average Panamanians and Danes, what do ordinary people anywhere do? That’s why I needed to be at that game in Montreal.
Thirty years earlier, in 1995, on the weekend before Quebec’s second referendum on independence, my family and I went to Montreal to wander the city, to try to sense what Quebecers were feeling, but mostly just to be there. On the Saturday night, we went to a Montreal Canadiens game. We wanted to be there for the singing of “O Canada.” The next day, a reporter for an English-language newspaper wrote that it was the loudest he had ever heard the anthem sung at a game. What he didn’t notice was that 10,000 people sang their hearts out, and 10,000 people were silent.
Last Saturday in Montreal, the arena was filled with fans in red-and-white Canada jerseys. The nhl and the nhl Players’ Association, which had organized the event, did what organizers do. They asked the fans to be respectful of both teams during the anthems. The fans decided not to be managed. They booed “The Star-Spangled Banner” loudly. They were not booing the American players. They were booing Donald Trump. Why shouldn’t he know how they felt? Why shouldn’t Americans know? How else would they know?
Five nights later in Boston, at the final game, the fans booed “O Canada,” but not very loudly.
The game was a classic. The two best teams in the world: Canada, the heart and soul, conscience and bedrock of the game; the U.S., in its development and growth, the great story in hockey in the past thirty years. Both teams played as well as they’d ever played. Their great stars played like great stars; some other players discovered in themselves something even they didn’t know was there. The U.S. could’ve won. The team was good enough to win. Canada won because of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby—and for the same reason Canada won against the Soviets in 1972.
Everybody, every country, has something inside them that is fundamental. That matters so much that it’s not negotiable. That’s deeply, deeply personal. Something that, if threatened, you’d do anything to protect, and keep on doing it until it’s done, even if it seems to others to make no sense. Even if it seems stupid. This is how wars start.
For Panama, some things are fundamental. For Denmark, China, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Canada—for everyone—it’s the same. And when you get pushed too much, too far, you rediscover what that fundamental is. Poke the bear and you find out there’s more in the bear than you know, than even the bear knows.
For Canada and these other countries, you don’t poke back against Donald Trump. You don’t troll a troll. You look into yourselves and find again what makes you special, why you matter, to yourselves, to the world, and knowing that, knowing that that is you, with that as your pride and backbone, you fight back.
The U.S. has its own fights. It faces these same questions. What is fundamental to America? “Greatness”? Maybe. But greatness depends on the needs of a country and the needs of the world at a particular moment and time, and being great in the ways that are needed. These next four years will not be easy for anyone—and they will be perhaps especially difficult for the United States.
As for the 51st state crap, knock it off. It’s beneath you.
For Donald Trump, everything is a transaction. You look to make a deal, you push and shove, scratch and claw—you do whatever it takes. And if that doesn’t work, you do some more, until at some point you walk away and make another deal. It’s just business.
Only, some things aren’t business. Every so often, Canadians are defiantly not-American. They will need to be much more than that in the next four years. Canadians will need to be defiantly Canadian. Canada won in 1972 and again last week because winning was about more than business. It was personal.
© The Atlantic Monthly Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
CREDITS
“Backdrop Addresses Cowboy” © Margaret Atwood, originally published in The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinions of the U.S. (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd., 1968). Reproduced by permission of the author.
“Open Letter to the Mother of Joe Bass” © Margaret Laurence, originally published in The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinions of the U.S. (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd., 1968). Reproduced by permission of New End and United Agents Ltd.
“Letter to My Son” © Farley Mowat Ltd., originally published in The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinions of the U.S. (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd., 1968). Permission courtesy of the Estate of Farley Mowat.
“The North American Pattern” © Mordecai Richler, originally published in The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinions of the U.S. (Edmonton: M.G. Hurtig Ltd., 1968). Reproduced by permission of Mordecai Richler Productions Inc.
CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD is an award-winning culture writer and host of cbc’s Commotion. His work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Rolling Stone, and others. He is the author of Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces, a number one national bestseller, a Globe 100 book, and a New York Times notable book.
MARGARET ATWOOD is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry in a decade, followed in 2022 by Burning Questions, a selection of essays (2004–2021). Her most recent collection of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood, was published in March 2023. In October 2024, Paper Boat, a collection of new and selected poems (1961–2023), was published. Atwood has won numerous awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the pen Center usa Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright, and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto.
JAY BARUCHEL is from Montreal and lives in Toronto.
JEANNE BEKER is a Canadian journalist, media personality, and fashion icon. Her memoir, Heart on My Sleeve (2024), was released through Simon & Schuster Canada to critical acclaim. With a touching forward by Linda Evangelista, Beker delivers uplifting reflections that walk us through a wardrobe of memory, one article of clothing at a time. Over the years, Beker has acted as an arts reporter for cbc Radio, a news anchor on chum Radio, a co-host of The NewMusic, a founding member of MuchMusic, and the emblematic host of Fashion Television for twenty-seven years. Beker is also a seasoned newspaper columnist for several publications and has authored six books. A frequent keynote speaker and television guest, she currently hosts the series Style Matters on The Shopping Channel. Beker was named to the Order of Canada in 2014 and received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2016.
Author and musician DAVE BIDINI is the only person to have been nominated for a Gemini, Genie, and Juno as well cbc’s Canada Reads. A founding member of Rheostatics and member of Bidiniband, he has written thirteen books, including On a Cold Road, Tropic of Hockey, Around the World in 57½ Gigs, and Home and Away. He has made two Gemini Award–nominated documentaries, and his play The Five Hole Stories was staged by One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, touring the country in 2008. His third book, Baseballissimo, is being developed for the screen by Jay Baruchel, and in 2010 he won his third National Magazine Award, for “Travels in Narnia,” followed by Calgary Wordfest’s Anne Green Award for artistic audacity. In 2014, he was nominated for a Toronto Arts Award, and in 2017 he launched West End Phoenix, Canada’s newest broadsheet newspaper. Midnight Light: A Personal Journey to the North is his latest book, and in 2023 he co-directed the cbc series Summit ’72.
MÉLISSA BULL is a writer, editor, and translator based in Montreal. She has published a collection of poetry, Rue, a collection of short stories, The Knockoff Eclipse, and has translated such works as Nelly Arcan’s Burqa of Skin, Marie-Sissi Labrèche’s Borderline, and Valérie Lefebvre-Faucher’s Jenny, Eleanor, and Laura, et al.: This Is Not a Book About Marx. Her translation of Maxime Raymond Bock’s novel Morel was a finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Award.
IVAN COYOTE is a writer and storyteller. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, they are the author of thirteen books, and the creator of four films, six stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, been named a Stonewall Honor Book, been longlisted for Canada Reads, and been shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize for non-fiction, and the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction twice. In 2017 Ivan was given an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University, and in 2023 they received the first Honorary Doctor of Arts ever bestowed on anyone by Yukon University. Coyote’s stories grapple with the complex and intensely personal topics of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart and a quick wit. Ivan’s thirteenth book, Care Of, was released in June 2021 by McClelland & Stewart, and their new one-person show, Playlist, premiered in February 2024. Coyote currently serves as a Specialist in Creative Engagement and Expression at Yukon University.
KEN DRYDEN was a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s, during which time the team won six Stanley Cups. He also played for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series. He has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. He is a former federal member of parliament and cabinet minister, and is the author of multiple books, including The Game, Home Game (with Roy MacGregor), Game Change, and most recently, The Series. He and his wife, Lynda, live in Toronto and have two children and four grandchildren.
With eighteen feature films and related projects, ATOM EGOYAN has won numerous awards including five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival—the Grand Prix, International Critics’ Awards, and Ecumenical Jury Prizes—two Academy Award nominations, twenty-five Genie Awards (now Canadian Screen Awards)—including three Best Film Awards—as well as prizes from the National Board of Review and an award for Best International Adaptation at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Egoyan has been recognized for his critically acclaimed opera productions and was honoured with a 2016 Opera Canada Award (Rubie) for Film and Stage Direction. Seven Veils, Egoyan’s most recent film, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2023, before its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, and was screened at the opening night gala at the Yerevan International Film Festival in Armenia in the summer of 2024. Donation, an original production written and directed by Egoyan and starring Arsinée Khanjian, was performed in repertory at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, in spring 2025. It will be remounted later the same year, along with his production of Jenůfa by Opéra de Montréal, at Place des Arts. Egoyan is a Companion of the Order of Canada and has received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.
OMAR EL AKKAD is a writer based near Portland, Oregon. He is the author of two novels, American War and What Strange Paradise. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His first book of non-fiction, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, was an instant New York Times bestseller.
CATHERINE HERNANDEZ (she/her) is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is a proud queer woman who is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, and Indian descent, and married into the Navajo Nation. Her first novel, Scarborough, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript and was a finalist for several awards including Canada Reads 2022. Its film adaptation was produced by Compy Films and penned by Catherine herself. It won eight Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Her second novel, Crosshairs, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and made several best-of lists of 2020. Her most recent books, The Story of Us and Behind You, were instant national bestsellers. Before Behind You hit the shelves, it was optioned by Conquering Lion Pictures to become a feature film, with Catherine writing the screenplay. Behind You was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. She is working on several tv and film projects, including showrunning cbc Gem/Apartment 11/Avenida Productions’ The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia.
