The Slow Death of Hockey Night in Canada is a National Disgrace
Canada's oldest and most beloved sports program should belong to us all
In keeping with the national stereotype, I played a lot of hockey as a kid. For several years, my family’s Saturday ritual involved getting up way too early to drive to one of the countless rinks and community centres dotted across Southwestern Ontario in the frigid cold, probably grabbing some Tim Hortons along the way. Because Ontario is a very big place, and because my younger brother also played, the outing would usually take up most of the day. But when we and our teammates arrived back home in the evenings, our tired and battered bodies would invariably find respite by watching Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC.
For decades, something like this ritual has doubtless been familiar to successive generations of Canadians from coast to coast. In a decentralized country where national unity has sometimes been tenuous and a relatively small population is spread out over a vast landmass, Hockey Night in Canada has always been a singular kind of institution. It’s been around for nearly a century, beginning in 1936 as a radio program and appearing in televised form on the country’s only national public network since 1952. It’s offered broadcasts not just in English and French but also in Inuktitut, Cree, Hindi, Punjabi, and Mandarin Chinese. It’s brought the nation’s gaze into small towns and rural communities too often ignored by our metropoles and successfully bound Canadians together across the usual divides of language, culture, and geography.
To me, its opening theme will always be synonymous with hockey itself. Every week, when the slightly garbled radio voice of old time broadcaster Foster Hewitt announced “Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland…” and that unforgettable theme followed, you’d nestle down on the couch to watch the Leafs or Habs and feel instantly cozy, the music greeting you like the warm embrace of your favourite sweater on a cold winter’s night.
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