Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Pique n yer interest

Liberals win, hockey fans lose

For anyone who has ever doubted the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations dedication to serve all the people of Canada equally, I found their coverage of the May 16 provincial election to be colourful, insightful and comprehensive.

And I hated every minute of it.

Unfortunately, the CBC also saw fit to preempt Game 3 of the Colorado Avalanche-St. Louis Blues playoff series partway through the first overtime period – a must-win for the Blues who were already down by two games.

While Colorado’s Stephane Yelle (born and raised in Ottawa) bore in on Blue’s goaltender Roman Turek, the screen flickered briefly and the game was replaced by the CBC’s Gloria Macarenko and Ian Hanomansing who announced that it was 8 p.m. and that the polls were officially closed.

At first I thought that it was a glitch, or that the producers had jumped the gun and would return with the game for the second overtime period. But as I watched numbers flash across the screen, and listened to talking head broadcasters describe the mood at various political party headquarters, it became clear that I would have to wait for the highlights to find out who won.

Hanomansing tried to explain the logic behind the move, i.e. there were no Canadian teams in the playoffs and that as a public broadcasting company the CBC had an obligation to show the election. I truly felt for the man because it was clear that even he knew how weak his arguments sounded.

One of the most exciting and hard-hitting playoff games in recent memory was completely ruined by a questionable call at head office.

I know that elections are important, but honestly! This election was a rout, a whipping, a spanking, a drubbing, and a foregone conclusion where the players were just going through the motions – and those are the worst games to watch. The final score was 76 for the Liberals verses 3 for the NDP (barring any changes as a result of a recount) – if politics were a sport, most viewers would have tuned out a long time ago.

The hockey game, on the other hand, was tied at three goals apiece – it doesn’t getting any more exciting than that.

And I don’t agree with the CBC’s assessment that there wasn’t enough Canadian content to delay their election coverage.

Colorado has the highest percentage of Canadian players in the league, with 15 Canadians out of 24 names on the roster. They are led by "Burnaby Joe" Sakic, one of the most dynamic players every to play the game, and backstopped by Quebec City’s Patrick Roy, arguably one of the best goalies in the history of the league. Every defenceman except for one is Canadian, and their defensive core is anchored by legends Ray Bourque of Montreal, Quebec, and Rob Blake of Simcoe, Ontario.

Other names you might recognize are Greg de Vries of Sundridge, Ontario, Chris Dingman of Edmonton, Adam Foote of Toronto, Eric Messier of Drummondville, Quebec, Nolan Pratt of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Dave Reid of Toronto, Alex Tanguay of Ste-Justine, Quebec, Steven Reinprecht of Edmonton, Bryan Muir of Winnipeg, and Cranbrook, B.C. hero Jon Klemm.

Even coach Bob Hartley, and assistant coaches Jacques Cloutier and Bryan Trottier are Canadian.

The Blues are led by Chris Pronger of Dryden, Ontario, and 13 other Canadians, including Dallas Drake of Trail, B.C., Mike Eastwood of Ottawa, Daniel Corso of Montreal, Jamal Mayers of Toronto, Reed Low of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Scott Mellanby of Montreal, Tyson Nash of Edmonton, Reid Simpson of Flin Flon, Manitoba, Cory Stillman of Peterborough, Ontario, Pierre Turgeon of Rouyn, Quebec, Jeff Finley of Edmonton, Al MacInnis of Inverness, Nova Scotia, and Bryce Salvador of Brandon Manitoba.

Coach Joel Quenneville is from Windsor, and assistant coaches Jim Roberts and Mike Ketchum hail from Toronto and Newmarket.

Based on the high Canadian content of these teams and the boring blow-out nature of the election, it’s safe to say that the decision to jump from the playoffs to election coverage was not good for politics, hockey or the CBC.

A lot of hockey fans I talked to were significantly more resentful of provincial politics than ever before – and based on the returns, apathy is already at an all-time high.

Hockey also lost out. Both teams were playing their guts out under the impression that friends and family back home were cheering them on. I feel especially bad for the friends and families of the three B.C. players in that playoff game.

It also made a bold dictatorial statement – "Politics are more important than hockey, and anyone who thinks differently is a bad citizen." By making its decision, the CBC created a pecking order that doesn’t necessarily reflect the priorities of viewers. Any time politics and sports events butt heads and time slots in the future, are we to expect the CBC to always side with politics?

The decision also raised a few questions about the CBC’s stranglehold on the NHL playoffs. If they are going to promote the game, profit from NHL advertising, and protect their exclusive rights to broadcast every game of the playoffs, the CBC has an obligation to keep the game on. If they can’t show a game in its entirety, they should step aside and allow another network to broadcast playoff hockey. They were gambling on a decisive victory within regulation time, and they lost – playoff games often go into overtime, and they should have been ready for it.

It’s another classic example of the CBC trying to be too many things for too many people without either the budget or the direction to do even one thing right.

What if it had been the Vancouver Canucks verses the St. Louis Blues? If Markus Naslund, Andrew Cassels and Brendan Morrison had been healthy, it was a real possibility this year. Would the CBC have pulled the plug on the hockey game then? I sincerely doubt it.

And if they had pulled the Canucks game, what would the fallout of that decision have been? Probably a riot on Georgia Street, and more than a few broken windows at CBC headquarters.

The reality of the situation is that, in Canada, a good hockey game will always come before a boring provincial election. Sad but true.

Yeah, the CBC did show the winning goal. And yeah, they did rebroadcast the overtime after The National, but it wasn’t the same.

I already found out who won by watching the highlights on CTV SportsNet.

— Andrew Mitchell