Hamilton Coyotes
I support Jim Balsillie’s effort to bring another NHL team to Canada. Now before you get out the pitchforks and torches let me say this clearly and plainly: I would prefer he take the team to Winnipeg and rebrand them the Jets. Okay?
But much like BC getting the Olympics is a better consolation prize to no health care or education spending than nothing another NHL team in Ontario is better than no new NHL team in Canada.
So putting aside the fact that reviving the Winnipeg Jets would be about 8 billion times better than bringing the Coyotes to Hamilton, bringing the Coyotes to Hamilton is a lot better than not bringing them to Canada at all. Now I don’t know much about this Jim Balsillie guy but he seems to be to be a true Canadian patriot and entrepreneur as co-CEO of RIM, the makers of Blackberry.
Well, hold on while I get educated.
*reads Wikipedia page*
Okay so he’s a billionaire and chartered accountant, has an MBA from Harvard and is the ninth richest person in Canada. You know, he had talent and innovation and could have just gone to America and had done with his homeland but instead brought his talent and education back to Canada and created one of the currently most successful and important companies in the country, if the stock market and RIM’s impact on the TSX is to believed. If he’d left the country, started up RIM in the US you’d all be accusing him of selling out his heritage and contributing to the brain drain but instead he’s helping keep our economy afloat. And now he wants to bring an NHL team to his home province. If this isn’t Canadian philanthropy I don’t know what is. Frankly I find it shocking that people would attack him.
Alright, his previous attempt at the Pittsburg Penguins did seem a little opportunistic and unprofessional, what with the swearing on live TV and all, but what Canadian could possibly have a problem with him wanting to bring the Nashville Predators or Phoenix Coyotes to Canada? Is it just that he doesn’t want to bring them to Winnipeg but rather his home province? Are we going to burn him in effigy because he wasn’t awesome enough to want to bring them to the city of our choosing or because he was loyal to his home province? Why do we hold this man up to saintly expectations when he seems to be doing a damn fine job as it is?
I like most Canadians am concerned about the Americanization of hockey. Letting NBC call the shots on playoff schedules, those incessant Bud Light commercials, and too many hockey teams sprouting up in American deserts at the cost of places where hockey can be played outdoors like Winnipeg and Quebec…this would be a positive step to keep our game in our country.
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