All we have is curling....

It was a dark, cold winter Monday night and I was driving home from work around 8:30. One of the benefits of living in Canada is that our local all sports talk shows don't have enough funding/talent to run a full slate of programming. The reason this is positive for us American sports fans is they pick up American radio to fill the time. In Edmonton, the Team 1260 runs Fox Sports Radio to fill the gaps, as well as the Jim Rome show. On this particular evening the Fox guys (Petros and Money) were discussing the new sport of curling. They were enamored with the good looks possessed by the Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard and the other competitors. But one thing they said got me thinking. Petros' friend, who happens to be Canadian, stated that Curling is all we have in Canada when hockey isn't on. Which, to my chagrin, is a statement simply thrown out there and believed to be true by so many people.

Now, if it was 1987 and there was no such thing as the internet I could understand this ignorant comment being shoved aside and assumed to be true. But this statement couldn't be farther from the truth. What's missing is people's definition of Canada.

Consider this. 90% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the American border. 90%!!!! I'm not sure about you but when I travel places like Vancouver I don't see people lining up at Tim Horton's on their way to the local curling rink. This may be true in rural settings but it definitely does not apply to larger metropolitan ones. In fact, one only has to observe the greater trend in our country to urbanization to realize that the good old days of curling bonspiels and shinny at the local rink are going to be a thing of the past. When American's continue to throw out stereotypes such as "All they have up there is curling and hockey" they are talking about a significant minority of the country.

Take a quick peak at a report released by Statistics Canada in 2006 and you'll see the changing demographics of our country. Go back to 1941 and there were about 10 million people living in Canada. The urban/rural split was about 50/50. Over the past 60 years urban population has risen to 25 million while rural population has stayed about the same. By census rural they are referring to the population living outside settlements of 1000 or less. Well there are still community bonspiel's in smaller rural settings I can honestly say that I know 2 people in the Edmonton area who partake in the sport of curling.

Another often ignored aspect of Canadian life is the multiculturalism. Now while there may be very little ethnic representation on our Canadian Olympic team our country is a diverse melting pot of people. According to statistics from 2001 18.4% of Canadians were born outside of Canada, the highest proportion in 70 years. Statistics show that in 2001 population was growing at a rate of 4% while visible minority population was growing by 25%. From 1981 to 2001 the visible minority population in Canada quadrupled from 1 million to 4 million.

So well many Americans view of Canadians involves maple syrup, Mounties, curling, snow, and hockey, the real Canada is one of increased urbanization and ethnic diversity. Stating that all we have is curling is akin to saying that when football isn't on in the states all they have is Nascar. This may be true for a small majority of people in the deep south, but I imagine a tree hugger from Portland would not want to be thrown in with this stereotype.

So while you are watching the closing ceremonies at the Olympic Games tonight and see the hosts poke fun at Canadian stereotypes just remember that this is the old Canada. The new Canada is diverse, multicultural, urban, and looks nothing like our Canadian Olympic team.